Happy Easter!

So due to the holiday this Sunday I haven't been posting as much as I normally do. I have been busy with family and friends that are in town for Easter this weekend. We have been busy showing an out of town guest some of the sights and fun things that we do up here in MI. We even did something I have never even done, the cider mill in the spring!! I still however have managed to get some knitting in so there will be some new posts coming soon!

Coming next week... the finished baby blanket!!

Decrease odds of memory loss

Another huge benefit of knitting!

I was told once by a friend that also is an avid knitter that she read a study that Nun's have much lower risk of Alzheimer's. The study showed that the Nun's all had one thing in common, they were knitters. After she told me about that I thought it may be interesting to see what info I could find on the subject.

According to a study done by the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, knitter have decreased memory loss. This decrease is quite large, between 30-50%. So if you ever get the feeling that you are wasting time knitting, think again!

Joining Squares

Sorry for the hideous picture quality. I took this on my phone. This is how i originally planned on joining my squares for the baby blanket. However, I hated it. As I had said before I ripped out all the seaming on Thursday night when the shower was Saturday. I didn't want to give someone something that I hated so I had to think of something new. I came across an idea called Loop n Lace. Wonderful, love it, but takes a long time.

This is a simple slip stitch. Which is quick and easy and allows for two colors to be shown in joining squares. Useful just not what I was looking for.

Ultimate Sweater Machine

This is what my wonderful boyfriend got me for my birthday. I am obviously a hand knitter (or there would be no blog) but I am wanting to expand into other areas that I don't know a ton about. One of them was machine knitting. I decided this may be the way for me to go right now due to 1) budget 2) possibly hating the whole machine deal.

I ended up somewhat liking this. It definitely frustrated me at first. I like the idea of how it works and I have an understanding of how it works but I definitely no expert on this yet. I have been so busy (read Crazy Weekend) lately that I haven't really had much time to pick this up in awhile.

So I just wanted to post some pictures about it and thoughts on my first impression of the machine. Overall, I like it, but it (or any other machine) will never replace my needles. I will most likely use this for squares for baby blankets and other projects like that. I love creating things with my hands too much to replace my needles.

As another side note, with all the knitting/crocheting I did over the weekend, I think I should have either used this or went right to a yarn store and gotten some of those stress relief gloves! My hands, forearms and fingers were sore for days!

I am now on Twitter

Let it be known.... I think Twitter is stupid. I don't understand what it's purpose is and I think it's just a bunch of Facebook status updates. I opened a Twitter account for one of my courses in college and I never once used it. Recently I have been getting emails about people following me on Twitter. I thought to myself, "Well, that's completely ridiculous. I have never even posted a single tweet." So I logged into my account to find that it was spammers or people that I definitely didn't want following me. So I blocked them.

After logging into the site and looking around, I thought I could maybe start using Twitter. So I updated my horribly outdated profile and decided I am going to give it a go. So hopefully I can learn to like Twitter and I probably will end up becoming obsessed with it.

You can follow me here: KraftyKatie2 is the username.

Update on the Sweater Project

Got a ton done on my very first sweater. I am really fairly happy at this point with the progress I have made. However, I have a few things I am not too crazy about at this point. First I made the slit slightly too big, but that's an easy fix as I haven't done any finishing on either piece. I am planning on sewing up a little on the slit when I do my finishing. Secondly and more importantly, I somehow misplaced a bag with one of the balls of yarn needed for this sweater. This may put a big hold on my ability to finish this piece. I am somewhat frustrated with my ability to lose things right now. Hopefully it will show up and I will end up being able to finish this sweater. Or I could end up looking around for another skien of yarn with the same dye lot. It will all work out. For now I may end up working on some other projects!

Joann's Coupon

Here is a great Joann's Coupon for 20% your total purchase!