Knooking!

I finally found the Leisure Arts Knooking kit at Wal-Mart when I was shopping before my trip to New Jersey. I was excited, so I bought a skein of Red Heart Super Saver (Yeah, I know) in pink so I could mess around with it.

Needless to say, I had a little trouble getting the hang of it. I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out which way to put the hook through the loop on the string. Finally, I had to watch a video on their website and I got it. Then, I would keep forgetting which way to wrap the yarn.

Also, I have trouble figuring out how to count rows in knit. Crochet is easy. =-P

So I frogged and knooked and frogged and knooked. Finally, I decided to try making a scarf out of the stockinette stitch (knit one row, purl one row) just to see how it goes. I did manage to drop a loop, even though Knooking boasts no dropped stitches. But I haphazardly added a stitch in the area that I lost the stitch, and kept going. I used a piece of thread and sewed up the loose loop and now, you can barely tell that I messed up. Yay!

Here's a pic of what I have going on right now...



After doing that much, I have decided that knooking is fun, but I think I'd still like to learn how to knit better. But I will finish it the scarf. :-)

Pod B!tch

Who knew that when I started dating Mike, I would become immersed into his world of paintball. I go to his practices (on the occasion that I can), attend tournaments, and even take weekends to go to national tournaments. At these national tournaments, I am on their roster for the team, so that I (and a few others) can be in the pits with the boys, cleaning off hits and filling up pods so they have enough paint to play. The running joke with the woman I do this with is that we are "Pod Bitches." One, Wendy, even has that on the back of a shirt, which is awesome.

Amber, yet another woman in this group, is ordering me a custom bracelet from Wrist Band Connection that will have my name, as well as the words "Pod B!tch."

Going from this idea, I crocheted a hat. Here it is:



And here:



To make it, I copied the pattern, mostly, from the "Boy Beanie" pattern that is in the Stitch and Bitch: The Happy Hooker book. I ignored the rows of HDC and made them all double crochet rows. Then using a graph paper notebook that I bought, I mapped out the pattern of the letters (which is the first time I've ever done that). I'm pretty happy with the results, but I'm not sure that I would actually wear it...? Maybe. Depends on the weather in New Jersey next week I guess.

My next goal is to make one that is in a single crochet, because I think the letters couldn't be so stretched out. Also, I wanted to learn to knit hats (scary) and then maybe make one that way as well. While I love crocheting, I have to admit that when it comes to text on a hat, knitting gets the point across better.

Does anyone know how to knit a hat without double pointed needles? I have a couple of sets... but... I'd rather not. Haha.