Revelry and New Projects Galore
stargrace 
I have very little patience. I’ve been that way for as long as I can remember. Waiting for parcels in the mail can be a physically painful process as I run out and check it from the very first day I’ve ordered anything. I’ve been waiting for one parcel for 8 weeks now even though I know it won’t ship for at least two more. Because of that I tend to want to work on very quick projects that won’t take a lot of time. Projects that take between one week and four weeks are best. They keep my attention while I work on them but I don’t feel overwhelmed. A good example is the blanket that I started working on a few weeks back. Where is it? Tucked safely away in a craft bag. Those socks that take approximately 1 week or less to knit up? Almost done the second sock. That’s how I ended up finding the pattern for the ‘all in one baby top‘ pictured to the left. It took me only a day to knit up, and it’s so cute. This one in specific was for the 0-3 months age group. There’s no sewing required, it’s all a single piece.
Ravelry is a fantastic site for knitters and crocheters alike. You can find free patterns along with paid patterns, and a huge forum with many active yarn loving groups. You can find me there (of course) as Stargrace if you happen to want to friend up. It’s a great place to keep track of your projects, patterns, needles you own, your stash, etc. I’m using it mostly as a place to document my progression through knitting (aside from this blog which also serves this purpose). Remember I’ve only been knitting for about three months now, so I want to see the new terms I’ve learned and my growth over time. Starting from flat pieces like my fingerless mitts, and moving forward to items like this baby top. Next I’d like to explore colour work, so there’s a hat in mind I’m going to try. I believe it uses stranding, and it’s very pretty. Of course I don’t have the faintest idea how this works, so it’ll be an interesting experiment to see if it turns out.
I learned a new term while working on the baby top above, too. I’ve been bookmarking all of the knitting videos I use into just one location on YouTube so I can browse them easily and come back to them. While working on the baby top I learned the m1 instruction, which stands for ‘make 1’. Basically there are two methods of doing this (technically I suppose there are three). The method I learned was to take the bar between two stitches, pull it up with the right needle, then slip it onto the left needle, and stitch into the back of it (so you don’t leave a gap). This “makes one” new stitch. It’s basically a fancy increase. Now that I feel secure with the basics, I like adding more and more information to the knowledge I already know. A lot of reading patterns (for me at least, so far) is just about trying to figure out what the pattern writer actually meant. Sometimes they’re very clear with what direction the pattern is flowing in, and other times they’re more confusing. I’m still not able to read charts and I’m not sure that I’ll ever be able to, but the written instructions work well for me.
On that note, it’s time to start the next project (maybe I should finish those socks, first). Happy knitting!