Yarn

Letting Out my Inner Knitting Geek

stargrace November 2, 2015 0Comment

I spend a lot of time on Ravelry just browsing different patterns and thinking about whether or not I actually want to attempt said pattern. I fit some where into the ‘medium ease’ category. I typically set patterns to a level of 2-3 on the difficulty setting. I don’t think I’m quite ready for category 4, but I’m hoping that as time progresses I’ll get better, and learn more skills. Eventually I’d love to be able to attempt very complex difficult patterns. Since I’ve only been knitting for three months so far, I won’t beat myself up too much over the level at which I’m knitting.

A lot of patterns have very few differences between them. Take hats, for example. They are all created in basically the same way, with variations at certain parts. They start off with a set amount of CO stitches, are worked with ribbing (often, so that the hat sits properly on your head) or cables acting as ribbing, and then you work up a few more inches before you start to decrease, closing up the hat. How the decrease is achieved can vary, but a lot of the time it’s a simple Kx, K2tog pattern that repeats until you’re left with just a few stitches. Then you weave your tail through those stitches and close up the hat. Really not complicated, and the more you knit these types of things the more familiar you become with any adjustments that you may need to make. What you decide to do in the ‘fun’ parts of that object are up to you. One thing I’ve been having a lot of fun with, is finding patterns and designs that are a bit ‘geeky’ in nature. Take the hat on the far left side as an example. That hat is knit with Minecraft creepers going around the circumference of it. It was incredibly fast to knit up (took a single day) and the pattern I planned out with graph paper. It’s not unique as I’ve seen others create items with the same pattern, but on graph paper patterns like this become much easier to visualize and plan out. For this hat in particular, I did a few inches of K2P2 ribbing, then worked straight stockinette stitch in the round while doing stranded colour work for the creeper faces and the green stitch above and below the faces. Then I did a few more rounds of stockinette so that the hat would be long enough, and started my decrease rounds. I don’t own DPN in the proper size yet (they’ve been ordered but haven’t arrived) and I really do not enjoy the magic loop method of knitting, so finishing them became a bit tricky. Thankfully I have a set of “shortie” knitting needles from KnitPicks that just arrived last week, so they have been seeing lots of use. When I have 6 stitches left on my needles I finish the hat off with the kitchener stitch, and then tuck the tails into the hat and weave them to secure. Overall, I’m quite pleased. The hat posted here was my first one, and I’ve made two more after that one. I have one more left to go, I’ve knit three of them for a friend who wanted them for her children. Two are in the green pictured above, and one is done with the creeper icon in pink, and has a pink / black pompom attached to the top. I think that one is my favourite.

In the meantime, I’ve also still been working on my cable scarf. I’ve also got a November KAL (see previous post if you’re not sure what a KAL is) that is a cable hat – and I’m hoping to complete this hat in the same yarn that the scarf is being knit in. That’s the Brava Bulky yarn from KnitPicks, in the Fairy Tale colour. It’s a wonderful rich colour, and the price was perfect (I bought it on sale, $1.99 for a 100g ball). The yarn is not the most fantastic, it splits quite easily, but it is very warm and like I said the price was right. Anyway, I’m really hoping to be able to knit the hat to match the scarf (even though I know the cables are not the same, it shouldn’t matter much I don’t think and hopefully it’s still very beautiful). With that being said, I’ve had to ask for some help in how I would adjust the pattern. The weight suggested is a worsted weight yarn, and I want to create the hat in a bulky weight yarn, so it’s a bit tricky for me as a new knitter to understand what I do in that situation. The people on my KAL forums are amazing though and I’ve asked for some help, so I’m sure they can get me situated. That’s one thing I really enjoy about Ravelry, there are so many very kind people there.

Once I complete the rest of the Minecraft hats, the cable scarf, and the cable hat, I believe I’ll be switching back to socks for a bit. I want to learn how to knit them toe-up, and how to add patterns like lace or cables to them. So far I only know one sock pattern, and while it’s delightfully simple, I’d like to widen my experiences and knowledge a bit.

Happy knitting!

What’s a KAL

stargrace October 27, 2015 0Comment

Sometimes even though I love knitting, I just don’t know what I want to make. I think about the yarn I have, the projects I have stored up, people in my life, and none of it wants to come together into a project. That’s where KAL projects can be a great filler. There are all sorts of them, for every type of knitter. “KAL” means “knit along” – and it’s typically a project you (gasp) knit along with others. This allows you to have discussions about the piece, get help, show off your progress and all the rest. Even though you’re all making the same project, using different types of yarn and having different sets of skills and tensions creates very different projects. I spent some time looking through the Ravelry groups and eventually settled on “Beginner’s Knit-Along” which is an active group with quite a few members. They have three types of knit along projects. Special KALs, Monthly KALs, and Mini KALs. The patterns are all free, and they keep the old ones up in the group so there’s no required ‘end date’ you can take as long as you want, you can begin the project when ever you want, and you can choose whichever project you’d like. I like this method quite a bit. It’s a great friendly place for beginners, and you’ll learn lots of skills. The first thing I decided to do was the mini KAL 2 for October, which is the lace headband that I’m wearing in the picture on this post (apologies for the quality, the bathroom mirror is not the prettiest place to take a picture). It was a very easy piece to knit up, it only took an evening. It fits well, stretches, and taught me that I’ve been doing my SSK stitches wrong. The mini KAL can be found here, it’s called February Lady Lace Headband. I’m trying to be a bit more social, knitting is a great activity and it’s nice to meet like-minded folks of all ages. I know previously knitting was seen as something only grandmothers did, but these days people of all ages are getting involved. Especially now that there has been some studies released about the benefits of knitting.

Some of the KAL projects seem a bit too advanced for me at this time – but I can’t wait to dive in. I WANT to keep challenging myself, I want to keep knitting bigger and ‘better’ projects, and getting more complex. I would also like to learn to read charts properly, for now I still go by text instructions, which is fine, but being able to read charts is also important. There’s a vote up for the project for November, it looks like the hat is winning out at this time, but that could change. In the meantime, I am still working on my cable scarf. I’ve finished the first skein and it’s a bit over two feet long, I’m aiming for a scarf 5 feet long (general rule of thumb is that scarves should be as long as the wearer is tall) as a Christmas gift. I should be able to get it done in plenty of time. It’s also time to cast on another pair of socks! This time I’m knitting them in a worsted weight yarn, so I need to re-make a gauge swatch so I know what size needles to use. I’m guessing I’ll need to get down to a size 1 or so to make gauge, but we’ll see.

Happy knitting!

A Completed Pair of Socks, and the Kitchener Stitch

stargrace October 20, 2015 0Comment

I was incredibly happy to finish my very first pair of socks. I went step by step using a class from Craftsy called “My First Socks” – and it went wonderfully. The socks are comfortable, fit perfectly, and I couldn’t be happier. Of course I hope to make a few more pairs, expand my knowledge of ‘sock stuff’ and we’ll see if I can manage making fancier ones over time, but for now, I’m really happy with my plain basic ones.

The only ‘difficult’ part I had with the sock was when it came to the toes. The course goes on to teach you a method of chimney grafting. It teaches you how stitches lock together, and basically you knit an extra bunch of stitches like a chimney at the end of the toe, then tuck that into the sock, then link the stitches of your sock together and then remove the chimney. My issues is that with my first sock I ended up not linking the stitches properly (really easy to do when you’re working with sock yarn) and I ended up dropping all sorts of stitches which freaked me out because it could have unraveled the entire toe.

For the second sock I decided to do things a bit differently. I learned that the chimney graft is actually just an adaptation to the Kitchener Stitch, but it involves sewing (stitching) instead of knitting. I watched a few videos on how to do this stitch, and voila, perfectly grafted toes that look beautiful, and no stress from any dropped stitches.  It was much less stress and I’m really glad to have found the stitch. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a comfortable sock before, great for those winter months.

Each sock took a bit less than 50g of yarn, and took approximately a week off and on of knitting to complete. It’s small enough that they’re portable for when you’re going out and about and want to bring your knitting with you (waiting for a doctor’s appointment as a good example). I did have a few issues with the type of yarn I used, it was uneven in some spots and there were three knots that I came across through the skein which really frustrated me, but for the price I suppose I shouldn’t complain. I believe I paid less than $10 total for both 50g balls, which isn’t a bad price for a nice pair of custom fit socks. Of course I’ll be making more.

I have three other sock courses from Craftsy, and I’m eager to see how those ones go. One issue I have with the classes is that I find the instructors take too long to get to the point and tend to flood the video with stories from their lives, which is great but I’m not trying to form a bond with the instructors I just want to know how to do xyz thing. That’s one of the reasons I really like the instructional videos on YouTube, I can go and find one and all it does is teach me what I want to know, thus making them MUCH shorter. The Craftsy classes can be hours long, and by the time I’ve made my way through an entire video my attention span has waned and I’ve moved on to a new project. I wish they had ‘optional’ classes that just taught you the technical aspects without all the story time. Still, they’re great teaching tools and they obviously work.

Now that my socks are completed I’ve moved on to a few other projects, the scarf that I wrote about yesterday, and a new winter hat that I’ve been working on that includes my first attempts at colour work. I think it has been turning out pretty well so far, but that’s a post for tomorrow! Happy knitting. <3

The Excitement of Cables

stargrace October 19, 2015 0Comment

There’s still so much in knitting that I don’t know how to do, and I’ve got a feeling that even if I were to knit every single day for the next couple of years, I would still be learning new techniques. Each instructor and pattern has their own way of doing things in order for your piece to turn out the way the designer intended. I’ve slowly been picking up the basics, moving beyond the simple knit and purl, and into working with colours (that post will be coming tomorrow) and cables. I’ve always really admired cables. They’re beautiful, the intricate patterns that just seem to draw your eye around the piece. Little did I know that getting into cables would be VERY easy.

I wanted to make a bulky scarf as a Christmas gift, and had 10 skeins of a Fairy Tale brava bulky yarn waiting for a project. I decided to find a very simple cable pattern that also looked pretty neat. I was really excited to begin this part of my knitting, and little did I know that it would be much easier than I had thought.

Cables in essence are just about knitting in a different order. Why always knit every stitch that comes up next on the needle after all. Honestly, I had no idea that that’s all there was to cables (at least the basic ones, maybe there’s more to the complicated ones, I’m still learning). The pattern I’m using for my simple cable is really plain. I work the pattern until I get to the part where the cable begins, then I slide 4 stitches purl-wise onto a holder that I then move behind my piece. I had to google what was meant by ‘move the needle behind’ because I had no idea. Turns out it means just that, just put it behind and keep on knitting. So once I’ve slipped my 4 stitches off to the holder, I keep knitting 4 more stitches that are on my needle. Then I slide those 4 stitches back onto my left hand needle (some people don’t do this step, they just knit right off of the holder which is fine too but I don’t feel I’m quite there yet), and then you knit those 4 stitches. You continue on with the pattern from there.

Knitting them out of order makes the glorious bumps in the piece that you can see above. Moving the holder to the front will make the cable curve to the left, moving it to the back will make it curve to the right, like in my piece. They’re all right hand curves.

I can already tell the piece will also need to be blocked properly once it’s completed too. You really want those stitches to pop properly, and since it’s a scarf I’ll want to make sure my edges are all neat and tidy. There’s a huge difference between a blocked piece and an unblocked one. Thanks to the bulk of the yarn the pattern is really quick to work up, and the scarf shouldn’t take too long to make. Of course I need to pay a bit of attention so that I’m following the pattern correctly, but I’m able to read the knit / purl stitches now so I know how to fix my mistakes at least.

I absolutely love the world of knitting that I’ve explored so far. I’ve found myself spending more and more of my off time knitting, which I don’t think is a bad thing. Everyone has their hobbies after all. I’m sure listening to me blather on about it gets pretty boring, but I’m hoping that some people share in my enthusiasm.

Revelry and New Projects Galore

stargrace October 17, 2015 0Comment

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!