Feb
Four years!
So I figured out completely by accident last night that it’s been almost exactly four years since I taught myself to knit. I was looking through a bunch of photos that I took four years ago to find something for this week’s Wordless Wednesday, and happened to see pictures of my first two knitting projects from way back then.
I was a pretty avid crocheter in earlier years but had started having a lot of pain in my hand when I crocheted, so thought knitting would be a good challenge to tackle. I was right! 
It was very simple – just garter stitch. I do remember being proud of myself for figuring out how to change colors though. I can’t remember for absolute certain, but I think I’d originally used those colors because I a) had the yarn already in-hand from a baby afghan I’d been planning to crochet and b) thought my husband would be able to use the scarf. I was wrong – the scarf was too short for him (he’s not the scarf type anyway), and the colors weren’t ‘girl’ enough to tempt any of my daughters to wear it. I think this scarf is still buried at the bottom of a drawer somewhere.
I still had yarn left after the scarf, so I made a hat to match. At the time I wasn’t ready to tackle knitting in the round, so this hat was knitted flat and then I seamed it up the side. Not very well, as you can see:
I did have someone willing at least to model the hat for me, but I don’t think it’s been worn since. It wasn’t a horrible job for a first attempt, but I cringe when I look at these pictures of it now – I’ve learned so much since then!
Do you remember what your first knitting project was? Do you still have it?
Feb
OTN: Ruffle scarf!
I just had to share because I know these are becoming really popular and I finally decided that I just had to try making one myself. And it’s such an easy and quick knit – for something that turns out so pretty… Perfect for gift-making!
The yarn I bought is called Starbella. There were several other types at the yarn store today too – some sparkly or fuzzy ones, but I really like the colors in this one.
The idea here is that the yarn stretches out and looks just about like a net – you knit through the top loops in short rows to create a cascading look…
This is the scarf that I started tonight – after about 20 minutes it’s almost halfway done! This scarf is 4 stitches per row – you cast-on just by slipping the needle through the holes in the top of the mesh, then you knit through the next open hole at the top and so on, turning after each row. For a thicker scarf you could use longer rows – some of the samples I saw had up to 8 stitches per row.
The only complicated part is that you have to stretch out the mesh as you go and find the top loops – but the more I work on the scarf, the easier it gets.
I’ll probably finish this up tomorrow – I can’t wait to wear my pretty new scarf! And my girls are already begging to make their own ruffle scarves – this is easy enough that they should be able to!
Jan
Sometimes, I am an idiot.
It’s true. I tend to be a more detail-oriented kind of person, which is very good in some ways but there are times when I kind of tend to overlook the big picture because I get too caught up in the details.
For example…
I received a new knitting book for Christmas and have been very excited to try my first pair of socks from it. The book is 2-At-A-Time Socks
She chose the Athena pattern – a really pretty cabled sock that I was looking forward to working on. This book is done with charts – so I’d be learning something new since I hadn’t worked from a pattern chart before.
The chart is fairly easy to follow – like a grid. Start at stitch 1 of row 1 and work right to left and bottom to top. Simple, right?
As I got further into the pattern, I noticed that my cables weren’t winding around each other the way the pattern shows. I realized that I’d gotten so wrapped up in following each stitch and step exactly as written that I’d forgotten that I knit left-handed. And since I knit left-to-right and I was following the chart right-to-left, I figured I was doing the pattern wrong and should start again, this time following the chart backward, beginning at stitch 28 of row 1 and working left to right and bottom to top.
So I frogged the entire pair of socks. And began again from the very beginning of casting on both pairs of socks.
After (re)knitting the cuffs and getting back into the pattern stitches, it didn’t take more than a few rows before I realized that the cables definitely weren’t looking better – in fact, this time they didn’t even look like cables but rather a jumbled mess.
Thankfully, this time I was able to simply ‘tink’ back those few pattern rounds that I’d already knit (a lot of fun dealing with the cable hook there), back to where I’d started cabling. I looked again at the photos I’d taken of my first attempt and decided that the cables really didn’t look that far off anyway – and if something wrapped to the back when it ‘should’ wrap to the front… As long as everything lines up in the end, it shouldn’t matter.
So my lesson learned is that I shouldn’t try to second-guess a pattern or analyze why it works or doesn’t – but just accept the fact that the designer knew what she was doing and apparently left-handed or not, I simply need to follow the directions as written.
I may be an idiot – but I do (usually) at least learn from my mistakes!
Jan
UFOs (no, not the outer space kind)
In fiber-speak, a UFO is not something that involves little green men or anything, but rather stands for UnFinished Objects. Something that we all tend to have at least one or two (or more) of sitting around for one reason or another. Perhaps it’s because you ran out of yarn (gasp!), couldn’t figure something out in the pattern, got bored, or just got more interested in other projects… Those pesky UFOs just sit there, waiting for you to pick them back up again.
Sometimes you do. And sometimes you don’t.
Last year I had 3 UFOs that sat in my closet and weighed on my mind. The first was the initial Smock Top that I started in 2010 but then realized that I was making the wrong size so put aside. Last year I restarted knitting the same pattern in a bigger size, but with different yarn. The first attempt sat in my knitting bag for months – until I decided to knit my mother-in-law a scarf for Christmas and needed to find a lightweight cotton yarn quickly. The yarn from the first Smock Top was perfect, so I pulled it apart and used the same yarn to knit the scarf.
One UFO dealt with and off the needles! Of course, there’s still the second Smock Top, which also seems to be languishing in my knitting bag for no other reason than I just simply haven’t had the interest in working on it lately. We’ll see if I can manage to finally finish this pattern at some point!
The other UFO that I had last year was the pair of socks I was making for my middle daughter – this project became the unfortunate victim to ‘Second Sock Syndrome’ before I learned how to knit two socks at once. Having frogged almost an entire sock before completing the first one, I pretty much felt like I’d already knit two socks and I was tired of the pattern by summertime. I had gotten all the way to knitting the foot section and then just left it. I needed a break from that one.
And the extended break worked – last fall, after I taught myself to knit 2 socks at once Magic Loop style, I made myself finish that second sock before I started any other projects. The feeling of having it finally done was wonderful – and seeing my daughter so excited to have her pair of socks to wear (finally!) reminded me of why I love to knit for others to begin with.
I was rather amazed that I was able to match the striping up so closely on this pair of socks, but also glad to know how to knit 2 at a time now so that will be much easier from now on!
So if you were keeping track, that leaves me with only the one UFO for now – that second Smock Top. We’ll see if I can get that finished in 2012, but who knows what other UFOs I’ll manage to come up with!
Jan
Christmas gifts, last-minute style
As I’m somewhat prone to procrastination, I didn’t really think much about Christmas gifts for 2011 until the season was well underway. In my defense though, it really didn’t feel much like Christmas this year, between having almost no snow to speak of in December and my mood in general being on the rather glum side. It really wasn’t until a couple of weeks before the big day that I began to seriously shop and consider what we were going to do in the way of gifts for grandparents, etc.
I’d had in the back of my mind for a while that I wanted to knit a pair of socks for my mom. She’s 78 years old, lives alone in a house with extremely cold floors in the winter time and it had been a while since I’d made her something as a gift. Originally I’d started a pair of socks for my oldest daughter but quickly realized that I was not going to have enough time to both finish that pair and knit a whole other pair for my mom, so it made more sense to give the pair I was currently working on to my mom instead and knit my daughter a pair sometime later, since hers weren’t specifically a Christmas gift.
I love the colors of this yarn that I used and was (slightly) tempted to hang onto it for a pair of socks for myself, but as it’s 100% acrylic yarn and my feet need to breathe, I decided it was best to use it for this particular gift. Acrylic is washer-safe for easy care for my mom and I knew she would love the colors just as much as I did. The pattern was the same Winter Sock pattern that I’d made twice before – it’s a good, easy, quick knit and I knew it would make a thick, warm pair of socks for my mom.
Not having my mom’s feet available to judge size, I used the next-best thing – my oldest daughter’s feet. She’s in a women’s size 8 shoe now, which I knew was roughly the same size my mom wears. My feet are much wider than my mom’s, so mine aren’t a good judge of fit for her socks. I simply guessed – and hoped, that the fit would turn out right. And thankfully after my mom opened them on Christmas and tried them on – it did!
I finished the socks three days before Christmas, but I wasn’t done knitting for the holiday yet. After deciding to make the socks for my mom, I thought about the fact that my mother-in-law would be there on Christmas morning while gifts were opened, and we didn’t have a gift picked out for her yet. Since I was hand-knitting something for my own mother, it only felt fair to make something for my mother-in-law too.
I knew I wouldn’t have enough time for another pair of socks, so I decided on something that would be a quicker project to complete, but still useful – and pretty. I found a free pattern for a Cotton Lace Scarf by using the Lion Brand iPhone app and luckily had the perfect yarn already in my stash. I began the scarf on December 22nd and worked on it every moment that I was sitting down. Which wasn’t a lot of them since we also were completing a big bedroom shuffle in the house, which necessitated painting, moving furniture and trying to get the house in somewhat decent shape for guests before Christmas Eve.
I finished the scarf in time – at 3am on Christmas morning, that is. And quickly packed it into a box I had ready and waiting, wrapped it and stuck it under the tree only hours before the kids had us awake and ready to attack the pile of gifts.
I only have one photo of the scarf – I forgot to take any pictures of the finished item in my rush to get it done. But it turned out really pretty and I wouldn’t mind making another one someday – when I’ll have a little more time to actually enjoy the process.
For Christmas 2012, I am determined to decide on and start any holiday-related projects in plenty of time! Like maybe October.
Or July. 
Jan
Two socks at once – double the fun!
After I’d finished with my Halloween projects last fall, I finally had time to try something I’d been wanting to learn for a while. You see, I still had never finished the second sock of the pair that I’d started last spring for my middle daughter – yes, the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome. So whether or not I did ever finally get myself to complete that pair, I wanted to learn how to knit two socks at the same time so I wouldn’t have to deal with this ever again.
It made sense to go back to a pattern that I’d already made – the basic Winter Sock from the Magic Loop book. The pattern’s already set up for Magic Loop, and it’s a quick knit since it uses worsted weight yarn. I chose a solid colored yarn so I didn’t have to worry about matching stripes or anything, and got started.
I’d been somewhat intimidated by this whole process, especially the idea of using two balls of yarn at the same time. Having seen several different ideas on how to manage them – everything from using both ends of a single skein, to putting separate balls into individual baggies or bags to keep them from tangling, I thought for a while and then finally just ended up purchasing two separate skeins and doing my best to keep them separated.
I was actually impressed by how easy it was to keep the yarns separated – even considering that I took this project with me when traveling. I just left the skeins in a bag under the seat in front of me and pulled out enough slack to keep working as I went. Easy-peasy!
As always, YouTube was my friend on this entire process, and I got some additional help from other sites as well. Once I got the socks cast-on, the actual process was easy to pick up – my biggest hurdle came when I had to figure out in what order and how to pick up the stitches along the insteps and get everything situated from the back-and-forth of the heel flaps and turnings to circular knitting again. That part was the hardest to figure out and I didn’t quite do it right – I finally gave up as I got close to the toe decreases and simple resituated everything by using some stitch holders to move the stitches to where they were supposed to be.
Here are the videos and sites that I found especially helpful – one of these days I want to get back into doing videos again so that I can make left-handed versions of how to do a lot of these projects. Having to turn everything around in my head just adds a whole extra level of difficulty when learning something new!
- Top-Down Socks, Two-At-A-Time from KnitFreedom
- Magic Loop 2-at-a-time Tutorial Part 1 and Magic Loop 2-at-a-time Tutorial Part 2–the heel from Knitting Giraffe
- Knitting two socks on the Magic Loop from KnitAddicted
- Cuff Down Socks Two At A Time video
- Two-at-a-Time Top-Down Socks – Final Heel Steps video
It was so nice to finish the project and not have the second sock looming out in front of me! And these two are identical – even down to the row near the top of the cuff where I accidentally messed up slightly on the pattern. I didn’t have to try to remember how long I made each sock or compare to make sure they’d end up the same size – all of that worked out perfectly. And these are nice warm, cozy socks for me to wear this winter too!
I think I’m still in my sock obsession – they’re a small, portable project that’s a fairly quick knit and there’s a lot of variety in patterns. Plus they’re extremely practical. I don’t foresee knitting all of my socks from now on, but it’s fun to have three pairs that I’ve now knit for myself.
And more to come, I’m sure.
Jan
Halloween Pumpkin Hat Pattern
So yes, I know it’s been a few months since Halloween, but I’ve been meaning to post this so figured I’d go ahead anyway. I want to remember how I made this hat, and since I couldn’t find a pattern that I liked when I was looking, I want to put this out there in case it can help anyone else next Halloween or for future ones. If you have any questions about this pattern, you can e-mail me at debmomof3(at)comcast(dot)net.
Halloween Pumpkin Hat
Size: generally fits toddler or preschooler. Hat size can be increased or decreased by adding or subtracting stitches in sets of 8 and adjusting pattern accordingly.
Gauge: approximately 6 sts per inch using worsted weight yarn on US size 8 needles.
Materials:
- Orange-colored worsted weight yarn (should take one skein or less)
- Green-colored worsted weight yarn (only a few ounces required)
- US size 8 circular needle or size required to meet gauge
- US size 8 double-pointed needles
Cast on 80 stitches on circular needle. Place marker to designate end of round. Knit 4×4 ribbing for 8 rounds.
Round 9: *Purl one stitch, knit next 6 stitches, purl one stitch. Repeat from * 9 more times to end of round.
Repeat Round 9 until hat measures approximately 6-8 inches. Hat should fit around head from ears to crown.
Begin decrease rounds. Switch to double-pointed needles when no longer comfortable to knit on circular.
- First decrease round: *Purl one stitch, knit next 2 stitches together, knit next 4 stitches, purl one stitch. Repeat from * 9 more times to end of round.
- Next round: *Purl one stitch, knit next 5 stitches, purl one stitch. Repeat from * 9 more times to end of round.
- Second decrease round: *Purl one stitch, knit next 2 stitches together, knit next 3 stitches, purl one stitch. Repeat from * 9 more times to end of round.
- Next round: *Purl one stitch, knit next 4 stitches, purl one stitch. Repeat from * 9 more times to end of round.
- Third decrease round: *Purl one stitch, knit next 2 stitches together, knit next 2 stitches, purl one stitch. Repeat from * 9 more times to end of round.
- Next round: *Purl one stitch, knit next 3 stitches, purl one stitch. Repeat from * 9 more times to end of round.
- Fourth decrease round: *Purl one stitch, knit next 2 stitches together, knit next stitch, purl one stitch. Repeat from * 9 more times to end of round.
- Next round: *Purl one stitch, knit next 2 stitches, purl one stitch. Repeat from * 9 more times to end of round.
Fifth decrease round: *Purl one stitch, knit next 2 stitches together, knit next stitch, purl one stitch. Repeat from * 9 more times to end of round.- Switch to green yarn. *Purl one stitch, knit one stitch, purl one stitch. Repeat from * 9 more times to end of round. Repeat round 2x.
- Sixth decrease round: *Knit next 2 stitches together, purl next stitch. Repeat from * 9 more times to end of round.
- Seventh decrease round: *Knit next 2 stitches together. Repeat from * 9 more times to end of round.
You should have 10 stitches left to form the stem. Knit as many rounds of those last 10 stitches as necessary to form stem length you want. When stem is at correct length, knit 2 stitches together 5x, then cut yarn and draw through last 5 stitches. Weave in yarn ends.
Note: If you wish the ‘green’ portion of the hat to be larger, simply switch to the green yarn earlier in the pattern, such as when beginning decrease rounds.
Happy Knitting!
Dec
Catching up
It’s always hard to come back after a blogging break – especially when it stretches much longer than ever anticipated… And that contributes to the problem – the longer the break, the harder it is to actually sit down at the keyboard and begin to put words down again.
I’ve taken a break from all 3 of my sites this fall – a much-needed one. And I’m working on combining my other 2 sites together – something that will hopefully be done in the next couple of weeks. But I don’t want to wait any longer to start updating here again – especially since I do have a lot of knitting to catch you all up on.
I’d left off back in August when I’d started working on a scarf for my middle daughter’s Halloween costume – she wanted to be Hermione from the Harry Potter books/movies. I finished the scarf in October, giving me plenty of time to make one further Halloween-related project as well – more about that in a bit.
The scarf turned out perfectly, and I found a Gryffindor patch online that I bought and attached using fabric glue. I’d worried that after having spent all of the time and effort to make the scarf, it would turn out to be too hot on Halloween to wear it, but we had pretty decent weather. Not too hot, but not terribly freezing either. The girls were all warm enough wearing heavy clothes under (or with) their costumes with no need for coats.
Two of them did wear hats though – my oldest had put together her own costume to be Hello Kitty (since I didn’t think the store-bought costume for Hello Kitty was anywhere near appropriate for a 10-year-old), and part of that involved a Hello Kitty-faced hat that we bought. If I hadn’t already been working on the scarf, I may have tried to make one, but the one she used was really cute and she’s wearing it as her winter hat this year too, so it definitely wasn’t money wasted.
My youngest wanted to be a pumpkin for Halloween – I found a very cute costume at a secondhand store, and picked up cheap orange sweats for her to wear under it. About a week before Halloween, I decided that she needed a pumpkin hat to go with her costume, so I quickly knitted one. I ended up making my own pattern since I couldn’t find one that I liked – I’ve made enough hats in general now to have a pretty good idea how to get what I was looking for and it turned out perfectly. I’ll post the pattern next time in case anyone ever wants to duplicate the hat ( and so I don’t forget myself, lol).
I loved being able to help with the girls’ costumes this year, since sewing is definitely not something I’m good enough at to even attempt trying to make an entire costume at home. I need to remember to pin them down on costume choices a couple of months ahead of time again next year so I’ll have plenty of knitting time for however I can contribute to what they decide to dress up as then!
Aug
Hellos and Harry Potter
Well hello there (blows a little dust off the edge of the site). It’s so nice to see you again – yes, I know it’s been a little while. I’m full of excuses but basically it’s been summertime and nope, there hasn’t been a whole lot of knitting going on around here. I could blame Mother Nature for the horrendously hot weather we’ve had – even with air conditioning, I just wasn’t feeling like having any kind of yarn in my lap at all.
But I’m back – and with a new project already started too. I traveled to California a little over a week ago and wanted something work on other than that darned second sock that I just can’t seem to ever get up the motivation to finish. I wanted something simple and easy with little or no counting involved so I could just sit and listen to my iPod and knit on the plane or during layovers.
This coincided quite well with my 8-year-old daughter deciding to be Hermione from the Harry Potter series for Halloween this year – she’s read all of the books, seen all of the movies and is very into Harry Potter mania right now. So I thought that a Gryffindor scarf in scarlet and gold stripes would be a good project to tackle and there’s plenty of time before Halloween to get it done.
I went with the least expensive yarn that I could find, instead of using a superwash wool, as I wanted to. Budget constraints, sigh. But acrylic will wear and wash well and since my daughter wants to wear the scarf this winter as well as on Halloween, that’s a good thing. So I went with Impeccable yarn from Loops & Threads. I like the dark red color that I found – the ‘gold’ is more of a yellow, but it’ll work out ok, I think.
I searched Ravelry and on Google to find a basic pattern, and realized that the scarf really does need to be double-sided to be more authentic. I picked a pattern that I found on LeakyCauldron.org and adapted it a bit since my only size 6 circular needle is in use right now. I went with size 7 needles and made the scarf a little thinner – I cast on 58 stitches instead of 70. And I’m making each stripe 20 rows long instead of 22, working in rounds using magic loop so both sides of the scarf will be in stockinette stitch. When it’s done, I’ll close the loop ends by adding fringe on both sides.
I’m going to be getting very cozy with these colors – my oldest daughter has already requested a scarf as well!
Jun
On knitting – or the lack thereof, anyway…
Yes, I’m still here! Just not knitting – at least not as much right now. I spent so much of May working with the new Sheep(ish) yarn and then just haven’t really found a new project that I’m very excited about since then. It’s hard in the summertime too, when it’s often so hot and sticky that yarn is the last thing that I want to be holding, even if it’s just a small project.
I’m still working on getting the second sock for my daughter done – and I won’t let myself start any new sock projects until that one is finished. And there really aren’t any other kinds of projects that stand out to me right now – it’s hard to think of hats, gloves, mittens and sweaters when it’s hot and sticky out. I ran into this same issue last year – I made a few ‘snookie’ gadget covers and it was about then that I discovered the baby washcloth patterns, so I made some of those too. But in the past year I haven’t known anyone well enough who was having a baby, so I haven’t even managed to give those away yet. I really don’t need to make any more at this point.
On a side note, I found a great way to re-purpose a couple of the gadget covers last month. I needed a couple of quick, last-minute preschool teacher gifts (very last-minute – I totally forgot until the last day of preschool), so I ended up grabbing the two iPhone covers I’d made and stopped at the store to fill them with chocolates. I even added a couple of ribbons to the top (they came on the chocolates and worked great) and my daughter’s teachers loved them. They especially liked that the bags were handmade, and I felt like it was a more special gift since it was something I had made myself. Maybe I’ll look for some fun new gift bag patterns…
Another reason that I don’t knit as much in the summer is that my regular knitting group through church also doesn’t meet, so I lose that accountability of having to show off my work on a weekly basis. But – I found out recently that my favorite LYS has just started a social knitting group on Friday mornings, so I think I might try that this week. I’ll have to either stop going in the fall, or find childcare for my youngest though at that point, since she’ll be in afternoon kindergarten and home in the mornings. Right now it works, since all 3 girls are going to a summer playground program, at least through July. If I like the group, I’ll have to deal with the childcare issue in August too, but we’ll see how it’s going by then.
So, here’s where I need your help… I have knitting books I can look through to get ideas and inspiration for something new to work on, but am curious to see what your favorite summertime knitting projects are. I’ve thought maybe about dishcloths, but they don’t seem like much of a challenge… Definitely not any winter-ish gear. Not socks again – at least not until I finish the one I’m working on. Any other thoughts or ideas?
Hopefully I’ll be back soon with an update and an exciting new project in the works!
