OK, that's it.

Well, I've failed miserably in keeping this blog up to date, so I've come up with a solution. Post what I love to talk about! Duh, right? But I've only recently picked my knitting needles back up, and have been endeavoring to finish all my Christmas presents by hand. I love talking about knitting, what I've learned, where I've shopped, what I've done, what I'm working on, etc. The problem is, I don't know that many knitters or people that actually care to hear about this stuff. So, I'm gonna talk about it here. So far, I've completed 3 projects and have 2 in the works. My first project, done after my mother taught me how to knit last Christmas, was a shawl-type thing. Really, it's a really wide scarf. I made it out of the Lion Brand Homespun yarn. It feels yummy, but since it was a first project, it's a bit wonky around the edges. I added stitches, decreased stitches, but thankfully, never dropped a stitch. I even used 2 different dye lots of yarn on it. Whoops. I'll provide a pic of this later. My second project was a fun fur scarf, to get my knitting juices flowing again after taking the spring and summer off. I made it from one of the patterns hanging from the shelves at Michaels. You know the one, the super long striped scarf? This sucker was supposed to be like 104 inches. Mine turned out more like 120. I have to double it to make it look normal when I wear it. Again, pics coming. My third project was a Christmas gift for my sister. It's a sleeveless sweater-jacket. It hangs to mid-calf and is made of variegated acrylic yarn. Being my first "fitted" project, I didn't want to use expensive yarn on it, so I gauged it appropriately and adjusted the pattern for the different yarn. It turned out great. All the edges are ribbed, but the inside edging along the front still curls in. The armholes need to be reinforced a bit at the seam, but all in all, the thing is actually wearable! I'm so proud! Again, pics coming. As I was finishing the edging on that project, I discovered that there was a knitting group where I work, and attended my first meeting with them. It was great! One of the ladies taught us how to make an intralac scarf. I wasn't prepared to learn anything that night, but had brought my WIP and used the acrylic yarn and size 11 needles to work along on it. I screwed it up when I got home, but her directions were so well done, I was able to start all over again with yarn I love, in a smaller, tighter gauge with size 8 needles. I just started the second ball of yarn last night. Pics to come. Since I have a hard time doing the intralac and watching football, I decided to start a set of dishcloths for my sister out in Arizona who has just re-done her kitchen. Well...I ran into problems with this uber-simple project. In the end, I've decided to frog it and start over with 2 strands held together. I'll just paste in my post at the Knitty Coffeeshop message boards: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I got this pattern (yeah I know, a pattern for a dishcloth?) from the Knit Knack kit. I had trouble finding a 100% cotton yarn at Michaels so I went to my LYS and showed them the pattern card and asked for help finding an appropriate yarn. The pattern calls for 100% cotton worsted weight yarn (but didn't provide a gauge). The sales clerk picked out an Elizabeth Lavold Cotton Patine 100% combed cotton. It doesn't say what weight of yarn it is. (Well, other than that it's a 50g ball) It's a simple garter stitch, 32 stitches by 72 rows using US 8 needles. The picture definitely looks like a square to me. I'm on row 48, and if I go all the way to row 72, it will definitely be a rectangle. I love the yarn, and love the way it knits up. It seems appropriate for the purpose. But since the pattern provided no gauge, and now I'm most certain this chick did NOT give me a worsted weight yarn, I don't know what to do. For $6 a ball, do I really want to end up with a rectangular dishcloth? It's looking about square right now, so I'm thinking of binding off and calling it a lens cleaner. It's nice yarn though, so, though it's taken me several hours already to get where I am, I'm thinking of frogging it and using it for something else.

Here's what it looks like: