SP9 Questionnaire

1. What is/are your favorite yarn/s to knit with? What fibers do you absolutely *not* like?
What yarns are my favorite???? Hmmmmm……That’s a tough one, I really love Debbie Bliss, almost any of her yarns, although I’m not a big fan of her Tweeds that just came out. I love working with almost anything, although pure cotton is a bit difficult for me right now since it has no give, the owner of my LYS thinks that working with the Sugar-n-Cream may have caused some of the pain I have been experiencing in my wrists (aggravated in other words my carpal tunnel). I don’t mind acrylic, but I did a sweater with it, and…..Well, I never fully finished it, not because of the material just because I’m not much into finishing (I have one side to go). I love knitting with big/think yarns; they go much quicker, and being a slow knit, it makes it much more satisfying. I own a few size 15, 17, and 19 needles. I also like knitting with yarn from Schoeller & Stahl, one is called Palma the other is Big Ball. He first one is what I use for my i-pod socks, but need to come up with something else to knit with it because they have the most fabulous colors this year, and the other I use to make baby blankets out of. The baby blankets are a quick knit for me, and actually so are the i-Pod socks since I’ve knitted so many. I like the Malabrigo, I think that is what I am going to use next. I promised an old co-worker of mine that I would knit her a red hat, and so I think I might do it out of the Malabrigo, I’m stealing that idea from Monica (callingonkahlo.blogspot.com). Enough with my yarn like and dislikes, this has become a short story, sorry about that.

2. What do you use to store your needles/hooks in?
At the moment I don’t have anything in particular to store my needles, but I am always on the look out. I did find something last Christmas at my LYS and had it on my “Wish List”, but DH never got a chance to get in to pick it up before the color I wanted was gone.

3. How long have you been knitting & how did you learn? Would you consider your skill level to be beginner, intermediate or advanced?
I have been a devout knitter for the past year, but have been knitting off and on since I was a child. I have my mother to thank for my knitting, but many others to thank for my skills to be where there are today (Barbara, Sunday, Deborah, and Sheila of course). As for my skills, I would have to say I’m in the beginner to intermediate stages of knitting. I have knitted a few sweaters, and some scarves, and some felted bags. Of course, I have yet to complete something without having to “frog” it. I am just about to learn cables for the first time, and hopefully I too like Monica (callingonkahlo), fall in love with it too as I have some Debbie Bliss waiting to be knit into a wonderful cabled sweater for me. (Debbie herself said that it was such an easy cable pattern that I would be able to do it with no problem) Let’s cross our fingers Debbie!

4. Do you have an Amazon or other online wish list?
Not really, but I’m working on a few to get everyone ready for Christmas. I’ll keep the site posted as to where I do my wish lists. Right now, I have a small one on Amazon, and then another one on morethanyarn.com.

5. What's your favorite scent? (for candles, bath products, etc.)
I love the scent “Love Spell” from Victoria’s Secret, and also really like “Pear Glace”. I like a lot of the scents from Bath and Body Works, but I really like the “Creamy Coconut”, as that is the closest I can get to coconut do to my food allergy of it. As for candles, I like a lot of different scents, I’m not into things that smell very musky or anything like that, but I like things that have strong scents. I was just recently in White Barn Candles, and they had some great scents that were so strong I loved them. As far as bath items go, I’m allergic to some of the oils and bubbles, so if you’re a pal who’s thinking along those lines, stay away from the bath products.

6. Do you have a sweet tooth? Favorite candy?
I have a sweet tooth, unfortunately, but nothing specific comes to mind, although I do love chocolate and caramel together. No coconut or almonds please.

7. What other crafts or Do-It-Yourself things do you like to do? Do you spin?
No, I am not a spinner, and I think my husband is very grateful as knitting takes up enough of my time. Every once in a while I pick up my cross stitch, but I’m still on the “stamped” cross stitch stuff, and that’s just fine with me, who needs to do all of the counting and math to figure out the other stuff? Not me.

8. What kind of music do you like? Can your computer/stereo play MP3s? (if your buddy wants to make you a CD)
I don’t have a favorite genre of music, I’m a big fan of “Jack FM”, if anyone out there knows that station. It is a national station, so I know that it is in more than just my listening range. It’s considered the i-Pod station, because it plays such a wide variety of music from the 60’s all the way up to today. My computer does play MP3’s.

9. What's your favorite color(s)? Any colors you just can't stand?
I would definitely have to say the color pink is usually in my colorways. I’m also a big fan of purples, and blues, and well green’s. I try to stay away from yellow and orange, just because they don’t look to good on me, but I guess that wouldn’t really stop me from knitting with those colors for other people as I did for my sister with her i-Pod cozy, and other i-Pod cozies I made.

10. What is your family situation? Do you have any pets?
I am married to a wonderful, wonderful man, he’s very kind, generous, and sweet hearted. He’s definitely a one of a kind. We definitely have our moments, don’t get me wrong, but for now he’s all of the above. Give me a few days, and they may all turn around, you never know with me. Our living situation isn’t the best at the moment, but we are working through it, and looking to buy a house SOON! We do not have any pets.

11. Do you wear scarves, hats, mittens or ponchos?
I would have to say I wear all of the above. Although I am not a big fan of mittens as the technical terms, I much more prefer gloves.

12. What is/are your favorite item/s to knit?
I can’t really say that I have a favorite item to knit yet, I’ve worked on so many different projects, although I am up to my third Tie-One-On.

13. What are you knitting right now?
Ok, more importantly what am I not knitting right now.

14. Do you like to receive handmade gifts?
Who doesn’t like to receive handmade gifts? They are unique and fun, and more important; they were made from the heart just for that special someone. I would have to sat that some of the handmade sweaters I’ve seen come out of my LYS are of much better quality than one’s bout in stores.

15. Do you prefer straight or circular needles? Bamboo, aluminum, plastic?
I use both, but I must say that I definitely do prefer the circulars to the straights, it all depends on the project I’m knitting, but even then I try to go for the circulars. I just love my Denise needles. I prefer bamboo needles over the other options, but I really like the Addi Turbo’s. Although I have heard that the Addi Bamboo are “Terrific”.

16. Do you own a yarn winder and/or swift?
Yes, I own a ball winder and swift.

17. How old is your oldest UFO?
Just about 9mos, since I finished off my mom’s shawl last year when I picked knitting back up, that I started knitting for her 4-5 years ago for her Christmas present. I had to take it back, she didn’t think it was big enough, it needed to wrap around almost double for it to be big enough (OH MY!!).

18. What is your favorite holiday?
I would definitely have to say Christmas, but I do Thanksgiving, it’s the one holiday I spend with my father, and we make a wonderful chestnut stuffing together. It’s become tradition. But this year I will be spending it on a wonderful (first time) cruise with my DH. Let’s not get in to why it’s only the DH, but just makes it much better, since it falls just around our 2yr anniversary.

19. Is there anything that you collect?
I can’t say that I’m a big collectables type of person, I actually called my DH to ask him, and his answer was “YARN!”. LOL. Then he mentioned the Disney teapot collection I have, and now that I think about it, I do have quite a few of those collectible editions Barbie’s. However, I am starting a collection of measuring tapes, I have 1 white sheep, I have the all supreme “Coach” measuring tape, and I have just recently added the black sheep of the family the “Black Sheep”. I keep eyeing up new one’s, as the Yarn Harlot say’s, you can never have too many.

20. Any books, yarns, needles or patterns out there you are dying to get your hands on? What knitting magazine subscriptions do you have?
I don’t have any subscriptions to knitting magazines, I have thought about it though, but for some reason or another just have held off on it.

21. Are there any new techniques you'd like to learn?
I had been wanting to learn how to cable, and I just learned for the first time last night, although I think I still have a long way to go until I feel comfortable casting on my DB cabled sweater.

22. Are you a sock knitter? What are your foot measurements?
I am NOT a sock knitter, and no offense to those of you who are, but “ya’ll must be on something” to be playing with that tiny yarn and all of those tiny DPN’s. Although I have heard from some non-sock knitter’s who have jumped ship, or switched “team’s” as they say on Seinfeld, that it is truly wonderful to do. As for foot measurement’s, does it help by me saying that I wear a size 9 sock from the Gap?

23. When is your birthday? (mm/dd)
Actually, my birthday just passed, it’s September 23……We won’t post the year, that’s a secret for all us ladies to keep to ourselves. Actually, if you read one of my previous posts, you’ll see I threw myself a birthday party this year, it was a knitting party. I invited everyone over to the house for some food and drink, and then all of the ladies went to the yarn shop (Modern Yarn in Montclair, NJ for their knitting lesson) I had to drag others into my world, and what was a better way then to sneakily do it by disguising it as a birthday party. Hehe! All I have to say is that almost everyone has finished their project from that night except for little ol’ slow knitter herself ME!