Thursday, April 11, 2013

Knit Wit

Apologies!! I've been meaning to be a better blogger but my life has been transformed the last few months by a couple of things. No doubt you've been checking out the blog daily to see if there have been any new developments in the life of a MamaStar. I've just been truly busy.

Quite importantly, my kids stopped being so dependent and gave me time to start knitting. We also got chickens, which you can read about HERE.

Despite my Open School background giving me virtually zero research skills I'm a natural researcher and viewed the heck out of LOTS of online tutorials (VeryPink rocks!) and read lots of knitting books before I started and got help from knitting expert Kristy over at TinkerKnits when my Purling was not so purty.


First I knit a hat


Seriously I have a problem. It's so entirely addicting and completely justifiable to spend a lot of time knitting because it's not like I'm wasting time, I'm creating things! Like mittens and socks! ohh I love knitting socks. So much fun! Mittens are great, too. I skipped knitting the traditional starter scarf because scarves are completely boring (and let's face it, nobody wears scarves) and whipped out a set of hats and mittens for the kids.

Of course Easter dresses come with NO sleeves despite the fact that it is very nearly always cold at Easter, so I knit up a shrug for Little Frog with THIS pattern increased for me by my friend from TinkerKnits. It's so great, she wears it to dance class every week over her little leotard to keep her arms warm. I only wish I hadn't picked out boring cream acrylic yarn (hey, I was a Newbie when I grabbed it), I fully plan on making another one in a nicer yarn for Kindergarten this fall. I'm thinkging brown, although she would no doubt like Rock Star Pink.


Little Frog's shrug


I wanted to knit something for my niece's birthday, and I was thinking about legwarmers since she is a rockstar gymnast, but that seemed boring so I went for a little iPod Touch purse and threw a headband in as well. It was my first experience with cable knitting, and it was a lot of fun in this varegiated pinky purple yarn.




And then on to socks. Glorious socks with adorable baby sz 2 double-pointed needles. I know some people adore their fancy Magic Loop on circular needles, but I just like the way DPNs look. I used THIS pattern, my only problem is I knit very tightly and the sock yarn Ox picked out was not particularly stretchy so he had to yank them on his feet the first time. Case in point that I need to lighten up a bit and LOOSEN up myself and my knitting. Little Frog's socks are turning out much better. Sad I have to concentrate on being relaxed.

 
  
 
I find myself counting stitches to go to sleep, rather than sheep. The Kitchener Stitch especially is quite rhythmic and I can get a good visualization going that totally knocks me out when I'm feeling insomniatic. I think I'm going to have to knit something for myself one of these days!





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3 comments:

  1. Those socks are awesome! I have yet to knit socks. Glad the blog is back!

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  3. You should try socks! They're fast and fun even if not particularly flashy. I might be knitting socks for Christmas presents this summer, that extra fine yarn would definitely be bearable to work with in the summer.

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