Sew Cool....

I say sew cool because all I have left to do with this one half of the present wristwarmers/fingerless gloves is to to sew it up!! I generally followed Vickie Howell's Glove Bites pattern located here http://vickiehowell.com/2006/11/glove-bites-november-free-pattern-of.html

However, I made them much longer, and without the furry cuff because I didn't think JoJo would like that. I know she loves alpaca from her trips to South America, and the fact that she and my brother brought us all back hats and (they brought me longggg mittens too!). They raved about alpaca, so I hope this alpaca from knitpicks meets their standards. This is the unsewn first wristwarmer.



This is what it looks like on my hand! It's a 2X2 rib so it is very stretchy and she is much smaller than I am, so I think it should stretch out nicely on her and show the ribbing off nicely. I do think I will block these on her when I get to Portland in about a week!



Picture 2!!!



I am heading to Athan's tonight for the Brookline SnB. I've never been before, but am excited to meet some new knitters!

Progress!!!

I made a lot of progress, but it has been slow because I have been working on three different projects.

The first is the same hood for the scarf hood combination. I am worried about how this is going to turn out because it is a big rectangle so far and I don't know how that will turn out.

It looks pretty so far, but I am worried about this shape working out for the hood. It's very good slow mindless work that is extremely relaxing, which is good because of the stress in my life right now.

One of the other projects I have is sort of fun. It's a basketweave scarf for my stepfather made in Cascade Tweed 128 in a very nice turquoise color with these pretty little flecks of color.

It's a very simple pattern, taken from the Lion Brand website, and I think it looks very cool. It's amazing what you can make with just knits and purls!

The third thing I have on my needles is this:



I don't want to say what it is because it is amazing to me that this will make what it does! It's so simple, yet I never would have thought of how to make this! Also, it's a present/surprise for someone.

I should get the yarn to make my little sister's "I'm sorry your horse died" scarf. That will be a priority once I get the yarn. I feel for her. Melvyn was like her best friend.

Problems with the Hat!!

Well, it turns out that M's hat is slightly too large. The sizing problem also makes the ear flaps fall in the wrong place. However, if you pull the back tight so it fits, the earflaps are in the perfect place. I have to decide how to fix it. I think I am going to undo the blanket stitch border at the back seam and undo the seam and fold over the sides under and then re seam it and fix the border. I will have to undo the border a certain amount and then redo part of it, but I think it should work. What do you think?

On the plus side, I have made a fair bit of progress on the hood for my hooded scarf, despite having to start over due to some weird stitch problems. I am now using long straight needles for it, which requires squeezing a lot of stitiches(132) onto a straight needle.

Here is that progress. This is a picture in the middle of a row, after 66 stitches. I think I will have to do decreases in the middle when I get it long enough to get to the top of my head. I tried finding longer needles in US 8 online, but can't find any! I would love a 2 foot needle for this project!

My A(lmost) F(inished) (O)bject!!

My boyfriend's hat is blocking! I made a lot of progress. I figured out how to do a kitchener stitch seam with the assistance of knittinghelp.com, the Knitter's Companion and Stitch n' Bitch(the first book). That was a huge challenge but I think it turned out well and I love how it looks like stockingette stitch. The real challenge for me was creating the border on this, it called for a blanket stitch border. I could not figure this out based solely on the stitch n'bitch book, but between the guide in there and About.com Crochet section's How toEmbroider a Blanket Stitch Edging ( http://crochet.about.com/library/weekly/aa120702.htm ) I was able to get it done. That took a long time going around the entire hat and the ear flaps. However, I finally finished it and decided that it needed to be blocked. I had never attempted to block before and I needed something the right size and shape to block it on. I luckily have a fabulous hand blown vase from my stepfather, and it is a great size and shape for it. I filled my bathroom sink with lukewarm water and some shampoo, then soaked the hat in it for five minutes, then filled it with cold water twice and rinsed out the hat in the water. I then placed it on the upside down vase on top of the hand towel on my desk, as you can see. I really hope it dries into a good shape for M's head. I haven't made anything this challenging before so I will be very sad if it doesn't work out.

This is the front view.

This is the top view.

This is the top view.


I think this is the back.

I made a lot of progress...

I did make a lot of progress, on one of my WIPs.



It is the hat for this guy:


However, now I am stuck because I simply have never put a seam in anything before. I am heading to my books and the internet on this and if I can't get it I will be asking my wonderful cousin for help who is the queen of crafts. Her creativity astonishes me. I have to sew the seam for this hat (thankfully my mom is a great sewing goddess who hand made me a suit from this amazingly wool last summer and I can always rely on for help with anything sewing related) and then do the border. It will be a challenge but I like those.

On the other hand, my other project has been nothing but a source of frustration. Somehow, while watching Who Killed the Electric Car last night I managed to start stockingette stitch with nothing but knit stitches in my hood for my hood and scarf combo. How on earth did I do this? Anyways, I ended up having to frog about two rows, and use one of the long needles from the hat to put all the stitches on and then knit onto the circulars I am using for this. It was quite an ordeal for a new knitter. I managed to do it and am now knitting sort of happily away on it again. However, this project is going to be a lesson in patience for me, as 132 stitches is the most in a row any of my projects have needed so far. It's a lot and now that I know how to purl I want to be doing that stitch as well. Oh, well, I just have to tell mysself this is something I want a lot and it will make me very happy when it is complete.

Here is that limited progress:

First Post

I am a relatively new knitter. I started out on Thanksgiving, in what I think was one of the best ways possible (with my family)! We were all on Chappy for Thanksgiving-weekend at my parents (new!!!) house, curled up with tea on the couches by the fire. My aunt had just started knitting due to her new found friendship with the owner of the LYS. The owner was a new yoga student of my aunt's and my aunt had very cool things to show from knitting, such as a felted bowl and she was working on the most gorgeous stripey project which turned out to be an amazing holiday present for my stepmother. I had learned knitting with the girl scouts when I was 8 or 9 but never kept up with it because I wanted to be in the woods playing explorers with the boys. Soon, however, my brother, little sister, stepmother and myself were all knitting away under the instruction of my aunt and cousin! I haven't put down the needles since I ran out and got enough Lambs Pride worsted to make my sister a long, blue, garter stitch scarf with fringe. I finished it in Hawaii over break of all places! That's a place you really need a wool scarf. I was determined to make more things, and to learn the ins and outs of this craft. I started more scarves, including another long garter stitch one in Lambs Pride Worsted, in grey, for my sister's husband. They now have matching scarves which they should be sending me a picture of sometime soon.
Those are my two finished pieces.

Here are two of the WIPs!
I'm making a hat for the bf which will be this hat from Lions Brand website, except I am making it with Lambs Pride Worsted (is there a pattern here?).


The WIP state is this:


It is pretty far from being complete, and is my first hat. If it doesn't work out well then I am going to frog it and try making this other hat: http://knitty.com/ISSUEsummer06/PATTswell.html
It looks harder, but is so cool!

This is my other WIP. It is the beginnings of my hood for a hooded scarf of my own design basically. I am using a couple of free patterns for guidance, such as stitch amounts, but otherwise I am going on my own. I think I am going to try and connect the hood to the scarf by buttons possibly, in which case, in this next row I will be trying to create button holes! I have a good tutorial post from craftser.org linked here, but I am pretty nervous about the entire thing. I have already frogged this once, due to yarn tangling issues and I would rather not get rid of my already limited progress because Boston is in February Fury, a nasty stretch of weather if I ever saw one.


Thanks for reading!