old lady tendancies

As an avid knitter I have always been beffudled and scared of crocheting. just one needle?!! What do I do with my hands? 

well a few hours of homework induced boredom and this tutorial later last night I taught myself how to make granny squares.

These adorable little squares of color can be made into anything from afghans to slippers. 

Already today I've knit five of these suckers up, they are like little yarn crack. supper easy, quick and addictive to make.

The yarn I'm using is the Stitch Nation yarn by Debbie Stoller, It is manufactured by Red Heart and available at Michael's and Joann's.  At $4.99 a skein its a great buy for the quality. I picked up two skeins of the Bamboo Ewe, a blend of bamboo and wool fibers. It is super soft and silky feeling. The color selection is fabulous, I picked out a wonderful turquoise blue and a soft robins egg blue. I have a sneaking suspicion that these might just end up as a blanket for someone special.

Sweaters in Summer

This year I'm forcing myself to try knitting new things I've never made before. I've just embarked upon my most ambitious project so far... a sweater.

I do have to admit that I'm not doing it all by my lonesome. I've signed up for the sweater club though The Sweatshop of Love. Allyson runs classes out of New wave Cafe in Logan Square, a short hop and skip away from my house. Her classes are so fun, approachable and reasonably priced. She has been really helpful and accommodating!

This is the pattern I've chosen




It is The Dollar and a Half Cardigan, designed by Véronik Avery, published in the spring 2007 issue of Interweave.

I really love the contrast of the reverse stockinette stitch and lace pattern. I also love the bold statement of the cable on just one side. It gives it an appealing asymmetry.

I've chosen a nice cotton linen blend from Knit picks. In creme brulee. Its a beautiful soft buttery yellow. Definitely something that will see a lot of wear.

Its coming along well so far. Just lots of repeating patterns. Five more inches and I'll be starting my arm hole decreases.

Here's a picture from a few days ago.






I'm sure I'll be getting a lot of work done during the Blackhawks game this evening.

Socks!

LOOK!!!

We have socks! An adorable sassy orange. Just in time for summer time in Chicago..... I figure that I'll just knit everything off season, sweaters and socks in the summer. Light clothing in the winter. Or maybe I should just knit year round regardless of the season- I think that might be a plan easier to stick to.

These socks were fairly easy to knit up. I also switched between socks as I was learning different sections so I knit them almost at the same time, which kept me from the dreaded second slump. It always seems easier to make the first of something than the second. I've definitely got the sock bug, I've got a skein of self striping yarn waiting for me in my yarn basket already and I'm about half way through into a pair for my husband.

I'm so excited to start experimenting with different types of sock yarn. I also have a sneaking suspicion that some of these soon to come socks will end up on the Christmas list this year.

its never too early to start planning ahead!

Summer

Despite my best efforts the end of the school year managed to steal any time and ambition I once possessed.

The downside to all of that was I didn't spend any time here.
The upside of it all, I've still been knitting lots of fun stuff.

I'm currently in the middle of a sock knitting class through Loopy Yarns.

Its been a blast so far and I only have the body of the foot and the toe to finish up. Only one more class to go!

I've decided to actually knit something for myself for once and picked out a lovely bright orange color. Nice and easy to spot in my soon to be over flowing sock drawer.

The cuff and tube of the sock.

After I knit the heel flap and turned the heel. You can also see the second sock I started and put on holding needles.

I'm very excited to finish up. I already have a beautiful skein of green yarn that my husband picked out for his socks. We got in our recent trip to New York. Pictures to come soon! I was able to check out some really fun stores there!

In addition to the New York trip I also am starting a sweater knitting class in the beginning of June. Post and pictures to follow.

Lots of new project and skills learning. It's going to be an exciting summer!!

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.

hiatus

It's amazing how quickly time can pass. It has been on my to do list to update here since January but the days keep flying by. I've been keeping myself very busy here between school and work and although i've still been knitting up a storm there has been very little time to document it all.

It's my new project though to make sure i'm here more often.

so i'll leave you with a little bit of this. I made this scarf as a present at least a month and half ago but it hasn't made it into the mail quite yet. I don't mind having it lying around though, it's just so fuzzy and furry. Always good for a giggle.

Muppet Scarf!


Just look at that furry texture!

I have never knit with eyelash yarn before but it was really quite a fun quick project. It took awhile to get used to the texture of the yarn and to not having to worry about splitting stitches. By the middle it almost felt like I was cheating.