flash dance

Although I have been knitting hats for years the idea of starting a project on double pointed needles terrified me. I was always intimated to try and cast onto three or four needles. I'm a surprisingly timid knitter- i don't feel comfortable trying lot of new things and I'm really nervous following patterns, it just puts me on edge. One of the reasons I started this blog was to encourage myself to try out new things.

I've realized that I need to learn how to cast on and knit on double pointed needles for quite awhile now if I ever want to learn how to make socks. (I'm planning on taking a sock class at loopy in May- hopefully with my knitting partner in crime, Janella!)

All of this brings us to my first project knit in the round exclusively on double pointed needles. I watched some youtube videos to get an idea of how to begin and have a few mess up along the way, but once I had all my stitches joined it was a breeze. I also added the stripping just to keep it interesting.

Here they are flat. I ran out of red yarn on the second one so the stripe pattern doesn't match. I think it give them character and they're a present for a person with a lot of character so it works.

Here they are on. I made them for my friend Nishi who always has a problem keeping her ankles warm in class so I thought they would well.

They are a nice medium weight wool, and in fun colors too. Next time I make leg warmers I will add some decreases to them to create a little shape. These are simply straight tubes. If they were to go any higher you would want them to be more fitted. Over all though, they were enjoyable and a nice learning project.

scarves

I'm terribly backlogged in keeping up with my current knit inventory so you should see a lot of projects filter through here in the next couple weeks.

this is not the worst thing as I've had very little time to work on anything new because I've been so busy with school and work. The last half of the semester is always like a rat race and it feels particularly speedy this year.

Although scarves are my least favorite thing to knit (they take forever, they're pretty boring and they don't travel well- not very compact when you just keep going and going on forever- everyone seems to want long scarves these days ) I made quite a few of them as gifts over the holidays (and beyond- the list seems never ending some days!)

This was one of my favorites as it was for my mother.
She bought me this beautiful hand dyed and spun skein of wool about five years ago and it sat forgotten in the bottom of my yarn basket until I was pawing through it looking for gift ideas for this year.

It was so exciting to make something for someone with yarn they had given me. plus i couldn't imagine anyone else rocking this lovely orange color as well as my mama.

it was kind of pain to knit up because it was so bulky and I had a fairly limited supply. I ended up casting on about four stitches on size 35 needles and just knitting until I ran out of yarn. It's on the shorter side, which I don't care for with scarves but for a nice pop of color in the spring I think it is perfect.

Up next is a set of arm warmers that my brothers girl friend requested back in JANUARY! luckily they're done and just waiting for me to get my behind to a post office. I also have another set of arm warmers I'm working on for a lovely someone. Here's hoping I can find some time to work on them on top of my 12 page paper due this week.