The Scarf that Would Not Block

I have cold blocked it and I have steam blocked it twice. And yet it curls. It's my first scarf. It's cheap yarn. There are quite a few dropped stitches in the first 12 inches. I suppose it's ok that it's just not right. I think it's time to offer it strand by strand to the birds that live in my tree.

It's a new year

Since my last post sometime in July life had gone to hell in a handbasket. What with being robbed and then my mother decided to send me my childhood, and then some I've been on a fiber hiatus. Which has had me a little stressed. Apparently, I'm addicted to fiber. One thing that has gotten me through the dry spell has been a wonderful podcast from Kelly Petkun at Knit Picks. It's a great special order yarn et al. website. She has a lot of wonderful interviews with authors and often has great tips and walk-throughs that are great for the novice (that would be me.) They also have a great community site. I'm on it but don't post much as I don't have any projects with their yarn. I have to do quite a bit of stash busting before I can start purchasing. But it all looks fabulous and seems to be at a decent price.

About 3 weeks ago I couldn't stand it anymore. I needed to do something. Anything. As it's been might chilly here in T-town I decided I needed some sort of tv watching blanket. Inspired by both my dad who has made one of these I went to my stash and saw that I had a bunch of Lion Brand Chenille yarn. I then remembered something I'd seen a book at the library. The name escapes me but it's by a lys owner somewhere in Hollywood who smartly combined fiber and coffee. I'll have to look it up. Anyway, she put in this kid's bathrobe made of chenille yarn.
And what she did was use smaller needles than recommended to get a really tight fiber so that it's like terry cloth.

So, here's what I started


Ok, it's a little washed out. I'm still trying to figure out how to use it. This was about a week ago. I decided to crochet instead of knit. I've been crocheting since I was a kid. This project is all about comfort and crochet is comfort to me. Now as of today...

I still need to finish the border and weave in some ends. It is nearly done and might warm.

More later

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