Sock Knitting

I have ADD. I know this. I have even been medicated in the past. One arena that my ADD shines through is with my crafting projects. I am currently working on one sweater, a matching pair of the socks and a crochet afghan.
So, moving on to the pair of socks, I finished the first one yesterday. First ever sock finished. I love it! I have already started its mate. I want more sock yarn. I want to knit MORE socks. Socks, socks, socks. I love socks. I love novelty socks but they are hard to find. So I am trying to knit more own cool looking socks.

I even modeled my sock yesterday for my family and got rave reviews. The only downside to modeling my newborn sock to my daughter was that she immediately asked for me to make her a pair!

Now, she is getting a sweater knitted with my KAL through the Ravelry Group for Trappings and Trinkets. I do need to order two hanks of the yarn for her sweater and I know I will have enough left over to surprise her with a pair of socks.

But the thought of knitting a pair of socks where the child may outgrow before I can finish knitting is a bit daunting, I must say…..

My First KAL

My First KAL(Knit-A-Long)

I am going to participate in my first ever KAL starting May 1! I am very excited. I already printed out the pattern. I just need to order the yarn but I am being good and waiting until I finish the sweater that I am currently working on at the moment.

I am working on the Zoe Cardi again that I had started last spring but put aside for the summer. I restarted it in March when Craig got me a set of Knit Pick Interchangeable Needles. I went with a Knit Pick DK weight in Peapod which is a gorgeous springy green color. This yarn is showing the lace work so much nicer than the more slippery bamboo/silk yarn. That bamboo/silk yarn shall be reworked into a shawl. 

I am making Trappings and Trinkets Tiny Dancer Jr for Tessa. I made the Tiny Dancer for myself and LOVE the sweater. Tessa has picked a berry color from Knit Picks called Dolly. Hopefully I will be able to avoid making the mistakes on her sweater that I made on mine. I had issues with the wrap and turns of the short rows leaving holes where the rest of the sleeves were attached.

Knitting beyond my comfort continued....

Yesterday, I blogged about my attempt to knit beyond my comfort zone by knitting a lovely sweater seen here:



Zoe Sweater

It is a top-down knitting pattern with lace work and cables, both of which I have never done.  I have knitted a ballet sweater for my daughter that required seed stitching at the edge and the rest was knitted in stockinette stitch and seamed together.  I knitted it in 5 pieces, two arms, the left and right side slanted front and then the back.  It was cute.  But this is one piece with picking up stitches to complete.

The new techniques that I would be learning would be lace work, cable stitch, casting on in the middle of the work, picking up stitches and binding off in purl stitch.  WHEW!!!  Wow, that is a lot when I write it out!!!  Thank goodness for YouTube videos!!!

I posted that I was not convinced that the pattern emerging looked right, but that I was not giving in and frogging it.  That I was going to believe and follow the pattern. 

I looked and looked at my emerging work.  I looked and looked at the pattern picture.  Back and forth.  Back and forth.

LIGHTBULB MOMENT

It is upside down!!!!  Turn it around and I am in a happy place.

I continued with my stitching, confident in my pattern.

Then tonight, I realize that it cannot be that way as this is a TOP DOWN pattern.  Stress.

It has to be this way.....see the markers where I would slip the cap sleeves off....

It could be the rolling of the stockinette stitch that is throwing off my perception of the project.

Sigh................

Just when I thought I was working this right.  I have only 5 more rows until I slip the sleeve stitches onto waste yarn.  Then, perhaps, I shall see this more clearly.




"In your pattern, believe, my young padawan." Yoda, as a knitting instructor, says in my head.

"Yes, Master Yoda."

Knitting beyond your comfort zone

As I have previously mentioned, I am better at crochet than knitting.  But I know that my knitting skills are never going to improve unless I start knitting projects outside my comfort zone.  I have baby hats on DPNs under control now and felt it was time to push my boundaries.

I saw this sweater this weekend and feel in LOVE with it!!!

Zoe Cardigan

I have never done lace work or cables but I decided to give it a whirl and bought the pattern.  I LOVE instant downloads :D

Grab myself a longer size 6 circular needle and some lovely silk bamboo yarn and off I went!!!!

Here is where I was at yesterday:



Not completely convinced that the cast on stitches at the end are correct....



 Today, I am here:

Still not convinced it is correct.....

I shall keep trying to see how this plans out.  I am not giving up and frogging yet.  The lace work and the cables are coming out beautifully and I am in love with the yarn.  If I am able to pull it off, this shall be a gorgeous sweater with a nice drape.  So I shall endeavor to carry on believing in the pattern and my pattern reading skills, which luckily, are pretty good as the pattern has left out a step or two so far.

Wish me luck and check back in for my progress!

To Knit, or not to Knit, that is the question

To knit, or not to knit, that is the question that plagues my mind. (with many apologies to the Bard for butchering his prose...)

I love to work with yarn.  I have taught myself to crochet and to knit basic items.  I love the way that knit baby caps look with their little top knots and rolling brims.  But I am much better at crocheting.  I am doing intermediate works such as these Christening gowns below:

Double Love Knot Dress

Tiny Blossom Dress

 These will be available on my Etsy site:  Giggles, Kisses and Love

 But I just love the way that the little knit cap look with the jacquard pattern Bernat yarns.   You can only see the patterns if you knit the yarn like below: 

 So I practiced and practiced.  Frogged and frogged again.  Tried circular knitting needles and DPN needles.   The circular needs stretched to little hats too much.  Never mind frogging, I just cut the yarn and started again.

I also tried Magic Loop method of knitting.  Worked well until I would put it down and it would end up turning itself inside out and I ended up purling the knits because it was facing the wrong way.  Sigh.  Cut yarn and try again.

At first, I was leary of knitting with DPNS. I thought that it would be akin to knitting with a porcupine. The biggest help was switching from metal needles to bamboo needles. The bamboo prevents the stitches from slipping off as easily.


Knit cap with DPNs(Double-pointed needles)

 But as scary as it looks to knit with five needles, the improvement was worth it.  I have four caps completed.

Four knitted caps

But caps are not really special unless they come with a set of matching booties.  And there I ran into another problem.  Finding a cute but easy knitted bootie pattern.  I have tons of cute crochet booties patterns but knit was not going well.

Bleh....not pleased......

Off to my crochet patterns.  Decided on "My Angel Booties" pattern from The Lovely Crow, leaving out the embellishments.  Very quick and rewarding pattern, especially to donate to charity.

My Angel Booties with knit cap

So for now, I am knitting the caps so that the patterns show up and it has the lovely rolled brims but will stay with the crochet booties, unless someone can give me a cute knit pattern.  And is able to convince me that it is worth the switch.

Day two

Woot! Look at me. Another blog post. Wow. This is huge improvement from last time.
So currently I am working on some burial items for infant loss. I have completed two burial gowns for 3-5 lbs, one girl and one boy. I am putting the ribbon on a girl gown for 1-3lbs and created a fetal demise pouch. I hope to be able to donate these to my local hospital’s bereavement team.
Some of you may know that I have been crocheting this past year for CHERUBS H.O.P.E(Helping Other Parents Expecting) Totebag Project. The project assists families expecting babies born with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia by providing them with much needed free information and support items through a community project in which all CDH families can participate and honor their children while helping new families affected by Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia.
I am going to continue with this project but hope to branch out to some bereavement items in an attempt to pay it forward. Someone took the time to make sure that my son, Alexander, had something to wear when I held him to say goodbye. I want others to have that too.
I hope to publish some pictures of my completed items as soon as I figure out how. And place some links for ideas for crochet and knitting projects.
One to check out currently is: www.cdhsupport.org