What's On the Needles? Ribbed Hat

This post was intended for a few weeks ago, but I never got around to posting it. With that said, one would think that this hat is no longer on the needles. That however, is not the case. I haven't gotten very much knitting done since I took up the guitar a couple of weeks ago. But I do plan to make some progress on busting my yarn stash. My goal is to make a big dent this winter in my ever growing yarn stash, and with the combination of this relentless snow and a bunch of these ribbed hats it shouldn't be too hard. I already have a hand full of other color combinations in mind for a few more. All I need to do is find the motivation to knit.

The pattern is pretty basic, I cast on about 96 stitches and plan to do knit the body of the hat for eight to nine inches and then do the crown decrease using the Watchman hat pattern. I can't decide yet what color pom-pom to add to the top. Or if to even add one at all. Only time will tell, I guess.

This Gal Learns to Play Guitar: Day One

It might be a bit premature to be writing about this since it was just yesterday that I started. But I don't really care. I've been working on chipping away my unusual Christmas list and this week I decided to get started on learning how to play the guitar. And I can honestly say I'm loving it so far, even after one day.  As I type this, sore fingers and all, I've semi-mastered a couple of cords. 

I'm not going to sit here and pretend it's easy because it's not. But once I got it into my head that I'm not going be good at it right away, everything became so much more enjoyable. Another thing I've quickly learned is, you have to take frequent breaks or there'll be nothing left of your fingers. I read rumors that things like that might happen, but was hoping my knitting calluses would prevent this a little, but it doesn't. The worst of it is, I'm out of knitting for a bit until my fingers harden up. But don't worry, I won't let that stop me.

Finger grooves!

Remember when I boasted about getting my guitar off eBay for about 20-30 dollars? Yeah, turns out those aren't really suitable for any guitar player let alone a beginner. I guess, they have a really high action (the distance between the frets and the strings), making it difficult to play. As of writing this, I can't really confirm if this is a problem for me or not. That's something I'll be able to judge better when my fingers toughen up a bit... maybe? The other problem with cheap guitars, and this is a biggy, is they don't really stay in tune. For obvious reasons, this is not a good thing. Again, I haven't played it enough to really know if this is an issue. But, until I hit the jackpot and the jackpot being landing a job that pays more than $7.25 an hour, I'm going to make do with the one I have. 

With that being said, I have, indeed, been doing a bit of shopping and am excited for the day that I'm able to upgrade to something better. We're all just going to pretend like I haven't already picked one out. But, like I said, I don't feel like I'm in the position to even know if the guitar I have is terrible or not.

Resources

The Justinguitar.com Beginner's Course

Mahalo Learn Guitar Course

Learning to play the guitar is only one of the many things on my list I've started doing. In the next couple of weeks I'm going have a bunch more to post. So, stay tuned! And follow @thisgalknows on Twitter! Cuz, I love Twitter.

This Gal's Vintage Find: Pink Vogue Couturier Dress

If there's one thing you need to know about me it's that I'm obsessed with the fifties and sixties. I'd say I was born in the wrong era, but this little mixed gal knows she doesn't have the thick skin needed to survive in those times. But seriously, if I had a Delorean and flux compositor I'd totally hop back to every year from 1950-1969 and raid every little shop that I could find and take home some authentic vintage goodies.

So, you'll be able to imagine my excitement when I found a genuine vintage dress at Goodwill. It's this adorable, little, pink totally mod scooter dress. I swear it would fit right into That Girl's closet.

When I got this dress back in May, it not only fit much better, but I also knew very little about dating vintage clothing. Naturally, I went to the good ole reliable Google for some help. I found two awesome resources the first was the wonderful Sammy Davis Vintage website that has an abundance of articles explaining the best ways to identify and date vintage clothing. And the second was a great little book called The Little Guide to Vintage Shopping by Melody Fortier. The next thing I did was I sat down with my dress and went through it with a fine tooth comb.

This Gal's 2013 Photos

Remember that time I started a 365 days of photos project and abandoned it after a little over a month? Me either, I guess we can't all be as awesomely dedicated as my mom, who is now onto her second 365 day photo project. But just because I gave up on taking and posting a photo each day doesn't mean I didn't take plenty of photos all year.

I learned a lot after sifting through all of my photos. The first one being that the photos I thought I'd hated after looking at them on the tiny little screen on the camera look so much better on the computer. Also it seems I really like taking photos of myself.

What are my plans for the blog this year? Well, there are two main things really. I plan on posting something once a week, something I've been trying to do but haven't been succeeding at. And the other thing is finding a place in this damn house to take photos of myself so I can finally post all of those posts I've written but haven't gotten up yet because I lack adequate photos.

This Gal's Unusual Christmas List

I started this list a few weeks ago, I'm not really sure why, but I'm glad I did. Sometimes I find that when I put my goals into writing they have a better chance at actually happening. When I revisited it a couple of days ago, I thought, 'hmm, this is like my own little personal Christmas list.' Obviously, none of these things can actually be done before Christmas, but it's like they always say, it's the thought that counts. I narrowed down my semi-long list to five of the goals I most want to reach and you can read them after the cut.

Staying Warm this Winter 60s Style

I set out and actually wrote an entire post about my current knitting work in progress. But more pressing things have come to light. And nothing, in my eyes, is more pressing than vintage fashion. As you will soon learn, I have a little bit of a thing for vintage clothing, movies, music... basically anything.  Surprise, surprise, I'm listening to Bobby Darin as I write this post.

With the weather taking a turn down Depressing Lane today, I decided to pull out my vintage coat from the 60s and wear it... for the first time, even though I bought it a years ago. 

Honestly, I have no idea why I haven't been wearing it every winter since I got it. I don't think I have ever owned a winter coat that's as warm as this one. We'll see if I say the same when it's 25 below zero before wind chill.

I think my favorite part about this coat is that it has the ILGWY tag on the inside, which is one of the tell-tale signs that an article of clothing is vintage. I do hope however, that one day I'll have at least a few articles of clothing with these labels in them that I won't be excited to see this one anymore.

One thing I did realized while wearing this today is, I'm going to need some new hats and gloves to wear with this since the ones I'm currently wearing don't go with it at all. 

Fresh-Off the needles: Spooky Socks

Look, Ma, I knit a pair of socks! And what a lovely pair of socks they are. They're a bit big, but I'd say they're not too bad for my first ever pair of socks. Plus, there was no second sock syndrome for this gal, so there's one more thing to be proud of.

I used the pattern Vanilla Latte Socks by Virginia Rose-Jeanes. The pattern was super, super easy to understand. I don't think I could have chosen a better pattern for my first time. What I really like about this pattern is that it gave you different options for both the heel flap and the toe shaping. It was sort of a build your own sock sort of thing.

I'd been putting off knitting a pair of socks, because it seemed so complicated, and just plain scary. I had heard so many horror stories about turning the heel that I didn't even want to touch a sock pattern, let alone try to knit one. But after I found Very Pink's sock knitting video tutorials I realized it was totally doable. Then I just took a deep breath and dove in, and if I got stuck there was always the video there to help me out.

The yarn is Knit Picks Felici in the Spooky color way, and I love it. I saw someone on Ravelry using it and knew I needed to make something out the Halloween inspired yarn. And I actually finished them in time for Halloween, too! Just one more thing to be proud of.

I'd always been a bit hesitant about using self striping yarn, for whatever reason, but after using it on these socks I know I'm going to be using it a lot more. And thank goodness, Knit Picks has a wide variety of self-striping yarn.

Skills needed:

Everything you need to know is covered in Very Pink's videos. Watch them here.

Check out my Ravelry project page