January 13th 2017
“We started our excavation mission today. Unaware of what
awaits us we trekked into the deep dark cupboards to find and extract artifacts
of long lost. After digging further we came across a
notebook as old as time… Is this what I’ve been looking for? Have I finally
found the ancient knitting notebook? I wait impatiently for the time where I am
able to open this up. What awaits me inside this treasure chest on paper?”
Hey everybody! Welcome back to the ZAK Entertainment blog
for today! How’s your day going? Last night was Nintendo’s huge Nintendo Switch
presentation and of course I’ll be covering it but the nature of my blog and
how I schedule everything has actually prevented me from talking about it until
Monday… Unless I do a special Saturday blog but I don’t know if that’ll work
very well for me. Sorry about that. Speaking of Video Games, don’t forget to
check out Yesterday’s blog! I take you on a tour through Pokemon Sun and Moon’s
Poke Pelago feature.
Anyway we’ve been doing some early spring sorting and
cleaning, because it basically feels like spring already. 77 degree Fahrenheit temperature!
It’s like winter never even happened this year. Mum, while on our excavation,
dug out some knitting books for me to look through and I’ve been eager to dive
in but before that… Mum had also found an old Knitting Notebook that she used
to write in.
It’s a little worse for wear on the outside, which is odd because Mum kept it quite safe in the cupboard we cleaned out but when I
opened it up I found a whole bunch of knitting patterns and stitch instructions
that Mum had wrote down over her years of knitting. This is like a knitting
goldmine and I’ve been inspired to take on Mum's different patterns inside
of here. There’s some vanilla patterns in here too that I could use to learn
how to make gloves and then add my own pattern to it. The book has been passed
down from the master to the trainee and I have become the possessor of the
ancient knit journal (Okay it's not even old.). There are some blank pages still so I could relieve my
writer’s notebook a bit and use this notebook to add my own knitting notes and
patterns to. (Which is what I’ve been using for my knitting notes and patterns,
I’m running out of space for my story writing.)
Mum also dug out a book that has really interested me and I’ve
already been diving in and reading.
Mum bought this book on Amazon.com a couple years back and it’s
called Knitting on the Edge by the renowned Knitter/Designer Nicky Epstein. The
title probably gives it away but this book features a huge collection of
tutorials and patterns for knitting edging categorized under ribs, ruffles,
lace, fringes and so forth.
For a while now I’ve been looking for patterns and tutorials
to help me come up with edging ideas to give my knit work and knitting patterns
that much needed oomph and I can safely say this book satisfies that need. I’ve
already tried out a few of the stitches already but this book has a lot, and I
mean A LOT of different edging and border stitch patterns, even some awesome
cable stitch patterns. I’ve even found stitches in here that would great for
the body of a project as well. It has over 350 border patterns and it isn’t
just informative it’s very easy to read and understand too. I’ve no problems
understanding the patterns in this book and with its hefty abbreviations list I
won’t ever have to take my head out of this book.
I’m really glad Mum got this book all those years ago because
as a beginner knitter who really wants to get into the nitty gritty of making
his own designs that stand out in the crowd this really does satisfy that need.
I want to try out a lot if not all of the different patterns
in this book… Which may take me a long time but hey knitting has become a
permanent part in my life so I’ll probably still be knitting way into my grey
years… WHICH IM HOPING IS NOT SOON. I had a grey hair or two turn up on my
beard, no lie it was pretty scary. Please do not make me grey before I turn 30,
please gods of hair.
This isn’t the only book Nicky has written actually. After
looking her up I found that she’s written all sorts of knitting books and even
a Crochet Variation of this edging book! It’s called Crocheting on the Edge and
I will assume it’s all about crochet edging. I’m not good at crocheting, I can’t
get my hands and fingers to work around it but if it’s anything like this book
it’ll be pretty awesome. You can check out all of Nicky Epstein’s books by
going to her Amazon page! I really recommend her books to beginner knitters to be honest.
There are a couple more books that Mum got out that I’ve
been reading that I want to feature here on the blog so stay tuned.
As far as actually knitting, well things have been a bit
slow since finishing my cable beanie. I’ve been working on my custom dishcloth
but I really need to start knitting new projects again. I also have my shawl to
start back up as well as finishing up my custom shawl pattern. So yeah gotta
get moving again, which will be no problem as I’m pretty motivated right now.
This book has given me quite a lot of awesome ideas as well for the future,
especially my upcoming sweater project. Yes I will be starting up my very first
sweater quite soon and that’ll probably last me the whole year… Or 6 months at
the speed I knit. I seem to complete projects fast, at least faster than I
thought I would anyway. Gonna need to get more yarn by the time this year is
over.
I’ve been cooking again and yesterday I cooked, with the
help of Annie and Mum, everyone in the family a yummy Chicken & Rice Curry!
I seem to be getting better at cooking but I’ve actually wanted
to break out of my comfort zone and try some new meals. I know with what we
have we can do all sorts of cool meals I just need to take a risk and leap out
of that habit of just cooking what I know. So when that happens I’ll be sure to
take you guys along the ride with me, whether it ends up a failure or not.
Speaking of food it’s time for an update on our Re-Growing a
Lettuce challenge! This is one of Mum’s crazy ideas. (This is a good thing by
the way.) We planted this lettuce stem in a shot glass of water over a week and
a half ago on Monday January the 2nd and it’s been growing steadily
ever since.
It’s actually growing in a odd way the leafs are going wherever
and however they please so I’m not sure if it’s going to eventually turn into a
round lettuce like it originally was or look more like the taller variations of
lettuces.
So that’s about it for today, don’t forget to check out
Monday’s blog where I’ll be covering the Nintendo Switch and all the other
awesome things they announced yesterday! It’s going to be a pretty awesome blog
and I’m dying to get my mitts (knitted mitts) on the Nintendo Switch. It’s so
exciting to experience a new game console coming out, whether it’s the Nintendo
64, GameCube or Switch I always get pretty excited. Because I’m a nerd… Welcome
once again to my nerd blog.
Anyway thanks for reading! Be sure to check me out on Instagram and check out my Youtube Channel where I post all sorts of videos from Travel Videos, Knitting, Pokemon and more! Also check me out on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat as ZAKManK, and of course Ravelry! I post here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with a wide range of awesome topics!
Don't forget to keep your life entertaining and I'll...
See you on the next blog!
No comments:
Post a Comment