My husband, the prodigy

10/14/2014:
Last week, my husband decided he wanted to learn how to knit.  I love teaching, and I love having someone to share my hobbies with, and I'm too anti-social to leave the house and share knitting chatter with other people, so I thought this was a brilliant idea.

Despite my usual fluency in explaining things, I felt like I was tongue-tied and useless while trying to teach him.  And yet he did catch on quickly.

Very quickly.

He was probably 30 or 40 rows into his 20-stitch-wide first piece of knitting before he had to rip out a row to fix a stitch.  And please note that HE noticed the error.  And by then he'd done garter, stockinette, his own design of a purl diamond on a ground of stockinette, and several rows of 2x2 rib.

His stitches are as even and consistent as my own.  (A bit too tight, but that's to be expected in your first few rows of knitting EVER.)

I finally had to take him to the store to buy him some supplies, just so I could get my needles back.  :)

He's offered to make a scarf for his sister, as his first real project.

I'm going to have to set that man up with his own ravelry page soon.

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10/27/2014
This is his latest practice piece:

 

Perhaps it could be better... but I'm not sure how.

 

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11/8/2014:

He started the real scarf a week ago.  I took this picture last night:

 



 

Yes, he's got nearly two feet of scarf done already.  Holy smokes!

1/10/15:
It's all done but the weaving in of ends.  Six feet long, with a perfect bind-off.
 

 



A scarf for my niece - Done!

Started:  10/25/2014
Finished:  5/9/2015

I bought this yarn because I couldn't help it.

Really, who could resist?

So now I needed a pattern that would show it off.  And a worthy recipient.

I'm vacillating between these patterns:
http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2006/10/12/one_row_handspun_scarf.html
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/holding-hands-feeding-ducks
But I'm leaning toward the second one.

And my niece is the perfect person.
1) She's my niece, and adorable.
2) She was so excited watching me knit socks, that she wants her mother to learn how to knit.
3) My husband is making a scarf for said mother as his first knitting project (that will get its own blog post later).

So, project #4 is queued up.


10/25/2014:
I've finished a project (hubby's socks) and can start a new one.  (I gave myself a limit of 3 concurrent projects so I wouldn't be a lunatic.)  So it's time to cast this one on!  I've decided on the second pattern (holding hands, feeding ducks) for her.  Here's my progress so far:

10/26/2014:

This pattern is so much fun with this yarn!

11/1/14:

Making good progress!

12/7/14:

About 2 feet done now.

 5/9/15:

 Done!  Four feet long, one skein used. 

And a scarf/cowl for my mother

I offered to make my mother something.  I picked out a beautiful blue/green chunky yarn and sent her some interesting patterns to choose from.

She selected a solid seed stitch and wants it in gray.  Oh well, it makes good TV knitting.  I'll have it finished in time for her birthday in two months.

10/13/2014:
131 stitches cast on.
Row 1 halfway completed, then frogged when I foolishly panicked, thinking seed in the round would need an even-number cast on.
Row 1 completed again.

10/25/2014:
8 rows completed.  It takes so long to do each row, I only do 1 or 2 at a time.  But it's taking shape!

 

 

11/16/2014:

22 rows completed. A friend came over yesterday and we watched 8 straight hours of Outlander (and chatted a lot) so we both made good progress on our projects.

 

 

1/5/2015:

The end was more of an adventure than it should have been.  First, I forgot that in knitting, unlike crochet, you had to bind off.  I remembered when I got to the last six inches of yarn (perfect for crochet).  So I tinked back one and a half (long) rounds, then started binding off.  But no, I needed a stretchier bind off.  Tinked all of the current round back, plus another half round.  Then started a stretchy bind off... and ran out of yarn six stitches from the end.  Pulled the extra yarn off my project-bag handle and bound off the rest.  It's a little bulky there, and I'll have more ends to weave, but I just couldn't face pulling it out yet again.

Meanwhile, here it is, double-wrapped around my neck:

 

More patterns that catch my eye...

 Okay, I may have to make these!



The Foodie Knitter: PATTERN! Sassenach Stockings


10/30/14:
Love this hat
wickerwork hat (free pattern)

My First Sweater

This post will be updated as I work this sweater, until I finish it or admit defeat.

10/9/14 - 

First off, the smallest size (S) is for a 37” bust. I’m a definite 34”, so I adjusted the pattern. Her sizes went in 3” increments, so I extrapolated without too much difficulty.
Next, as someone else noted, that pattern doesn’t match the photo, which is annoying, misleading, and frustrating. So I again whipped out my pencil and modified the pattern Instead of the center panel being:
4 sts stockinette, 4 reps (8 sts each) honeycomb, 4 sts stockinette - total of 40 sts
I made it:
8 sts stockinette, 3 reps honeycomb, 8 sts stockinette - total of 40 sts
I realize this will change the width of the finished sweater, since the honeycomb gathers while the stockinette doesn’t. Especially since that pattern change is repeated on the back. On the other hand, I have no idea if the designer measured the pictured sweater or the patterned sweater, but if forced to guess I’d think the pictured sweater. So I’m golden.
Did I mention that this is my first sweater? My first major knitting project? And I’ve started by rewriting the entire pattern? Yeah, I’m just as curious as anyone else to see what I end up with. My husband expects it to have 3 arms…

10/9/2014 - 

Notice I'm including the year. I obviously don't expect to finish this project before that part of the date becomes meaningful. 

Last night I knitted a whole seven rows. At this rate, the century part of the date might also come into play. Then again, my efforts included casting on in pattern. Being a newbie, that's fairly time consuming. So I'll be happy that it got done, and stitch markers were placed, and I didn't get halfway through row one and find a miscount or anything. We will take our victories where we find them, and celebrate them with full fanfare. 

So I'm nearly done with the bottom edge ribbing (which includes braid cables).  Yay!

My First Socks (for Paul) - Done!

I took the "My First Socks" class on Craftsy.com and really enjoyed it.  Here are some Work In Progress pictures of my first sock:


Are we there yet?

Testing the length:

Yes, that looks about right:

Knitting the toe chimney:

Grafting the toe:

Unraveling the toe chimney

The inside of the grafted toe

And the finished sock:

10/17 - I'm still not done with sock #2, but I'm done with the foot decreases, working toward the toe.

10/25 - DONE!

In which I stop being a hooker

A short introduction to my relationship with yarn

I learned to knit as a very young girl.  When my mother made me turn off the lights for bed, I'd read if I had a flashlight, and knit if I didn't.  Yes, I knit in the dark.  Those of you who have knit for a long time know that this isn't as difficult as it sounds, if you're not working any complicated pattern.

I don't know exactly who taught me to knit.  Probably my mother or my grandmother.  But they taught me to cast on, knit, purl, and... that's it.  No increases or decreases.  No pattern reading.  I guess they thought that would hold me for a few years while I got better at it.  I remember being fascinated by the cables of a sweater I owned, and trying to rearrange the stitches on my knitting needle to make them cross.  I think I probably knit for a year or two.  Then put the needles down.

Early in my first marriage, I picked them up again.  I still didn't know how to do much, and I still hadn't ever seen a pattern.  I knit a couple of scarves for my husband, and tried to puzzle out a sweater for myself.  I still have half of the front of a sweater, in a beautiful, soft, teal.

My new mother-in-law crocheted.  I asked her to teach me, and then I was off and running.  I learned to read patterns, and over 30 years I made everything from area rugs out of fabric, to lacy pineapple table toppers out of thread.  I was a crocheter!

Now, at 43, having not had any urge to crochet for several years, I got a wild hair and decided that I should know how to knit a sock.  I have no idea why I needed to know that, but I did.  Living in Southern California, I wear sandles year-round, so I don't even wear socks.  But for some reason, I felt that a well rounded individual should have this skill.  So I took a class on Craftsy.com and started my first pair of socks for my husband (the second and final husband).

As of this post, I am still in the middle of sock #2.  (For some reason, knitting only one sock isn't considered a success.  You've got to make two, and they ought to be at least vaguely the same size and shape.)  I do hope to finish it in the next couple of weeks.  But meanwhile, I've taken a few more online classes, found a local yarn shop full of lovely ladies, and joined ravelry.com where I am continually bombarded with urges to knit things that are way beyond my skill level.