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).
Monday, November 10, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Finished SPEW Hat!
So I finished the hat I'm making for SPEW... I think it's the fastest thing I've ever knit. And here are a few pictures of it. This is probably one of the best pictures out of the several I took.
And this is a close-up of the colorwork. So it'll soon be going off to someone who needs a hat a whole lot more than I do. ^_^
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Accidental Colorwork
So I don't know what the name of the technique I was using to do the colorwork is, but for the SPEW hat I'm making (SPEW=Society for the Production of Excellent Wearables), I did this cool design with the white on the navy blue. I think it was some variation of a Fair Isle knitting technique because I let the color A run along the back while I was knitting with B.
Of course, since it happened by accident, I didn't use proper technique by any stretch of the imagination. I was actually waiting for a meeting and I was about to begin a white stripe in a blue hat I'm making. Since I didn't have scissors with me, I decided that maybe doing every couple of stitches with white and the rest with blue would be an interesting idea to try out. I figured I could always unravel if it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to.
Fortunately, it turned out much nicer and I just made up the pattern row by row as I went along, working with multiples of five stitches (there were 80 stitches total, so that's a nice round number to play with). This turned out excellently for a first color project (besides for your basic horizontal stripes).
I'm back onto stockinette stitching in the blue yarn (my MC for this project) and I have yet to do the decreases for the hat, but it looks like my first hat will turn out nicely. I'm quite excited and I'll be sending it off to SPEW after taking lots of pictures when it's done.
I'll also post the pattern (including the colorwork pattern) here when I'm finished. It's pretty basic and out of a complexity scale from 1-10 (10 being cabled and lacework socks, 1 being your basic garter stitch scarf), I'd give it about a 3 or so.
ETA: I was actually doing a stranded Fair Isle colorwork technique, albeit a simple pattern and not doing it correctly (accidents happen, right?).
Of course, since it happened by accident, I didn't use proper technique by any stretch of the imagination. I was actually waiting for a meeting and I was about to begin a white stripe in a blue hat I'm making. Since I didn't have scissors with me, I decided that maybe doing every couple of stitches with white and the rest with blue would be an interesting idea to try out. I figured I could always unravel if it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to.
Fortunately, it turned out much nicer and I just made up the pattern row by row as I went along, working with multiples of five stitches (there were 80 stitches total, so that's a nice round number to play with). This turned out excellently for a first color project (besides for your basic horizontal stripes).
I'm back onto stockinette stitching in the blue yarn (my MC for this project) and I have yet to do the decreases for the hat, but it looks like my first hat will turn out nicely. I'm quite excited and I'll be sending it off to SPEW after taking lots of pictures when it's done.
I'll also post the pattern (including the colorwork pattern) here when I'm finished. It's pretty basic and out of a complexity scale from 1-10 (10 being cabled and lacework socks, 1 being your basic garter stitch scarf), I'd give it about a 3 or so.
ETA: I was actually doing a stranded Fair Isle colorwork technique, albeit a simple pattern and not doing it correctly (accidents happen, right?).
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
More Projects
So I've found a bunch of other places for knitting for charity. I also have a surplus of the Red Heart Supersaver Yarn, which is far too nasty feeling to use for anything that I make for myself (I've recently acquired some Cascade 220 for a few personal projects), but after I finish the scarf I'm making for the Special Olympics, I'd like to make a hat.
To-Do List
1. Finish the stuff for Cassandra C. Like the bag.
2. Finish the scarf I'm knitting for the Special Olympics.
3. Make at least one hat for charity.
4. Make Christmas gifts in time to either send them off or give them away.
5. The duel hat in burgandy and gold.
I'm going on a road trip Thursday, so I'll probably have a fair amount of time to knit in the car. Hoorah! I'll likely be taking the scarf I'm working on to keep me busy; it's a simple enough pattern I don't need to be paying complete attention to what I'm doing.
To-Do List
1. Finish the stuff for Cassandra C. Like the bag.
2. Finish the scarf I'm knitting for the Special Olympics.
3. Make at least one hat for charity.
4. Make Christmas gifts in time to either send them off or give them away.
5. The duel hat in burgandy and gold.
I'm going on a road trip Thursday, so I'll probably have a fair amount of time to knit in the car. Hoorah! I'll likely be taking the scarf I'm working on to keep me busy; it's a simple enough pattern I don't need to be paying complete attention to what I'm doing.
Monday, November 3, 2008
Special Olympics Scarf Project
So, I started making a scarf for the Special Olympics scarf project. It's going to be done in P2K2 ribbing with my favorite size 10 needles. A bit large for the worsted weight yarn, but it'll be nice.
The yarn they require is also fairly inexpensive; I picked mine up at Walmart. It's the Red Heart Supersaver yarn, so it's not supernice to work with, but it's functional.
The pattern is simple enough that I can knit it while I'm watching a movie or in the car (I don't have to fully concentrate on what I'm trying to do), but it's also not your everyday garter stitch all the way across for a few hundred rows. That would be boring.
What's really awesome is that they give each of the athletes a handmade scarf.
If you're interested, here's the link to the site about the scarves.
I'll be taking mine on the car ride I'm going on this Thursday and hopefully I'll get a good portion of it done. A good four hours of knitting never did anyone harm, did it?
The yarn they require is also fairly inexpensive; I picked mine up at Walmart. It's the Red Heart Supersaver yarn, so it's not supernice to work with, but it's functional.
The pattern is simple enough that I can knit it while I'm watching a movie or in the car (I don't have to fully concentrate on what I'm trying to do), but it's also not your everyday garter stitch all the way across for a few hundred rows. That would be boring.
What's really awesome is that they give each of the athletes a handmade scarf.
If you're interested, here's the link to the site about the scarves.
I'll be taking mine on the car ride I'm going on this Thursday and hopefully I'll get a good portion of it done. A good four hours of knitting never did anyone harm, did it?
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Update
I've decided I really want to start blogging regularly, so I suppose I will just update on my knitting progress today.
Fortunately, I got the scarf tie done in time to wear it last night and it looks rather decent for a very last-minute project. I ended up knitting through math class (we were watching a movie, so it didn't really matter).
I've also been frogging Cassandra's bag because I realized I messed up on the duplicate stitch part. At least it's fixed now because I went back and ripped out what I had messed up on earlier today. Now all I need to do is get back to where I was (with it done correctly!) and finish it. Thankfully, the cabled handle is coming along rather nicely.
For the duel, I got the list of things I need to have in order to make it. Thankfully, I have everything, but I'll have to make sure that my size 8 dpns are available for use. I also have both size 7 and 9, just in case I don't make the gauge with the 8s. I'm thinking of using burgandy and gold for the two colors; Andi said she'd use green and silver for mine. :)
Fortunately, I got the scarf tie done in time to wear it last night and it looks rather decent for a very last-minute project. I ended up knitting through math class (we were watching a movie, so it didn't really matter).
I've also been frogging Cassandra's bag because I realized I messed up on the duplicate stitch part. At least it's fixed now because I went back and ripped out what I had messed up on earlier today. Now all I need to do is get back to where I was (with it done correctly!) and finish it. Thankfully, the cabled handle is coming along rather nicely.
For the duel, I got the list of things I need to have in order to make it. Thankfully, I have everything, but I'll have to make sure that my size 8 dpns are available for use. I also have both size 7 and 9, just in case I don't make the gauge with the 8s. I'm thinking of using burgandy and gold for the two colors; Andi said she'd use green and silver for mine. :)
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