Five Star Flex Hybrid Notebook

Okay, I admit it all the time. I am a geek. As I wrote before, I like to gather information and write my ideas out.

I have the Pulse pen, but the paper was in a spiral bound notebook. It didn't totally work for me because I also liked to keep my little non Pulse paper items with me, so that meant that I had a spiral notebook, a folder with my cheat sheets and whatever other paper I had with me.

Then I found the flex binder. It is called a hybrid notebook, which sounds all science fiction-y, but it is very simple. It offers you the ability to move stuff around in the binder, but you can fold it back like a notebook. Remember those huge classes in college and the little tiny desks?  I do. I had both a binder and notebook for my classes. The notebook to take notes in class and the binder to hold all the paper handed out during the course. I wish this existed waaaaayyyyyy back in the stone ages when I went to school.

The folders are an added bonus since they actually hold stuff in.

I bought the large size- In pink of course, and tore the pages from my Pulse notebook (they have 3 hole punches already) and placed them in the Flex binder, I took my knitting cheat sheets and put them in the binder, I took my knitter's graph paper and put that in the binder, I put my CYCA syllabus in there and added a pencil pouch too. That is a lot of stuff and I love that I can add, move or remove stuff around.

I now have the perfect idea book!

Harmony Knitting Needles

I love my Harmonys! They are a part of the Options interchangable knitting needles that KnitPicks offers. I have a lot of knitting needles, but I basically ignore them in favor of these sweet babies. They are so pretty. And sexy. I use them for straight knitting and circular knitting and now that I have discovered the easy method of knitting small circumferences on two circulars, I need another set. 

 

The lovely-ness of these is that they are not only beautiful, but the points are great, the join is perfect and smooth and if there happens to be a defect, KnitPicks will stand by thier product. The join on a pair of my needles became very wonky and I just mentioned it in passing to a customer service rep and she sent me another pair for FREE.  I have used other interchangable sets and this is the best by far. I have used Denise sets, and that was ok, but the join sometimes came loose at the wrong time, the cords remained kinked, and they looked plain. Sometimes part of the knitting experience is enjoying the tools you are using. Like your needles. Wrapping beautiful yarn around some plain ass beige needles is not fun. And they don't look good when you are taking picks of your WIP to post on Ravelry.

 

The coloring is so fabulous and the more you work with the needles, the smoother they become. The colors also kinda smooth out- they are still rainbow like, but uh.... smooth. I dunno how to describe it, but it takes on a lovely quality.

 

Like I said before, I need another set. There is a new addition to the Options family called Zephyr. They are clear acrylic and also have the lover-ly join and smoothness. They are also much cheaper and that makes me so happy.  These will be my Christmas present to myself.

Knitting

I knit, therefore, I am.



I knit, but don't expect no complicated frilly stuff. Homey don't play that. I do quick, uncomplicated things. I have been working on a vest for the last 3 or 4 months, and I am in no particular hurry to finish it since it is now 'summer' and I don't need the extra insulation.
Knitting brings me peace and helps me work things out in my brain when I am troubled. The last week has been crazy with family issues, I knit like a fool and finished two bags, two hats and I am currently working on another. My favorite thing to do is to sit and knit. The weather has been so lovely lately that I sit outside with the sun burning my legs and knit and drink my lemonade or iced tea until it is time for me to get some real work done.

But I love the winter, the time of year when it is cool to sit on your butt and do nothing. I like to put on music, heat up a pot of tea, wrap up in my blanket on my favorite chair and knit. Sometimes I watch TV, but it is better with music. I was watching a movie and my friend was irritated that I was knitting while watching the movie. He thought I couldn't follow along with the movie while knitting. I had to educate his butt.
I have tons of knitting paraphernalia. I have a lot of knitting needles, and don't EVER ask to borrow them. I can part with yarn, but not with my needles son. I have three or four garbage bag sized bags of yarn.... I am a little more likely to part with my yarn only so I can buy more. My favorite sites for my hobby/ fetish are:

• knitpicks.com- The Harmony interchangeable needles are the shiznit and the yarn is cheap too!
• Ebay- Uhhh yeah! I have found needles by the lot, yarn and cute knitting bags here.
• Discontinuedbrandnameyarn.com- I found my favorite yarn- Lamb's Pride- here for half price.

When I recieve my Knit Picks catalog in the mail, I get so excited. I call it my porn because it makes me hot- I swear it does.

I also spend a lot of time on Ravelry.com. It is like a MySpace for knitters and crocheters. You can post pictures of your work, your stash of yarn, there are forums and groups to join and of course, there are friends to make. I belong to a lot of groups. Maybe too many.

I love knitting so much and believe in it's powers to calm and soothe that I teach a class at work and will teach anyone who asks... but bring your own stuff cause I ain't sharing.