The Shtick I Do

Sorry this blog post is coming a day late! I spent the week with my gorgeous mother, and then got home late last night. At any rate, if you didn't guess by the title, I wanted to give my oh so humble opinion on circular knitting needles as opposed to straight knitting needles. Just to show the difference between the two for newer knitters or those of you maybe thinking about knitting and debating on which needles to buy: Image borrowed from thinkcrafts.com via Google Images Straight on the left, and circular on the right. Now, functionally, they're essentially the same. With straight needles you would typically knit flat (like a scarf), and with circular needles you would knit things like socks and hats. You can't do that with flat needles. Reason numero uno why I prefer circular over straight! Straight needles are fairly limiting.(Learn to knit flat with circular needles here .) Reason number two? With some circular needles, you can adjust the length of the ...

I'll start this with the same question everyone else does: "Ever find a knitting pattern that you love , but you crochet?" This is the part where they tell you to pretty much just play with it. How irritating, right? Well, I am here to help! I'm going to give you a knitting pattern, convert it to a crochet pattern, and... and tell you why it works. Before we start, a disclaimer: This will not   be an exact replica . This is simply because these are two VERY different crafts. You can replicate knitting closely, and to the untrained eye, there is no difference. However, to someone familiar with both crafts the difference is very obvious. So let's train your eye. The first thing I learned to knit was a potholder from my 8th grade teacher. I'm actually one of the founding members of my middle school's Knitting and Crochet Club. It's not much, but I'm proud. Anyway! Ms. Jones taught me this pattern, so any similarities to another pattern...

Way back in 1994 (like that was a long time ago, lol) a group of people got together and declared March as National Craft Month. This blog and this site both credit the origins of National Craft Month to the Craft and Hobby Association. I'm not entirely sure it's accurate because according to their own website, the Craft and Hobby Association didn't come to fruition until 2004. Two different groups got together to form the Craft and Hobby Association: the Hobby Industry Association (HIA) and the Association of Crafts and Creative Industries (ACCI). Maybe I'm a purist, but personally I like to know which one actually started it. Maybe someone out there can let me know? =D Since it IS National Craft Month, I decided it was right for me to learn a new craft. So I'm giving knitting another try. I have a wonderful aunt in Florida that read my post about the frustration I was having. Being the wonderful aunt that she is, she had pity on me (and I'm sure a few la...

Yes, everyone, it's FINALLY HERE !!!! Happy 2014, Shtickers! (What do you think of that one, mom? ;) ) I previously did a post on my blog,  Kat Knap , detailing a few of the New Year's resolution that I have for my business, so I thought I would start the year off with you all by announcing my resolutions for The Shtick I Do. By all means, feel free to keep me on track with these via your comments and feedback! I am going to provide a free pattern once a month. Who knows what it will be? No one... Not even me, haha! I plan to start this resolution today at the end of this post. I'm going to help you knock out one of what I know  has to be one of your resolutions.... Organization! I am going to talk more about all of the different crafts that I do. There are a lot, so trying to develop a schedule for them will be a constant work in progress I'm sure! Embroidering, knitting, looming, crocheting, maybe even make some book recommendations, but most of those go through ...