Last weekend, I posted on Instagram about how I don’t have time to knit socks for Socktober this year. I posted a picture of the first hank of yarn that I ever hand dyed while writing a series of articles for LoveKnitting on the science of dyeing yarn. I totally fell in love with dyeing (obviously, as my Etsy shop can attest to), and the first rainbow skein led me down a rabbit hole that I’m still tumbling through with more or less precision and success.

I dug out the rainbow skein, took a few pictures lamenting my lack of time, and intended on putting it back into the stash box.

Except I didn’t.

It sat on my desk for three days, staring at me while I worked on other, more pressing projects that have deadlines.

You see this? This is a #Socktober fail. That skein was the first bit of yarn I ever #handdyed a year ago – I’ve been saving it for a rocking sock pattern. I want socks, I really do – but I’m up to my neck in pattern projects and commissions for magazines and such – not to mention Christmas knitting projects! My socks might have to wait for January. 😭😭

A photo posted by Angie Panozzo (@gamercrafting) on Oct 15, 2016 at 11:12am PDT

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(Side note: for all of you asking on Instagram and Facebook where to find those heart shaped stitch markers, you can get them here for £5.99, there are six in a pack and they’re more sturdy than the boring cheapie ones I’ve bought over and over.)

And then one evening, after a few glasses of wine, I decided that was the optimal moment to wind it into a cake – you know, just in case the world tilts on its axis and somehow gives us eight extra hours every day to craft with.

I realized that my skein umbrella and ball winder don’t fit on any of the surfaces in my flat. The other times I used them, I was using the small fold up table that now lives on the balcony, housing the tomatoes, garlic, and basil plants.

So, yes, in case you’re wondering, I did go out onto my balcony at almost midnight, move and reorganize all of the plants out there, just so I could bring in the small spare table and wind my yarn. My poor, long-suffering wife just looked on in disbelief (as usual).

I wound the hank into a cake, and so far have managed to resist casting anything new on while I feverishly knit the Pumpkin Cowl in desperate hopes that I can finish it this month (at this rate, I probably won’t).

But here it sits, staring at me, challenging me to cast on something new.

We’ll see how long I can resist.

Probably not much longer.

If you liked this blog, please like GamerCrafting on Facebook and follow it on Bloglovin’ so you never miss a post. Happy crafting!

-Angie

There’s a new crochet pattern/tutorial for scented sock drawer balls that I made over on the Laughing Hens blog. I didn’t manage to cast on any socks for Socktober, but I still wanted to participate in some way, even if it’s with tiny balls full of smelly stuff. At least it gave me an excuse to buy those rosemary and heather plants I’ve been eyeing up at the store lately, and definitely gave me some ideas for holiday gifting this year.

You may have noticed that I’m not my normal chipper self lately: you’re right. While I feel totally at home in my job and (mostly?) happy with how my professional life is growing and progressing, I feel a deep and heavy ennui at the state of international politics.

I know, I know: you’re not hear for politics. I get that. Back in June, when Brexit happened, I was pretty mild and vague in my feelings – on this blog, anyway. But it takes a toll, especially when you’re an immigrant on an EU visa, being chucked around as a “bargaining chip” by people who will never be affected by these decisions.

I look at my home country, the motherland, the good old US of A, which is apparently at least half full with people willing to elect a totally unqualified, hateful failed businessman to the presidency. Okay.

Okay, world, you win. I’m going to go build a fort out of my mountains of yarn and live in it until 2018 when all this Brexit mess has been (hopefully?) decided on, and (hopefully) we’ll have the first woman president of the United States, and (hopefully) we can get back to building lives as kind, inclusive, positive, hopeful people. Don’t bother looking for the biscuits and Ben&Jerry’s ice cream – I’m taking them with me into the fort.

Au revoire!

As I sit in the dark, watching the sun rise, I’m forced to reflect on life and the world, even as it seems like we’re all imploding.
Like many creatives and crafters, I consider myself to be a bit of an “empath.” I don’t generally buy into mysticism and woo: “Citation, please” is my battle cry as I charge into politically charged anti-science discussions with old high school classmates on Facebook. Still, I can’t deny that I’m more sensitive to my own emotions and emotions of those around me than others. It’s as if I absorb the emotions and vibe of the room like a sad, overemotional sponge. It’s why I need a day of quiet after a big event, and why parties have never been my thing. I come off as an extrovert to most people, but I need time to recharge my emotional batteries or I’ll end up feeling like a messy dumpster fire that no one has bothered to put out of its misery yet.

Discovering knitting and crochet was huge for me. It gave me something to do with my hands that quieted my mind (most of the time, except when working on Demon Sweaters). The rhythmic motion is soothing and calming for a great many crafters: it’s why something like the Instagram account @CraftAsTherapy is such a huge community of amazing people. It’s why science has shown, time and time again, that craft is good for the mind, body, and soul. It’s therapeutic. It’s cathartic. It’s important. And for someone with anxiety and depression, it can be a lifeline.

It’s so very true and I thought it fitting to share. . Hugs, @olivesandpickles

A photo posted by Crafters Unite (@craftastherapy) on Sep 27, 2016 at 4:09pm PDT

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And then there’s Hygge. (Pronounced Hoo-gah)

It’s been around for AGES in Denmark, and I started hearing about it a couple of years ago. Recently, it fell into vogue with the rest of us, and I bought a book about it: the Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking. I took it with me to Scotland to share with my wife and friends, and discovered that it’s everything I’ve ever wanted in a life ethos.

Quiet, calm, cozy.

You can have Hygge by yourself, when you stay home on a rainy Saturday and knit while you mainline Luke Cage on Netflix (my weekend plans). You can have it with close friends when you go apple picking in the fall (next weekend’s plans). In short, it’s about having enough space to breathe.

The world lately doesn’t have space to breathe. The 24-hour news cycle is like a battering ram on our psyche, and sometimes it feels like there’s no escape from turmoil. The Brexit vote will likely change our life path in the near future, given that I’m here on an EU visa and companies will start having to identify their non-British workers. The US election has wide ranging effects on the entire world, and with the instability in other countries, it feels like we’re heading down a dark road as a human race. Again.

As a hyper-sensitive human, it’s hard to not absorb everything you see and hear in the news. It’s barely Wednesday morning, and it already feels like it’s been an exhausting week. I feel heavy, I feel tired, and I feel like I need to go live as a hermit in the Highlands. (That could be the title of my blog there, no? Hermit in the Highlands?)

If you need me, I’ll be practicing my Hygge. Knitting, crochet, mindfulness. And candles. (And scandi-folk music because that’s a new genre that I’ve decided I love.)

TFW you discover Scandi-folk music: pic.twitter.com/EAhTE1qOtB

— 🎃Angelina Panozzo🎃 (@AngelinaPanozzo) October 4, 2016

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Sometimes, fortune favors those stuck in a remote town with a dead battery. It sounds crazy, but stick with me.
Being a woman of a law abiding nature, I’m generally opposed to theft – so I didn’t steal the sheep mug from the cottage, even though I really wanted it. I mean, who wouldn’t want a mug covered in drawings of sheep that say things like “32 GB Ram?” No sane person I know would ever think that mug was tacky or undeserving of the coveted “favorite mug” title.

It was clear that the owner of the cottage had no idea where that mug came from. It showed up in the cupboard, just to tempt me into theft for the week we were in Scotland. I was doomed to a sheep mugless life: a grey existence indeed.

Halfway through the week, we had an odd day, which will henceforth be known as the Cursed Day. Not any major, life-altering curses – just small ones that really irritate you.

On Wednesday, one of our friends on the trip started the day off by sewing some buttons onto her shirt. She sewed them on backwards.

Another friend forgot the dog’s lead and had to improvise one with some rope.

I had an epic fail with the Demon Sweater – so much so that Sue had to physically take it away from me so I wouldn’t frog the entire thing, set it on fire, or watch it sail over a waterfall in a makeshift canoe. (Read more about the evil Demon Sweater here.)

That afternoon, we made our way to the Old Man Of Storr. I knitted at the top of the mountain for about 90 seconds before the wind almost knocked me off of a cliff face – but it was a stunning view and a vigorous hike, and it was awesome. Coming down the mountain, I nearly took out an entire group of Japanese tourists as I stumbled and tumbled down the steep path. Sorry, guys.

Quite the adventure today: I may have conquered this mountain, but I haven’t conquered this sweater yet! The sleeves were too wide so I’ll be pulling out about 5 inches and reworking them. Yes, I am knitting near the top of a mountain: it is #wipwednesday after all! (Psst: follow @laughinghens and tag your makes, they feature makes on Wednesdays!)

A photo posted by Angie Panozzo (@gamercrafting) on Sep 21, 2016 at 11:21am PDT

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We headed to Portree, a village that’s known for quirky, eclectic shops and gorgeous views. When we rolled into the large parking lot, it began to rain so hard that the dogs straight up refused to get out of the car. Whatever, dudes, your loss. We wandered around the village in shifts, keeping one person with the princess puppies who wouldn’t get their delicate fur wet (unless it was by rolling in a super gross mud puddle, which was apparently totally fine).

We wandered through the whisky shop, through Batik stores and little craft stores that sold locally made artisan works. We also found a disappointing yarn store that didn’t offer anything locally made or dyed. We contemplated buying fiddle music. We mused on the futility of human existence over a tea.We returned to the car, and we all got ready to set off home. Val put the key into the ignition:

“Tick tick tick tick”

She tried it again:

“Tick tick tick”

Alas.

The battery was dead.

Val called her breakdown service (like AAA for my American friends), and they said it would be at least an hour wait. Not a woman to sit in the car (especially without my knitting), I put on my ugly plastic poncho (which was sopping wet at this point) and headed back into the rain. We’d already made a loop around the village and stopped in most of the shops, but I was on a quest for reliable wi-fi to post on Instagram (I know, I know).

But wait.

What’s that around the cover, down that alley? Another village shop we hadn’t visited yet?

My wife and I stumbled into the shop, dripping wet and soaked to the bone. And there it was: sitting under a heavenly beam of light, stacked on top of ugly tourist mugs that said “My wife went to Scotland and all I got was this bloody mug”: the sheep mug.

I snatched it off the shelf, yelling “OH MY GOD BABE, LOOK! I FOUND IT! I FOUND THE SHEEP MUG!”

It’s pretty evident now that I probably looked like a deranged American tourist; I have no doubts that those quiet French tourists who were also in the shop are probably telling their family now what loud idiots Americans are. But they will never understand what the sheep mug means to me, a quirky crafter with odd interests. It means that sometimes, there is a silver lining. And sometimes that silver lining looks like a ridiculous sheep mug.

We got home safe and sound after a friendly local mechanic fitted us with a new battery. We had fish and chips for dinner, and for once I didn’t forget my wife’s mushy peas. We watched Bake Off (of course) at 8pm that night, and I drank my coffee out of the sheep mug the next morning.

Today, it was graced with the first posh Bailey’s hot chocolate of the season: it is October first, after all. 😉

Did you know there’s a competition on Instagram to win a skein of my new hand dyed yarns? If you didn’t know, it’s probably because you don’t follow GamerCrafting on Facebook. And if you don’t want to miss the new (free) patterns and DIY tutorials that are coming out, follow this blog on Bloglovin! 

I finally finished this sweater – I cast off the final sleeve stitches, in the dark, on the road, on the way home from our Scotland trip. I wove in the ends last night, which means it took me just over nine months to knit it.

9 months, what?
Yep. Nine months. Here’s why the now dubbed “Demon Sweater” took me forever to finish and narrowly avoided a viking funeral after the second sleeve frog.

1. I don’t take my own advice

“Knit a swatch,” I screech like a harpy when people ask me what my top advice is for knitting garments. “Always, always knit a swatch when substituting yarn!” I substituted yarn. I did not swatch. The tension was wrong in the beginning, and I had to reknit parts as a result. Total, epic fail.

2. I don’t read instructions

Well, I do, but sometimes I convince myself that I remember how many neck stitches I was meant to pick up. “85 sounds right,” I thought. I knitted the neck, and couldn’t fit my head through the hole. Frog. Reknit. Twice.

3. I started knitting it when I was a different shape

While I have roughly maintained a largely human shape, I was three sizes bigger when I started knitting it. I figured it would stretch. Joke’s on me, it doesn’t stretch as much as I thought it would, and I’m lucky that it fits me now, after some re-thinking of the pattern, frogging, and lots of cursing.

4. The shape isn’t really for me

I started knitting this sweater because some friends were doing a knit-a-long, and I am a sucker for community projects. I’m of a shape that needs tailoring, lest I look like a literal potato sack. This sweater is drapey and gorgeous, which just looks like a burlap bag on me. In order to make it look not terrible on me, I had to add about 4 inches to the bottom, an extra 1.5 inches of ribbing, take in the sleeves another 8 stitches and shorten them to 3/4 length, take in the waist a considerable amount more, and change the neck. It’s a great pattern, but I should have thought more about the shape before I cast on!

5. Sometimes I feel like I need to seek revenge against my knitting 

It’s true – I’m not the most reasonable person when I get frustrated. My wife regularly has to gently guide me away from the computer when it’s being slow or installing updates. After extra frogging (the second time), I tried it on in the Scottish cottage. I marched into the living room, needles flopping at my side, and announced that I would be frogging the entire sweater before setting it on fire and watching it tumble over a waterfall.

My friends (and fellow knitters) Sue and Valerie wisely took my knitting away from me that night, and replaced it with a gin and tonic. Friends don’t let friends knit angry.

It’s done now, and I don’t hate it. But you can bet I put some serious thought in before I cast on my next large garment (which will probably be in January. Or next week. Or tomorrow. Or tonight. I have no self control.)

Like this post? Pin this image!

As always, please like GamerCrafting on Facebook for exclusive deals on my hand dyed yarns (new batch coming up!), and follow GamerCrafting on Bloglovin’ so you never miss a post. Happy crafting!

Big basket of NO

Last week, I started planning a new project: some seriously cool Kraken boot cuffs. I had a magnificent vision of what they would look like, and I dug through my stash and found some perfect 4-ply yarns. I set about swatching, planning colorwork charts, and looking at sizing options. And then it hit me.
I recently made a list of every craft commitment (professional) that I have until the end of the year, along with patterns I want to release. *Spoiler alert* There’s so much on there that I had a mini panic attack. I posted about my stress on Instagram.

Oooohhhh boy, I just made a list of all the crafting obligations I have between now and Christmas, along with things I want to do for myself, and almost had a panic attack. Anyone else feeling overwhelmed by crafting lately??

A photo posted by Angie Panozzo (@gamercrafting) on Aug 28, 2016 at 10:00am PDT

 Along with a blanket for a magazine (which I did actually just finish), there’s a LOT on that list. A lot. A ton. So much that I need to be very careful how I manage my time, especially if I have any intention of doing any Christmas knitting this year – and at this point, that seems unlikely. For those who don’t know, I’m half craft, half musician (and all gamer, obviously) – and that means the run up to Christmas is usually (hopefully) littered with concerts, rehearsals, and caroling. Conductors tend to frown on knitting or crocheting in rehearsal!

I cast on the 4-ply boot cuffs and spent 90 minutes knitting ribbing, and I was only about 1/3 done with the amount of ribbing that I had planned for these cuffs. Yikes. I did some mental math(s) and estimated that it would take me about 5 hours per cuff with the design I had in mind. While 10 hours for a project isn’t world ending, it’s also more than I have to spare on a “personal” design when I have hoards of deadlines looming on the horizon.

So I frogged, and I thought, and I redesigned.

That’s more like it.

I re-vamped my design using an aran weight yarn, reworking the colorwork chart, the gauge, and the process. While 4-ply offers heaps more scope when creating a colorwork design, or making something look very chic and professional, sometimes we just need an aran weight knit in our lives to speed up the process.

I’ve reworked the charts now, and hopefully these will appear on Ravelry in early October. I hope when they are finished that my decision to forgo 4-ply this time around won’t have been a terrible one!

Like GamerCrafting on Facebook for exclusive deals on my hand dyed yarns, and follow this blog on Bloglovin’ so you never miss a pattern or a project.

 Happy Crafting!

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Yes, you read right: sewing is next on the list for me! After years of half-arsed attempts and whining about not having enough space, I’m taking the plunge.

Look at my tiny baby sewing machine! I’m sure experienced sewers could tell me all the shortfalls this little one will have, but for now it’s the three things I needed:

1. Small

I have no space in my small apartment after considering how much space my massive yarn stash takes up. It’s excessive, and we aren’t allowed to install shelving in this apartment (endless wailing sobs). It makes organization a challenge, to say the least!

2. Simple

Everything I know about sewing could be summed up in 300 words. My mom was a big sewer, and I lived with a legit professional seamstress in Texas (who I would bribe with pizza to take in my costumes for shows). And yet, I managed to escape both those influential women with almost zero knowledge. I figure I need to learn how to walk before I can run, and this little baby should do just fine for a beginner.

3. Cheap

I know that you get what you pay for in most cases, and I’m under no illusions about this tiny sewing machine. I know that it has its limitations, but for less than £20, I seriously couldn’t do any better than that. It comes with a foot pedal, extra bobbins, a needle threader, some practice fabric, and an instruction manual. (I got mine from Amazon.)

My fabric stash started growing almost a year ago, when I found this gorgeous music themed fabric at the Knitting&Stitching show in London. Since them I’ve picked up bits here and there, and it’s safe to say that it’s going to be a new addiction. I haven’t even started yet, and I’m already looking for more!

I was at the #knittingandstitchingshow yesterday, and I got this awesome music #fabric! I also hung out with @sincerelylouise – we bonded over a cheese board in #drinkshopdo, and If you check out @brixtonpurl’s feed, you’ll see a photo of me in a wolf headdress that she designed. Busy but fun day!

A photo posted by Angie Panozzo (@gamercrafting) on Oct 10, 2015 at 9:12am PDT

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If you’re a beginner like me, or a fan of simple projects, I’m going to be pinning loads of beginner’s sewing inspiration and geeky sewing ideas over on my Pinterest.

Stay tuned for inevitable swearing, confusion, and eventual (I hope) victory!