Hanukkah Socks

In regards to LavA's post over at the Huffle Sock KAL, I'm attempting to do my first real chart design... so hopefully it'll work out okay.

I looked around on ravelry and I found there really wasn't much there in the way of Hanukkah socks... hence verifying what LavA said.

I've never done much designing before and I'd really like to work with a dreidel motif for this project.

And no, I've never made a pair of socks before. So it'll be an adventure. I'm making a pair of green and grey House socks for me. Slytherin socks! Woot!!!

And no, I'm not Jewish, either. Nor do I celebrate Hanukkah. I just think this would be a totally awesome project to undertake.

If nothing else, it would be a good lesson in charting patterns.

As an aside, I'm happy that my little RAOK arrived safely. I got a note from Andromeda today. ^_^

Swaps

So while Andromeda is the HoH for swap, I'm going to be working on the Tri-Wizard Tournament, so that should be a lot of fun and I'm actually quite excited.

I'm also excited because I'll get to do HSKS7 this year and return for another term. Now I'll not only be more experienced as a swapper, but also as a knitter and so I won't have to be so inventive with my patterns for the handmade object. I'll actually be able to take a pattern (maybe from the wonderful book Dagmara gave me?) and use that.

In other news, I finished the child's size hat and I already put it in the collection bin. It turned out rather nice. I'm thinking about putting the pattern up online for anyone who wants to use it. It's a basic beanie pattern with a bit of colorwork, which is what makes it fun. The colorwork is originally done in one contrasting color, though it could easily be adapted for two.

Anyways, I should go soon. It's time to start the day and I'll get the pattern up later. It's a very fast knit.

Yays!

I'm so happy! First of all, I'm mailing Cassandra's swap package off to her tomorrow morning. Second of all, I got a package from Pren, which totally made my day. Pren, if you read this, you did well. PoA's my favorite book in the series. ^_^

And so despite having a very long weekend that ended up making me more tired than rested (no suprise there!), there are things in life which are good. Especially knitting and where I'm planning to take Seven (one of my fictional characters who's utterly adorable).

Swap Reflection

So this whole swap has been one entire learning experience for me. Here's a quick recap of what I've learned over the past two months as I've been working on various projects.

Please don't read if you don't want spoilers about what's in the kit for Cassandra. Thanks.

Colorwork. I've never done colorwork other than those horizontal stripes before, so this was a first in many areas. Not only have I learned how to do duplicate stitch on something flat with a chart, but I've also learned how to duplicate stitch on something that's small and knitted in the round (2 dozen stitches on size 1.5 needles). I've also given a try at undeliberate fair isle-type colorwork, as demonstrated in the hat I made for SPEW.

Cabling. This was probably my favorite part of what I did for the project, but I was able to cable the handle to the bag I made. It turned out nicely, but you can see my cables get better as you go from one end to the other; it was the first thing I've ever cabled.

Hats. This was actually the first hat I made. Not only did it involve colorwork, K2P2 ribbing and decreasing in a pattern, but the hardest part of the project was transferring from the circular to the dpns. I'll keep that in mind next time I make a hat because I dropped just about every third stitch and had to pick it up again.

Any sort of blocking/finishing. This should be self-explanatory... especially with the bag.

Dreaded Kitchener Stitch. Actually, it wasn't that bad and the book I have made a lot of sense with the way it was explained. Shaping the heel and working with the gusset on the mini-sock I made was actually a lot more difficult. This was the first sock I've ever made and I got lots of pictures of it because I'm not keeping it for myself.

This isn't something new, but I've always found it difficult to come up with presents for people. I've been told I do a really good job at it, but it's not easy and I honestly don't know how I do it. This swap was one of those times and I found myself reading through correspondence to find little extras to pack away in the kit I'm sending off. It's just one of those things where I want everything to be perfect, you know.

I don't have the knitting skills of a lot of the people in the group, so my handmade object isn't going to be as good as theirs are. I've only been knitting for about a year now and it's only been in the past few months that I've even done anything other than scarves and washcloths in something other than plain garter stitch. But what one can do with a little imagination and quite a bit of determination is actually quite amazing.