I am having issues with starting the backside of my pillow. I am attempting to learn how to cable but the pattern planning is much harder than expected. I finally designed a pattern this morning that I can fit and at the same time it doesn't look ugly. I got my TKGA packet!!! I read through it and its going to take some time to finish each project and submit it. I am thinking I should have it done by the end of summer. I still need to master a few things before I spend money on shipping just so they can send it back to me. I was hoping to get some type of number or card that says I joined this damn guild. I mean I spent money I deserve a number or something! Upsetting that this is important to me?

I have learned how to make my page look interesting! Who wants to read a page where they can't see what I have completed, what I am working on or want to work on? Also I wanted people to be able to make some type of feedback on my projects or comments. So seeing as I write this while I am at work expect the change sometime before next Friday.

I started a pillow for my friend last week and I finished one side last night. It was a simple seed stitch and it was completely ugly when I started but now it looks nice. The pattern is easily recognizable where before it looked like I was making horrible mistakes. Instead of the other side of the pillow looking like the first I have decided to try cabling. So when its complete it will look weird but I'm fine with that.

I got my labels!!! They are too wonderful. Now all I have to do is get all my old projects back to sew them inside- and of course I am horrible at sewing! I traded a label with my grandma who knits for a co-op in Alaska- (Awwww). Now, my stuff will have my name on it for everyone to see!

Knitting has really helped my nails to grow. I have no time to bite them or my cuticles and now my hands look more womanly. I can't wait for my knitting guild packet to arrive. I was thinking last night that when I receive the packet and I take the test and become an "Advanced Beginner" that I have no one to share that with. Who else cares? What does that mean to anyone else but me? I'm still excited. I will feel accomplished. If you want to share my knitting joys with me= e-mail me

Oh, and for the first time ever I checked my gauge and I am completely off. So I guess that is something that I really need to work on. But as long as everything turns out fine who cares? I have decided that next month I am getting a digital camera!!!! So I can post my pictures online and I can share my patterns with other knit wits.

I bought Pretty Knitting off Amazon.com and I am returning it. There was nothing pretty inside that book. I went through all the books that I own and made a short list of things I'd like to make and for once I found some things I could see myself keeping. I have personal issues with keeping my knitting, instead I give it away to friends. It's not that I think they'll like it, I just can't stand seeing it anymore after it took hours and hours to make. I also can get a little picky with my work. Do others see mistakes or and I the only one that messes up and can't drop it. The places where I either dropped a stitch or fixed a stitch stare at me when I am smoothing out my work. And when I am done and I lay it on my bed I can see that small bump or area from across the room.

I work with a 17 year old girl who I taught to knit. She refused to listen to directions and got all frustrated so fast, and now she picks up the needles whenever she gets bored. Well, the other week she told me she would never knit in public cause she couldn't imagine other people seeing her "looking like an old lady". I told her I knitted every time I am in a waiting room or any other place that people can see me and she was amazed. After that I regretted teaching her.

Right now I am making a pillow for a friend. I am doing a simple seed stitch on one side and I plan on doing a cable pattern on the other. I have never cabled before and I need to learn so I can pass that Nazi guild test.

I've decided to wrap myself around my new finding- knitting. I'm going about this in the only way I know how and that is alone. My grandma taught me to knit by handing me a book with instructions and told me to come to her with any questions. I read in a book that no one ever really learns by themselves and that they are taught by someone. I guess I am a figment of my own imagination.

I thought of a really great idea over the weekend. I was going to record every one of my knitting projects into a journal that would include drawing (or picture as soon as I get a digital camera), a yarn sample and a short comment of what happened. Sometimes I start to think that I am going a little overbored with all of this and I should just take everything slowly, but I love that I can make something and that I can see my results in a couple of weeks is driving me to want more. I bought labels to put inside my projects, 'Anahngna' -a somewhat stuck up name in eskimo.

I also searched for some local knitting guilds and I came up with one close to me in Takoma Park, MD at a cafe but that is going to be really hard for me to do- just walk in and sit down with people so they can see how I hold my yarn and needles wrong- yeah right. Thats a goal I have for myself- go to a knitting circle. I did join TKGA and I plan on taking the test for Beginner Advanced. They are truely knitting natzi, you have to submit 16 samples, answer 14 questions, and do a report. Its like school. It will be good for me- I need to learn more styles of knitting. I started what I guess you could call a knitting circle at work. I work at a before/after school proram inside of a elementary school. I have about 4-5 children who sit next to me and knit (including boys). But knitting with people more of your age group is something that I am looking foward to, not 7-10 year olds.