Jan
30
The only completed knitting project of 2011: a farrow rib scarf. It was also my largest project to date.
From humble beginnings,
almost exactly a year before completion:
The completed scarf,
with one of the few snowy days as a backdrop:
Close up of the stitches:
And on the recipient:
A much smaller project is now on the needles.
Jan
21
I did manage to make a second hat for Dad in time for Christmas. I added three inches to the length, which seems to have done the trick. Mom emailed me to say that he wears it to the barn every morning.
Continued…
Dec
18
I asked Dad what I could knit him for Christmas. He doesn’t do scarves. If he wears gloves, they’re heavy leather work gloves. He’s very brand loyal to his socks (gold toe fluffies). He doesn’t normally wear hats either, but he will around the farm, down at the barn or out in the woods splitting logs. So he requested one in hunter orange. Continued…
Dec
5
I finished the red dishcloth over Thanksgiving. Blocking helped immensely with this one, it had been quite hourglass-shaped. I caught a few mistakes while still on the same row, and was able to take the stitches out and fix things. That’s the first time I’ve tried to do that.
Success! On to the next!
Oct
18
I currently have two knitting project bags going (a third one has yarn, needles, and pattern in it, but not cast on yet). The first is a dishcloth for my grandmother for Christmas. She asked for something with red in it. The pattern is Stripes from Sandy Scoville’s Knit Dishcloth Sampler: Twelve Nifty Pattern Stitches. I thought the vertical stripes in the texture would be interesting with the horizontal patterning in the color.
Continued…
Sep
26
I like having a knitting project bag around that has something being made in just garter stitch. I can watch TV with the in-laws, carry a conversation at a meeting, pay attention to what is going on around me instead of focusing on counting stitches and reading patterns. The newest completion from that bag:
Continued…
Aug
8
A while back, I mentioned practicing making an I-cord. That went passably well. So I flipped through my (rapidly expanding) stack of books to see what I could make with my new I-cord. I found a garter stitch bag in Fashionable Projects for the New Knitter by Alison Barlow that used an I-cord for the handle. The pattern called for a five stitch I-cord, mine is only four.
Aug
1
I finished a project! The simple weave dishcloth (#16) from Nifty Knit Dishcloths. This was my first attempt at following a pattern as well as using both knit and purl stitches together, and it shows at the beginning. However, my speed and confidence (and hopefully skill!) improved greatly by the end. The WIP photo has better color to it; the finished photo was taken outside in evening sunlight.
There are probably many more dishcloths in my future. They seem like a good practice ground for new techniques, and almost everything is still new to me. I bought another pamphlet of dishcloth patterns that includes cables as well as twists and eyelets and such. Still another pamphlet has cute garden designs, all knit/purl combinations.
Happy Lammas!
Jul
6
My Mommom tried to teach me to knit when I was young. My Mommom is legally blind, and at the time could knit like a wiz. But she could not see what I was doing wrong, and it became an exercise in frustration for both of us with only tangled yarn to show for it.
A friend tried to teach me again about a decade ago. She did get me casting on pretty well. But her description of what to do next was basically, let your hands figure it out, it will become automatic. My hands did not know what they were trying to figure out, and I had much tangled yarn to show for it.
Continued…
