Looking For Inspiration

I'm up ridiculously early in the morning and I decided to look for some knitting inspiration. I'm in a mood where I wish I was better at it than I really am. I know it'll take some time but there are a lot of cool things I want to make and I know I can't right now. It's a little disheartening.

I go to Youtube and put in the term knitting to see what would come up. The first thing that caught my eye is the 2009 TNNA Fashion Show.

In this link there is some cool looking stuff and some (imho) really hideous stuff. Oh, and there is apparently a professional fashion model who thinks it's ok to show off bra straps with her black spaghetti strap. And then she puts on a rainbow spaghetti tank. *shudder*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0H_F4HTTmk

Simple Projects

I'm in search of a simple project to work on while my dear daughter is running around and playing with my ball of yarn. I'm getting to a point of the sweater where I really have to pay attention. It's hard to do when she's yelling at me to "mommy.... see me..." I can't not pay attention as she's usually pretending to be a puppy or about to jump off the couch attacking my ball of yarn.

I picked up the book "The Knitting Directory" by Alison Jenkins. It's all about basic technique and gives basic patters for all kinds of stuff. I'm going to see if there is any interesting pattern I can do repeatedly.

Not much Knitting Going On

We had inventory this week. Lots of hard work. Lots of little scratches on the hands. And one really good paper cut at the joint of my right index finger. I really don't want to pull little strands of acrylic, nylon or wool through them. I'm sure the pain would be sublime.

But here is a progress pic on my very second garment.


It's a very basic sweater vest. I don't know I'm ready for sleeves just yet. I'm making it with Caron's Simply Soft. I love the feel and hand of it. I just wish it had a better twist. When I have to frog it (not if) the yarns twist loosens a bit and it becomes a little hard to re-knit.

Book Review-- Domiknitrix

Domiknitrix by Jennifer Stafford

In my quest to learn to knit mostly on my own I've been looking for books to help me figure it out. This one has been the most helpful. Not only does she use clear photographs but the descriptions of the techniques are clear with out being infantile. She shows more than one casting on technique. She even talks about how to work with circular needles. There are tips through out the book that most beginner books don't get into and would have to learn the hard way. It's really more of a beginner to intermediate book. Which is about where I'm at. I'm pretty good at the basics but want to learn more.

And I just love the patterns. The female sweaters are feminine but not flowery/girly. There are very sleek lines. As I read the patterns it became clear that shape of the garments are as if we're making the fabric and putting it all together as a sewn piece. She also, talks about putting in zippers. I like that. Being a little busty the buttons on sweaters never look very good on me as they always want to pull a bit.

This one is a keeper. I know I'll always be able to go back when I have a question.

How I started

Two years ago at Christmas I told the hubby that I wanted some kind of starter knitting kit. He works at Michael's and is in the best position to get it. I'd started crocheting again as a way to be creative and still be able to put a project down at a moments notice depending how my new daughters needs went. I was looking at projects and the ones I wanted to do were knitting. I started with the knit stitch and that went pretty well. With the purl stitch... not so much. I'm essentially kniting left handed and the drawings in the book included continental knitting, I just didn't get it. And with my broken wrist that never really healed properly I was in some pain and frustrated. Then I remembered Youtube. I bet they'd have videos to help me learn.

Here's the one that really helped me figure it out

Basic Purl Stitch

Rach Knits or Confessions of a Newbie Knitter

It's a new blog...

I'm a new knitter...

Here we go...

Ok, I'm teaching myself to knit and I think I'm getting pretty good at it. I learned to crochet when I was a little girl. It was mostly the basic stitches. Nothing fancy was needed for scarves and pot holders. When I became pregnant I found myself stuck in the hospital doing non stress tests on my daughter. It's an hour or two of just laying there with a monitor on. More often than not the nurses didn't bother or couldn't find the remote for the tv. I had to bring my entertainment. As I had to lay back reading was difficult. So, I grabbed some crochet cotton I had on hand for a bear project. I started working out a patter that I liked. I thought I would make a blanket for my daughter but one of the colors was discontinued. I eventually came back to it for my friends baby blanket though.

As my daughter was born and she began to sleep at somewhat reasonable hours I found the need to create again. I needed to make something. Anything. I decided that knitting was the thing. It's something that I can put down at a moments notice and have minimal clean up.

I bought a book and looked at youtube for videos. So far so good. Now I've been doing the basics for a year now. I want to do something more. Now is the time to start learning some of the other stitches and make actual garments. This blog will be about how I learn to do this.