A few days later

So it's been a little while, I'm sorry for not updating sooner! Things have just gone pear shaped with school, and I have a large project for work I'm doing this weekend at an ungodly early hour. I've been cleaning my apartment as well, and finally managed to get my closet clean. I finished my seed stitching rectangle, and it is SO delightfully textured and bumpy! I also spent the ENTIRE weekend doing nothing but watch Charmed seasons one and two and work on my wave scarf. It's getting pretty long now, and it's final length will make it a little taller than me, so I'll post pictures once it's finished. In a somewhat witchy moment, Ostara is coming up on the 20th of March! I'm trying to come up with ways to draw runes on my hard boiled eggs that won't soak through the shell and taint the delicious eggy goodness within. Hmm, decisions.

A little late

Sorry I didn't get this up sooner. I took the pictures and will put them at the end of this post. I ended up caving and started on my scarf. This pattern is super fun! It's a little trippy with how the pattern makes the yarn move. A few pointers. SK2P means Slip one, Knit 2 together, then pass the slipped stitch over (as if to bind off). I'm not sure if I'm following the 'Make 2' directions perfectly, but I decided yarn overs would work alright because they're increases-and give it a pretty holey-lace pattern. These videos I found on Craftster were priceless in helping. I've had a few wee hiccups which were a bit stressful, but ripping back (a majorly necessary skill for a knitters) has saved it tidily. I'm positively loving this painted yarn, between the moving pattern and the moving colors this scarf is positively engaging and super entertaining.


The first two are the dress I finally finished, with a detail shot of the back.



The first picture is my pretty new scarf yarn, and the new needles I purchased. The yarn cost $3.27 and the needles were $4.47 both from Wal Mart.

A new Day

I'll be able to post up pictures this evening. (I promised I would!) I finished my rectangle of ribbing and it's super stretchy! It comes off the needles looking almost too skinny, but it stretches considerably. I've decided to do single seed stitch next, since making the ribbing wider is such a simple adjustment. I'm worried about double seed stitch, since the trick of using the tail of your yarn to remember which stitch your starting with will no longer work. (You do two rows of knit 1 purl 1 repeat, then two rows of purl 1 knit 1 repeat.) A handy reminder, the difference between seed stitch and ribbing is how many stitches you cast on. Odds = ribbing, evens = seed stitch. So to make sure you've done your row correctly, you should be doing the OPPOSITE stitch at the end of your row in Seed stitch, and the SAME stitch at the end for Ribbing. I'm currently debating once I've finished this little skein of purple yarn whether to move directly to the scarf I want to make out of my painted Caron Simply Soft, or if I should try to use up my Red Heart Super Saver on miscellaneous learning projects. Decisions, decisions.

Investigation in Progress

Well I'm part of the Charlotte group on Ravelry, and decided to try to drop in on some of the knitting groups. Firstly I went to the Jackson's Java meet up-supposedly Mondays from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm, but according to the Baristas there was no such meet up. So that was a bummer, and I can't figure out how to notify the group on Ravelry to have them update it. I plan on dropping in at the Hobby Lobby crochet group (knitters welcome!) next Thursday at 5:30. I didn't go today because of errands-oh well! During said errands I bought some gorgeous painted yarn by Carn Simply Soft, and my first pair of round needles! I'll post up a pictures update hopefully tomorrow. Thank you to all the people helping to support me in my crafting!!

TRIUMPH!

The dress is finally finished! I started it on November 19th, and I finished it last night, the 21st of February. I'll be very sure to post a picture of it as soon as I have some time, I'm drowning in schoolwork lately. In news of a more yarny nature, I've had to start and restart this ribbing stitched rectangle a bunch of times. It's a little tricky before you get the hang of it. A few tips for my newbie friends out there, for ribbing you need an ODD number of stitches. You alternate knit and purl stitches, and when you turn the work you swap which one you do first. I use the tail of the yarn as a guide post. When the tail is at my left hand, I start with Knit, when the tail is at my right hand I start with purl. A good way to double check you haven't gotten off rhythm is that the last stitch of the row should be the same as the first. Remember to pass your yarn BETWEEN your needles to get it to the front/back as necessary.

Huzzah!

I finally managed to finish hemming my dress-so, so much fabric. I also finished my stockinette square (couldn't recall if I'd written about that). It's SO CURLY! It's practically a scroll. I decided to start work for my next square by using a single thickness ribbing (knit 1 purl 1, repeat, turn, purl 1 knit 1 repeat, so forth). And alsoooo, I have the pictures-finally-of the goodies I purchased the other day!

Progress Report!

Well found out the interesting way that knit 1 purl 2 repeat, on every row just ends up a mess. I used this to help me! In the interests of going in order I used the Stockinette stitch instead-and oh my goodness, when people says it curls they're not kidding! This curls a *lot*! It'll be a bit trickier than Garter stitch to measure. It does have a 'right' side and a 'wrong' side. Only one side has the 'stockinette' stitching look, the other looks like a smaller/tighter garter stitch. In other news, my dress is almost done! All that's left is some hand sewing-the most daunting of which is the hem. Goodness there's a very large amount of hemming that I need to do.

Almost there!

I have conquered the Chiffon and the sleeves are finally on my dress! Tomorrow we're going to hem it, and after a quick bit of hand sewing the dress will finally be done-precisely three months after we began! It's kind of exciting, and I'm totally stoked.

Oooo Shopping!

I finished my Purl rectangle-huzzah! My mother requested that my next one be with the ribbing stitch (I think that's what it's called), that classic knit 1 purl 2. Today we went to the store and bought some goodies as well. My first set of knitting needles are a US size 7 (4.5 mm) aluminum needle by Susan Bates. Today we purchased an 8 piece set of aluminum Crochet hooks by Boye. They're very pretty, since they are different colors. They are US D,E,F,G,H,,J,K ( 3.25, 3.5, 3.75, 4.25, 5, 5.5, 6, and 6.5 mm). We also got US 5 (3.75 mm) Boye knitting needles, and two plastic round ended needles for sewing my squares together, and weaving in my loose ends. I'm at my mother's still, but I'll post pictures of everything when I get back to my apartment tomorrow night. Since I'm here I'm going to continue work on my dress-whose picture I will post here when it's completed. The crochet hook set cost $10, and the knitting needles were $3 and the sewing needles were $2.30. I bought all of these at Michaels.

Another Day

I like to blog frequently (if you couldn't tell!) and the habit will help me to keep up with this site-but don't be surprised if there is more than one post per day, sometimes a thought comes and I just run with it. We got the ads up and running-so if you see something you like, go ahead and check it out! You'll be helping to support my yarn addiction. ^-^~ I'm only about 1 1/2" away from completing my second square, and I'm super ready to get started practicing stockinette stitch! Purl is fine, but once I realized all garter stitching starts to look the same I got bored. According to my mother, the purple yarn ball I've been using I've had for 15 years!! I remember trying to start many a 'scarf' and starting over and over again over those long years, but it just goes to show you that once yarn is in my hands it doesn't leave! I'm really glad to finally be putting all this purple yarn to use-especially since it hasn't been my favorite color in about 15 years. It's nice to have 'scrap' yarn to learn and practice on, because if I mess up, well it's not my favorite yarn and it's no problem to cut it and start again. I

I'm considering starting reviews of my favorite knitting websites, end eventually, homespun yarns available through Etsy and the like. My Ravelry queue is huge from all the projects I've found and I want to make! Good thing I've got lots of time on my hands in the next few years, you'd be surprised at how much knitting you can get done in just a spare few minutes here and there throughout your day.

A shout out to a few of my friends who are supporting me right now, thank you Kerry, Rachel, and David! Without you I'd feel a lot more boring. ^_~

A Wee Intro

I am 22 years old, a Pagan, and I've been doing needle crafts since I was old enough to hold a needle. I have a few projects currently in the works, one a leopard LatchHook hanging, and a 'Guenivere' style rennaissance/larping dress. I haven't actively been knitting in a very long time, and decided I should start from scratch. I found some instructions for a 7" by 9" rectangle to submit to 'Warm Up America' but after following the 'cast on 26 stitches' instructions, discovered that I had a mere 6" of material. Instead of donating my wee rectangle, I've decided to continue the exercise as a learning experiment, and sew my pieces together into an afghan of learning! So far I have a 6" by 8" rectangle of purple 4 weight worsted Red Heart yarn, done entirely in the knit stitch, and I'm halfway through a rectangle of the same material and size done in the purl stitch. The point of this exercise is purely practice and technique. When this rectangle is finished I'll make a rectangle in stockinette stitching! Eventually I'll have an interesting, unique piece to keep my legs warm on the couch.

I've found a ton of resource online for newbie knitters, and experienced yarn enthusiasts alike, and I'll link to a few of my favorites! See you soon!

My Ravelry
Craftster My Screen name is Sihara on Craftster
Knitty! A must have resource for needle crafters.

Kind of a Filler

Just a quick post to assure you I do exist, and I will be blogging! Just short on time at this exact moment.