A Little About Me

My most defining feature is my family. My loving husband, Jay, is a High School math teach. My wonderfully energetic son, Jake, and daughter, Zoey, are starting preschool in September 2013. At the moment I am a homemaker/housewife who loves to knit. I began knitting on a daily basis in March 2013. Yes, not that long ago. My mother taught me years ago when I was in high school. I liked it but I did not have the patience and dedication that I have come to acquire since having children. 

I've worked with people for as long as I can remember from my latest job of Assistant Manager of a shoe store in SoHo, NYC to my first job as a cashier in a dollar store in the Staten Island mall at the age of 15. 

When my son was born my husband and I decided that instead of paying for daycare I would stay at home  until Jake was old enough to enter preschool. Not so long later we had my daughter and the choice of being a stay-at-home mom was even more logical. 

Now that both Jake and Zoey will be in school, it is time for me to find something that would be enjoyable and work around my kids schedule. It's time to open a yarn truck, :)

First MeetUp Knitting Group

Tonight I met up with a bunch of ladies for my first ever MeetUp. I had a great time. It was nice and it was not awkward. I can't wait for the next one!

Thanks for reading!
Ruthie

New Small Business

Hello!

Thanks for your support reading my blog! 

I was surfing the web a week ago and came across this http://yarnovertruck.com/ 
A truck full of yarn that comes to your neighborhood! 
This would be perfect! I would love to open a truck in Northern New Jersey.
 I don't have the funds yet. If you would like to contribute I have added a "donate" button to this blog. 

I would like to open it with in the next year. With every step I would post a new blog entry, and with pictures when available. The complete finished boutique would be posted  the day of the unveiling. 
It's not something that is popular here in NJ, not that I have seen so far. 
As with every business there are pros and cons. One of the cons for Northern NJ is winters are cold, and sometimes very snowy. One of the pros would be having the yarn boutique come to you for a party or get-together.

I am new to the yarn scene but I know that I would love to be in that truck meeting great people! The thought of driving around in the van and stopping in different towns is exciting. Going to yarn crawls, oh man that would be fun. And seeing all the creativity being produced right in front of me while we sit around outside the truck. I also have great support from family and friends.   

If you have any comments I would love to read from you.

I have a long way to go. I hope you will join me on this adventure and read about the progress being made.

For a more up-to-date website please visit 
Ruthie Tyler Yarn

Thanks for reading!

Continuing the Toddler Dress

Hello!

I have knit a few more rows since the last post. I am actually ready to start the decrease. 
Since I cast on the wrong amount of stitches I had to figure out how to do the decrease with the number of stitches I have. 
The pattern calls for:

Knit 10 (12, 14) rounds
Next round: *knit 2tog knit 12 (14, 16) place marker* rep from * to*
Knit 10 (12, 14) rounds
Next round: *knit 2tog knit to marker* rep from* to*
Rep last 2 lines total 3 (3, 4) times (total 100 (120, 140) sts on needles) 

I would have had to knit 16 after knitting 2 together, but now I have to knit 15 instead. 

Here is where I am before doing the decreases.

Thanks for reading!

Ruthie

A Toddler Dress WIP

Hello!

So I have started a new project for my daughter Zoey. I got the pattern from Ravelry.com. A Simple Seamless Dress. The first time I cast on the 180 stitches I got the stitches twisted when I went to join in the round. I decided to knit a few rows  first before joining. That way it is easier to see if the stitches are twisted, and easier to fix if they are.

I just found out that WIP means Work In Progress.

And FO is Finished Object.

I will post more photos of this dress as I progress. It might take awhile though.

Thanks for reading!

Ruthie

A few hours later...

As I was counting the stitches to divide them for the magic loop I saw that I only cast on 170 stitches :(

 I'm still going to continue the pattern and try to figure out how to fix this mistake as I knit along. 

Magic Loop & Boyes Interchangeable Knitting Needle Set

Hello

I love the Magic Loop Method. I love my Boyes Interchangeable Circular Needles. 

  The cables in the pictures are the ones I made

I was having issues at first because my circular cable was too stiff. I tried putting it in hot water to soften it, and it helped a bit but it was still  working against me. Regardless I pushed on. 
I purchased a set of circular needles sz 1 and the cable for that was flexible, although a little short. I purchased them at Michael's craft store.
 Michael's is a great place to shop but when it comes to knitting needles they don't have a wide selection, and they are a little expensive especially for a beginner. Being a beginner, I don't know what is worth spending money on. And if I purchase a set of expensive needles there is a chance I won't be comfortable. 
For my birthday my husband gave me the Boye's Needlemaster interchangeable circular needle set. We got them from amazon.com because they are about 1/2 the price than if you get them at the store. It is a beautiful set, the needles feel great, but the cables are too short and too stiff! I searched online to see if there was a set of cables that I can purchase that wouldn't fight me while I was knitting. I could not find anything for purchase. Instead I found Create your own Boye Needlemaster interchangeable cables! I decided to give it a shot and it worked! The new custom cable allows me to do the Magic Loop method with no resistance!!
Plus I can make any size cable I like. I found that the longer the cable the easier it is to knit while in the loop.

Thanks for reading
Ruthie

The Process

Hello!

My process of knitting varies from day to day. Sometimes I sit at the kitchen table with the laptop in front of me. Sometimes I sit in bed watching tv and sometimes on the couch with my ipad. It all depends on the kids!
If I'm making a pattern that calls for a straight Stockinette stitch for "x" amount of rows, I'll watch a tv series on Netflix.com. It makes the rows go so much fast.  I've gone past the row number a couple of times because I was just so into the show, :). I'm pretty sure that I'll do it a lot more times too. When I have to follow a specific pattern then I have to turn the show off and make sure the kids are busy. I can't tell you the number of times I've had to unravel or knit backwards because I was distracted.  And I'm sure that will happen again many more times too.
I keep my tools in a plastic zipper bag that my daughter's sheet set came in. This bag travels the house with me with my current project and supplies. I found that the plastic zipper bags that sheets and blankets come in are perfect yarn totes! I also have a 3 clear drawer plastic dresser that has all the yarn I'm not using. This makes it easy to see the yarn without having to shift and disorganize the drawer. And the last storage item is the sterilite bins that have the snap on handles. A lot huh! I went a little overboard with the yarn. I received a Michael's gift card for valentines day, mother's day and birthday! :D
I keep my books in a "suitcase", one of those crafty ones you can get at Michaels. I don't have room yet to have a bookshelf, but I'm hoping to in the near future.


Thanks for reading!
Ruthie

Another Hat!

Hello!
So this is the latest finished project. I made this for my son.

I used a very simple to read and make pattern Little Giraffe Hat.

The skein I used was multicolored. I wish I knew what brand and lot # but I got it in the sale section in Michael's because there was no label. I like the sales section because I can buy really nice yarn for really cheap. Great for practicing! The downsides are some skeins don't have labels, and there usually only have 1 or 2 skeins of a color.

This was fun to make, and fast. It took only 2 days. That's with kids interrupting, having to clean and cook, etc... It's actually pretty good timing for me.

Here are some more pictures of the process.

Thanks for reading!

Ruthie

#knitting #hat#cap

Frustration.

Hello

Yesterday I was trying to make a Mohawk hat for my son. It consists of making the ear flaps first and then knitting it all together. The pattern was frustrating to read. It said to CO 3 stitches.
Sl1 M1 K1 M1 K1    (Slip 1 Make 1 Knit 1 Make 1 Knit 1)
Sl1 Purl        (Slip 1 Purl the rest)
Sl1 M1 K3 M1 K1    (Slip 1 Make 1 Knit 3 Make 1 Knit 1)
Sl1 Purl         (Slip 1 Purl the rest)
and the pattern continue this increase till 17 stitches.

Slipping the first stitch was simple enough, but I continued the pattern I could not make one at the beginning of the row. I looked up again how to slip a stitch and also how to make a stitch on youtube.com and still I could not get it to work. I decided to change the pattern to 
K1 M1 K1 M1 K1    (Knit 1 Make 1 Knit 1 Make 1 Knit 1)
Purl       
K1 M1 K3 M1 K1    (Knit 1 Make 1 Knit 3 Make 1 Knit 1)
Purl      

This worked out great!
Then I made the mistake of trying to read the pattern again. I had to undo and redo 3 times. Then when i finally thought that I got it, I forgot to add stitches and I got fed up! I unraveled the whole thing.
I switched to a different pattern and hat type all together.
So far the new pattern has been straight foward. I'll be taking pictures of the progress and when I am done I will post it up with a link to the free pattern.
Thanks for reading
Ruthie

My First Hat!

I made a Hat! My first hat!

My own pattern, played it by eye.

Cable cast on 60 st join together for magic loop Sz 10.5 needles
I used 2 strands of 2 different colors by Lion Brand. This was the first time I ever used two strands at once.

This is the yarn I used.

I used the cable cast on.

Magic Loop.

This is after the first 10 rows.

Better lighting from a different time of day.

This is 20 rows.

Showing the detail.

Finally finished!

This wave happens when you decrease 2 together in the same spot row after row. Rows 21-33. 

Reversible!

Detail photo.

1-5. Knit 5, purl 5 all around 

6-10. Purl 5, knit 5 all around 

11-20. Knit All

21. (K8, k2tog) x6

22. Knit All

23. (K7, k2tog) x6

24. Knit All

25. (K6, k2tog) x6

26. Knit All

27. (K5, k2tog) x6

28. Knit All

29. (K4, k2tog) x6

30. (K3, k2tog) x6

31. (K2, k2tog) x6

32. (K1, k2tog) x6

33. K2tog 

 Cut a tail and sew it through remaining stitches.

If you sew in the tails well the hat is reversible.

My son, my biggest fan! He tries out all of my projects.