Knitting-A-Long

On my way to work this morning, I was thinking that I needed to blog.  It's been awhile.  Only I wasn't sure what to knit about.  But as I was driving along and listening to a new-to-me podcast the idea struck me.  I would talk about the Knit-A-Longs.

First time I attempted a Knit-A-long (KAL) was last year around this same time.  It was a bunch of folks on Twitter. I am sad to say that project is still on my needles, buried in the bottom of my knitting bag. I'm not sure if it's the yarn or what, but I just dread the thought of working on that project. So if I can find any other project to work on, I do.  Hence the still on the needles part after a year.

However, I did not let this travesty prevent me from jumping on board to do more KALs this year.

My LYS (local yarn store) mentioned back in December that they were going to host a sock-along KAL for 2011.  The KAL would feature a different sock pattern and different yarn for each month of the year.  Since I've wanted to learn to knit socks and my hubby had been after me to knit him some socks, I thought why the heck not!  Let's do this!  So I did. I actualled started and finished knitting my first pair of socks in January.  And boy did I learn a lot! Whew!  But the cool part was knitting along side all the other ladies working the sock-along.  It was fun to see everyone's progress and finished object (FO).

For January, we did the Ann Norling Basic Adult Sock pattern. (This is a Raverly Link. If you're not a member of Raverly you can click here.)  It's not a free pattern, but because I joined the sock-along, and bought the featured yarn at my LYS, they tossed in the pattern for free.  So score! 

The sock yarn featured in the January sock was S.R. Kertzer On Your Toes. Everyone else loved this yarn.  As for me, the juries still out.  It was a little stiff to work with for me. But that could have been because it was my first time knitting a sock and using the double pointed needles (dpns).  It was very different let me tell you.  But after working on the new sock last night, I can tell I'm learning.  Things went so much easier.  My cast on and joining worked the first try!  GO ME!

I enjoyed myself so much that I climbed on board for the February sock.  I cast on and got a good start on it last night. It's an independant designer pattern and I haven't seen it on Raverly yet.  But once it is I'll link it.  But the yarn is awesome.  It's Karabella Aurora 4 in hot pink.  Well, it's not really a hot hot pink, or atleast not what I would call a hot hot pink. But I do love it.  It's a fun color.  Can't wait to see (and wear) the final product because this yarn is so squishy.  I love it.

So, you may be thinking wow, cool KAL.  And it is.  But it's not the only one.  Oh no.  You know me, I'm a glutton.  GLUTTON I tell you!

When I heard about the KAL for the February Ladies Sweater on the Knit Wits podcast I knew I had to join in.  I've had this pattern in my que for awhile, but it's a sweater and... Yikes!

But with the help of so many other knitters doing the KAL and my desire to finally knit a sweater, I decided to go for it.  I'll keep you updated on the progress of that as it moves it along.  I'm still working the yoke now and can I just say... Buttonholes. Ugh!

And....  What, you thought I was finished?  No way.

I heard about a new KAL project on the CogKNITive podcast, and I really hope I can join this one too before time runs out.  It sounds like such a good, charitable thing and the end product is so flipping cute and would make a child so happy.  It's the Mother Bear Project. The idea, which is explained in greater detail on the website and in Dr. Gemma's podcast, is you knit or crochet a bear and donate them to the Mother Bear Project and they find homes for these bears with kids who have been diagnosed with HIV or who have been orphaned because of  HIV.  It's so sweet to see the photos on the website of the kids who have received their own bear.  I need to find some fun yarn and cast my bear on.  So if you have a mind to do so yourself, please jump in.

So wow.  That's three KALs I'm knitting-along with.  So what about you?  Care to join me?

10 in 2010 ~ Crochet

Well all righty!  In my last blog post I discussed my knitted projects over the last year.  Therefore, this post will be dedicated to crochet.

I had a desire to learn to crochet and simply could not master anything but chaining and that just would never do.  So I hit up the wonders of the You Tube and watched video after video and practiced.  So I'm happy to say that I figured out the chaining, the single crochet and the slip stitch.  I figured out the increase and the decrease and made some pretty neat things.

So with that in mind here goes (Again, pattern links are to Raverly).

10 in 2010 ~ Crochet

My very first crocheted project that saw the light of day was a scarf.  I figured it was the most straight forward design. Simple back and forth, but I wanted to use variety of color and thought the hot pink complemented the yellow nicely.  So score! I mastered two things at once, well actually three things - turning, single crochet (only I didn't realize until I was finished that I crocheted through the front loop only), and changing colors. 

I found this pattern on Raverly. The pattern is called Dot's Little Ditty Bag.  It is so flipping cute. It also helped me realize that knitting through one loop create the cute spiral, I learned to increase and how to crochet loops. This was also a quick project.

This is a variation on the Dot's Little Ditty Bag. I increased stitches and modified the pattern to create the handles.  In addition to learning that changing colors while working this pattern created an obvious running seam.  Hince the flowers.  A new things to learn and hey, they helped disguise the running seam nicely.

 This little angry bird is so ugly! The real pattern, Birds of a Feather, is super cute. But mine... Not so much.  Maybe one day I'll try my hand at this again.  My major learning experience with this one is to attached eyes and nose and mouth, etc, before stuffing and seaming.

This adorable hat is just that. Adorable! The pattern is simply called Pumpkin Hat and I'm surprised more people have not crocheted one. I learned decreases and joining and how to create a brim. A very fun to learn.  Plus, my daughter looked so cute in this hat this fall.  She wore it all the time.

This is just a non-hat rendition of the Pumpkin Hat.  I originally thought I wanted to make me and my daughter matching hats.  Then decided I did not.  So I stuffed this baby and seemed up the bottom, and viola, I have a fall decoration.



Dishclothes! What a great learning experience.  Adding the trim and borders and the texture. Just by alternating between the front and back loop creates a very cool texture.  These were super easy and fast.  I made three of these.

Last but not least, a personal design. I needed one more crocheted project to complete to reach my 10 in 2010 goal.  This started out as another dishcloth. But after pulling the project from my daughters clutches I noticed that it created a cool design and have a nice curve and a perfect wrist size. So I chained a loop and attached a button and have a cool bracelet.

So that's it.  That's my 10 in 2010 ~ Crocheted projects. Yay!

It's The Great Pumpkin!

One thing that I set out to learn this year was crochet.  I think I've done a fair job of learning the basics.  For example: I can chain, I can do the slip stitch, I can join my work in the round, I can do the single crochet and I under the concept of working my stitches using the front loop vs. the back loop vs. both loops.  Not bad right?

As part of that journey into the world of crochet, I joined the Raverly group 10 in 2010.  My goal was/is to crochet 10 projects in 2010.  I have not done to bad with this.  With the completion of the project detailed in this post I've completed 8 projects.  At the end of the year, maybe, I'll post a full listing of my 10 in 2010 projects.

As for today's post,  it took me a while to finish this project because I was working on other projects in between, and I only worked on this here and there.

I at first thought I wanted to make another Pumpkin Hat because I thought the one I crocheted for my daughter was so gosh darn cute! Then one day me and my dh were talking about how we don't have any halloween or fall decorations and my mission changed.

 

I finished crocheting the side pieces as detailed in the pumpkin hat pattern (Only I made them slightly bigger). Once I had the pieces complete, I assembled them all with the exception of the last seam. I crocheted the stem, and then finished the final seam. Afterward, I turned my material so that I was now crocheting with the right side facing out and crocheted one round making a clean edge. After this I started a 4 to 1 decrease round, followed by a 3 to 1 decrease round and so on until my bottom was almost closed. I stuffed the pumpkin with fiberfil and the finished decreasing stitches until WALAH!

"IT's THE GREAT PUMPKIN!!"

Itty Bitty Learning Experience

I'll post some more vacation photos tomorrow. But for today I wanted to discuss something else.

I've talked a little bit about my teaching myself how to crochet. This has been an ongoing thing for some time. I would get so far as to chain some but then that was it. I had no idea where to take it from there. And reading a pattern... Forget about it!


But not too long ago that Determination Bug jumpped up and bit me. I pulled out the hook and yarn and decided I was going to learn to crochet dog gone it!

That is when I sat down and worked up my "I Did It My Way Crochet Scarf". Just in time for the weather to turn hot. And I do mean hot. Mother Nature totally skipped Spring, and I don't think that was very nice of her.

But I digress.

After I completed my scarf, I decided I needed to jump right into another project. One that was a little more challenging, yet not too challenging. Hey, I'm still a beginner and not crazy!

So I searched Ravelry for a pattern. This time I decided I needed a pattern because, Hey, I'm still a beginner and not crazy! :) That's how I found the pattern for the Dot's Little Ditty Bag. After reading the pattern and looking at the helpful notes on Raverly, I decided to try the bag out. So I went for it.

It was after I'd been crocheting for a while that I realized that I was only crocheting through the top lop and that was probably not the correct way to be crocheting the bag. But by doing this, the bag was coming together with a little bit of flare. A raised spiral all the way up the bag. Only it was on the inside of the bag. So I just flipped the little ditty inside out and viola!

I like this personal touch.

One other thing I encountered was difficulty in marking my beginning stitch. So I ended up having to count the stitches. I think this was me being a dork though.

Once I finished this bag, I decided to try my hand at this pattern again. Yet this time I did quite a few alterations to the pattern. Hey, I might be a beginner, but I guess I really am that crazy. :P

One day soon, I'll post those pictures. That bag was quite the learning experience as well.

I Did It My Way Crochet Scarf

As I mentioned the other day, I created this scarf in my attempt at teaching myself how to crochet. It started out with me just wanting to learn the basic crochet stitch, or stitches since there were two basic stitches involved, the chain and the single crochet.

I call this scarf "I Did My Way Crochet Scarf" because well, I did it my way, without a clue as to what I was doing. And now I'm going to share that way with you all. I've never written up a crochet pattern before, so bear with me as I try to get this right.

I Did It My Way Crochet Scarf

Hook :
9.0 mm (M/N)

Yarn :
YA - 1 skein Lion Brand Hometown USA Pittsburgh Yellow
YB - 1 skein Lion Brand Hometown USA Honolulu Pink

Additional Materials:
Yarn needle to weave in ends

Gauge: I didn’t really check gauge on this project since I was just going with the flow.

Instructions:

With YA Ch 9

Row 1: YA starting with second st from hook sc 8 through top loop only ch 1
Repeat row 1 6 times.

**Row 7: YB sc 8 through top loop only ch 1
Repeat row 7 2 times

Row 9: YA sc 8 through top loop only ch 1
Repeat row 9 2 times

Row 11: YB sc 8 through top loop only ch 1
Repeat row 11 4 times

Row 15: YA sc 8 through top loop only ch 1
Repeat row 15 2 times

Row 17: YB sc 8 through top loop only ch 1
Repeat row 17 2 times

Row 19: YA sc 8 through top loop only ch 1
Repeat row 19 4 times**

**Repeat this alternating pattern until scarf reaches desired length

Then using YB sc 8 through top loop only ch 1
Repeat closing rows 6 times

Weave in ends.

All done!

So how’d I do in writing and relaying my first written pattern? Let me know. Also, if you happen to try the pattern out, I’d love to hear back from you.

Or if you'd rather I email you the pattern, I have it saved as PDF complete with a graphic display. I can forward. Just leave me a comment.

The Continuous Law of Learning

Or could it possibly be the Law of Continuous Learning?

Or the Continuous Learning Law?

Either way, I think the point of it is that we are all continuously learning something. I know as a new mom, I think I can still say that even though my daughter recently turned one, I am constantly learning something new. Life is never dull, and it seems like time moves much too fast these days.

Even though, that learning is perhaps the most important learning I'm doing these days, it's not the learning in which I'm going to talk about today. I was thinking the other day about all the things I want to learn that are personal things. Things for me, to help me grow as an individual. All the things I'm interested in and how I can improve and possibly put that knowledge to a better use for me.

Well, I am interested in crafts, and I do know how to knit. I've knitted several projects and even designed few of them myself. Which I'm kind of proud of. So my next step was learning to crochet. I wanted to learn for the longest time. And every time I picked up the hook and yarn, I couldn't make it happen. The only thing I would have at the end of the day to show for my efforts was a long chain of yarn. And even though the chain stitch is important, it doesn't really get you anywhere. You know what I mean? Not unless you know what to do with it after you have. That was the part I couldn't make happen.

I read instructional materials, books, etc. Nothing seemed to get the process through my thick skull. So finally one day I decided I was going to see if video would do the trick. YouTube here I come.

I found this very helpful video from the Knit Witch on how to do a single crochet. So I practiced. And I practiced. And I practiced some more, until I thought I might have it right.

Since I wasn't really sure what I was doing, or how to read a crochet pattern, I decided a simple scarf might be the thing for me to do to practice my newly learned skill. So that's what I did.

And the result is this scarf.

I'll attempt to type up the actual pattern I created in my head as I worked along the stitch process and post it soon. But in the meantime, I am extremely proud of my "I Did It My Way Crochet" scarf. I finally tackled the dreaded crochet and improved my skills.