Celebrating World Wide Knit in Public Day

To celebrate World Wide Knit In Public Day, the Tuesday Night Socks Knitters journeyed to a local publast night to, well, knit in public! 

For those of you not in the know, World Wide Knit In Public Day is being celebrated from June 11 through June 19, so you still have time to get out there in public and get your knit on!  I’ll likely be participating again (albeit a solo mission) this Father’s Day as I plan on spending the day poolside with my family. 

We all had a great time at the pub and Susie showed me how to take the pink and green hat I’m working on (it got a few compliments, by the way!) to the final stages by switching to DPNs.  DPNs are Double Pointed Needles and yes, yes I did have to Google that when I saw it in my knitting directions the first time.  A picture of the hat with the DPNs in it is below for your viewing pleasure.

First Time Using DPNs

Melissa advised me while I was working on this project last night to not finish everything up so I could take it home to show my husband with all the needles in it.  That ended up not being a problem as I screwed up my counting in one row and she had to take it out for me – awesome sauce.  (Note to Self – Stitch markers were invented for a reason.  USE THEM!)  I must admit that working on something rocking four knitting needles really does look super impressive.  It gives off the “I am an accomplished knitter working with many needles so please, don’t try this at home” vibe. 

Sure enough, Melissa was right.  I pulled the project out of my bag when I got home and my husband just kind of stared at it.  “How does that work” was the exact question he asked, I believe.

I’m really glad that I have learned a new needle skill with the DPN’s though.  It certainly is going to make my new-found love of hat knitting that much easier!

Next week at Tuesday Night Socks Knitters, Judy is going to show me how to crochet a little flower as I would like to make one and attach it to this hat.  Once I get the flower on there, it will be all ready to go!  I look forward to being able to show it to you all!!

I Heart Hats!

Well … it’s been QUITE some time since my last post.  Many reasons for that.  I tend to start new hobbies and activities with gusto, thinking that my participation in said hobby on a 24/7/365 basis is totally required to be considered a real member of the hobby family.  Per usual, I did that with my knitting.

Then I experienced lace.  And that put a bit of a damper on things.  I sucked at it and so I didn’t feel like dealing with it anymore.

But upon further reflection and time off, I have since decided NOT only that I wouldn’t be attempting any Yarn Overs in the near future, but that I would also not start any other project until I got the scarf that I was working on for my BFF finished.  And alas, about a week and a half ago, I did finish that scarf.  HURRAY!!!  Granted, I still need to weave the ends in, but that’s alright.  It shouldn’t take me too long to do. 

Now I am working on some baby hats for some friends.  And let me tell you … I think I’m a hat type of knitter!  Some folks love socks, some love scarves.  A hat seems like juuust enough of a commitment to get something worthwhile out of it, but not so much of a commitment where I’m going to get bored.  And they progress so quickly that it’s hard to get frustrated.  Just after you start, you get to say, “Hey!  I’m almost done with my hat!”

Here is a picture of the two that I have going right now:

Needle: US 7, 16″ Round
Yarn: Rozetti Lollipop in 100% Acrylic Pink and Green
Free Design Courtesy of The Shizknit

Needle: US 7, 16″ Round
Yarn: Caron Dazzle Aire Acrylic/Nylon in Baby Rainbow
Free Design Courtesy of Crystal Palace Yarns

One of the coolest things I learned at my Tuesday Night Socks Knitters is that these gals, for MLK Jr Day (a day on, not a day off!), knit baby hats for preemie babies.  What a brilliant and lovely idea!  I actually think that I might start stockpiling some little baby hats for that very purpose so that, come next year, I’ll have a good number to be able to contribute.

Only a few months into my knitting career and I must say that I’ve learned an important lesson.  To be a knitter, you don’t have to be all knit all the time.  You don’t have to have the best form.  You don’t have to do every stitch right every time.  And knowing how to do even a basic stitch and project will grant you access to some of the nicest, kindest, most fun people you could ever have the privilege to call your friends. 

I’m proud to be a knitter.

A Lesson On Getting Over My Knitting Frustrations

So I’ve been on hiatus for a while!  OK, that’s an understatement.  I’ve gotten dangerously close to throwing in the knitted dish towel. 

I have a bad habit of getting REALLY into something and then, when I get to a point where I’m confused or decide that I suck at it, then I tend to say “screw it.”  (Sidebar: I have kind of ridiculous standards that I set for myself)  I don’t get any enjoyment out of being bad at things.  If I’m moderate, fine.  But if I really suck at something, then why bother?  It only makes me mad.

The number of people who told me that this damned lace shawl project wouldn’t be a problem REALLY had me convinced that I would be able to do it.  And so when it started to look like crap and when I kept dropping stitches and when I kept forgetting what stitch was coming next, I got really pissed.  I tried to just do a garter stitch and change from a shawl into a scarf, but to be honest, that made me feel like I was settling and I STILL didn’t like the look of it.  I felt like a schmuck for not being able to do something that a bunch of people said would be easy for me to do. (Sidebar: Each of those people has been knitting for at least 20 years.  Their definition of “easy” is VASTLY different than my knitting-only-about-a-month definition of “easy.”  Not their fault at all.  I probably should have taken that into consideration before starting this project.) 

The good news is I don’t think all is lost with knitting because, for the first time in my history of sucking at something and giving up, I really want to continue knitting.  I enjoy how it makes me feel and I enjoy how knitting really soothes me.  And I know that I CAN do this!  I made a great hat and a great scarf and am still working on another great scarf.  So what if I can never do a lace project? 

I just want to find a project that is easy to do AND something that looks good.  I need a little bit of a confidence booster!  So if you know of a cute free design that’s simple, Tweet me (@MrsKniterati) or leave a comment here with a link!

A Partial Frogging

Well, last night at Tuesday Night Socks Knitters I decided that, after viewing many design options that Melissa believed I would be able to accomplish (she has so much faith in me!), it was time to say that a lace pattern with a very thin yarn just isn’t what I need to be trying for my fifth ever project.  And I really don’t need to be trying a Yarn Over (::hiss::  “We HATES IT, Precious!” ::hiss::) project with such a thin yarn to start either. 

Below is as far as I got in my ill fated first lace attempt.

The ill fated lace attempt ...

While I pulled this project off, I was introduced to a delightful term: frogging.  Here’s the definition, courtesy of knitty.com:

In Japan, the kajika goes kerokero. In Spain the rana sings cruá-cruá. A beka would say bre-ke-ke in Hungary. Here in Norway, frosker sier kvakk.  In the knitting world, however, frogs say “rip it, rip it.” And that’s the reason knitters use the term “frogging” as they merrily unravel their hours worth of knitting.

So I suppose what I really did was a partial frogging as I didn’t actually unravel the project, I just pulled everything off the needles.  Either way, a partial frog actually felt really good because I did not want to keep on sucking at this particular project and it just wasn’t getting any better.  The inability to read my stitches made it really difficult to know what came next if I lost my place in the pattern.

So instead of that intricate shawl design, I have decided that I’m going to just knock out a 70 or 80 stitch wide scarf of just garter stitch.  I’ve already got 13 rows and it’s looking really pretty, mostly because of how delicate that Three Irish Girls yarn is.

I’m feeling much better about this simpler project.  And Jacquie has convinced me that once I get this thin yarn project done, that she’ll show me how easy lace can be on a thicker yarn!

Your Knitting Time #2KCBW

Second Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week

Well, yesterday was a non-blogging and mostly non-Twitter day, so I didn’t get in my final entry for the Second Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week.  I figure that it’s OK if I’m a day late.  I’m not being graded and the only person that can really bug me about not finishing is me.  It’s a win-win, really.  So just what was the final topic?

Write about your typical crafting time.  When is it that you are likely to craft – alone or in more social environments, when watching TV or whilst taking bus journeys.

I would have to say that I am more of a nighttime knitter for sure.  Since my group meets on Tuesday nights, it just seems natural to me.  Granted, I have and do knit in the daytime, but I find that my hands will want something to do around 7 PM. 

I like to knit with some sort of background noise too – TV or music – if I’m alone.  But I really do love to knit with other people around.  I think knitting is one of the few solitary social things you can do.  Let’s be honest, it’s hard to sit and read a book with a group of friends and talk at the same time, but knitting allows you to be actively participating in a conversation while creating something at the same time.

There is usually food around when I knit at my group.  We have sodas and snacks sitting out on the table (thanks, Susie!) and while I sometimes worry that I’m going to knock something over onto someone else’s project, I’m certainly not a “no food near the knitting” kind of gal.

And as for locations?  Well, I enjoy knitting at Susie’s dining room table of course.  And when I’m at home, my recliner is the place to knit.  I can balance the skein on the armrest and I have a little table nearby with all my other necessities.  I haven’t tried knitting outside yet, but today may just be the day!  It’s SUPER nice out, and now that I’ve finished my blogging responsibilities, I can get out there and enjoy the fresh air!

Something to Aspire to #2KCBW

Second Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week

Today’s topic for the Second Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week couldn’t have come at a better time.  Today we’re asked to answer the following question …

Is there a pattern or skill that you don’t yet feel ready to tackle but which you hope to (or think you can only dream of) tackling in the future, near or distant? 

One word comes to mind.  That word is lace.

So yesterday I told you about how excited I was that I had successfully completed my first row of lace after spending an hour at The Yarn Spot undoing and redoing my first attempt.  I was very excited as I had gotten through the whole row and, when I counted everything at the end, I still had the required 130 stitches.  I considered it a great success.  I even put stitch markers in every 10 stitches so I would know how many I needed.

Note to self: If you’re going to bother putting in stitch markers, it would behoove you to take the bloody time to CHECK YOUR WORK when one pops up. 

After attempting row two of lace, I counted everything and found that I only had 128 stitches.  I think I might have screwed up a Yarn Over at some point in the pattern.  Not really sure how on earth I did that as the Yarn Over has got to be one of the easiest things in the world.  Yet it somehow manages to boggle my mind.

So I put the project down and worked on my twisted stitch scarf.  I needed a little ego boost and that helped.  I had to remind myself that I haven’t been knitting for very long and I’ve got the basic knitting stuff down.

After about an hour, I picked the lace project up again and pulled out the incorrect second row.  I should probably note here that when I say “pulled out” I don’t actually mean that I yanked everything off the needle.  I did that fancy knit backwards thing.  And that’s not easy when you’re pulling out Yarn Overs and Purl2Togethers.  At least not for a newbie.  So after I finished THAT, I recounted again having given up on leaving the stitch markers in while I was undoing stuff.  And I had 129 stitches.

This leads me to the following conclusions:

Either 1) Lace is something I shouldn’t be attempting this early on in my knitting career or 2) I simply cannot count that high and my lack of basic mathematics is going to be my downfall.

I would really love to do this project.  I think the skill required to do lace work is pretty impressive.  But I’m not entirely sure this is the project I should be attempting when I have a deadline and when it’s this apparent that I don’t have the necessary skills.  I’m going to take it to my Tuesday Night Socks Knitters Group and see if they can give me some guidance.  Until then, I’m going to stick with what I feel comfortable doing.  There’s no sense putting myself through all this frustration.  Knitting is supposed to be fun!  And I don’t need to rush myself either.  I’ll get there, skill wise, eventually.

And Now for Something Completely Different #2KCBW

Second Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week

On day 5 of the Second Annual Knitting & Crochet Blog Week, we get really creative.  The point of today’s blog entry is to post content in a different way.  I thought I’d kick things off with two haikus on knitting.  ::ahem::

- I -
A twisted stitcher
I am.  Unravel it now.
Make the knitting right.

- II -
A Local Yarn Shop
houses beautiful products
like silk, bamboo, wool.

Amazing stuff, right?  I know.  I’m a poetry GENIUS.  Special thanks to my BFF for confirming that a haiku is 5 syllables, then 7, then another 5.

I finally made it up to The Yarn Spot today and got some help on my lace shawl project (thanks Alene!).  Turns out I really like to make things more complicated than they actually are.  For some reason, when I watched a video about how to Yarn Over, I thought that you really wrapped the yarn in a full circle around the needle, instead of just putting it over the top of your needle.  So I was really doing a double Yarn Over which resulted in a lot of extra stitches on my needle.  When I was undoing my first row of lace, I also discovered that I had dropped some stitches. 

But once I was shown how to properly do a Yarn Over, I was able to successfully complete my first row of lace!  HURRAY!!!  SUCCESS!!!

It’s really not as difficult as I had made it out to be.  Granted, I have to try my second row still.  And then there’s making sure I don’t drop any stitches while at the same time keeping track of the stitch I’m on.  I think that’s the hardest part.  I can’t tell yet by looking at the previous stitch which one comes next, so it can be pretty tricky.  And it is VERY time-consuming.  Taking out and redoing that one row of lace took about an hour.  That doesn’t give me much confidence that I’ll be able to finish this thing by the end of the month.

We’ll see how this thing progresses.  I hope to work on it a little bit tonight.  Fingers crossed that things speed up as I get the hang of it!