Thursday, January 31, 2008

New Years Resolutions One Month Later

I made a couple of New Year's Resolutions in the creative area of life, since I figured these would be easy to keep, right? Wrong! For 2008, I resolved to: Knit a pair of socks; crochet a pair of socks; knit a sweater; crochet a sweater; learn cable knitting, learn how to knit Continental style; start designing and enter the CGOA design contest. I'm considering entering the baby blanket I just finished, but I'm not sure it doesn't look like athousand other shell stitch baby blankets out there. I want to make a pattern that's original. I used an old stitch dictionary to find a pattern stitch that I liked. I think that deep down, I feel like that's cheating, so I should do something completely original for the contest.

I have Panda Cotton Sock yarn put aside for a pair of crocheted socks. I'm using the book Crocheted Socks: 16 Fun to Stitch Patterns by Janet Rehfeldt and Mary Jane Wood and will start with the first sock pattern. I've been meaning to start them, but need to get up the nerve to do it. I don't know why I feel intimidated by a sock or a sweater. For crying out loud, I worked as an ICU nurse dealing with life or death matters and situations, which didn't phase me. But put a pattern. a hook and sock yarn in front of me makes me twitch with fear. Weird. February starts tomorrow. I need to take a deep breath, buck up and suck it up and take hook in hand. Why cotton and not wool? I'm very allergic to wool and most animal and some plant related fibers. I get itchy and have to drag out my inhaler when I get near the stuff. Navigating a yarn store is like walking in a mine field. I had to cut this last trip short because I ended up handling a couple of skeins with wool in them and I started to react.

Knit-wise, I'm working on the Inspired Allover Cable Spa Cloth designed by Kathy Wesley pattern from the most recent issue of Creative Knitting magazine. At first, I had some trouble getting my stitches to go the right way, but once I got the hang of it, it wasn't too bad. I notice that my stitches seem pretty tight on the cable needle when I go to knit the stitches off of it. I'm using some Sugar n' Cream yarn I had in my stash. Using up yarn in my stash was another New Year's Resolution, lol. I have needed to buy sock yarn, since I didn't have any, so I guess I haven't broken it. Lent starts next week, so maybe I should give up buying yarn. That, will be a real challenge.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Photos


Here are the photos I promised. This is the completed scarf done with Lion Brand Incredible. It's knit in garter stitch (knit every row)
on size 50 needles. It does spread out so it does act like a shawl.

The next photo is the baby blanket I started from the Lion Brand Pound of Love. I put it down for a while, since I caught the knitting bug again, but now I really want to get it finished.

At this point, there's a base of single crochet around the border, then a row of double crochet for a little lacy effect. Since this photo was taken, I've added another row of single crochet. I'm not sure if I'll add a row of shells on top of the sc and call it finished, or add a couple rows of pattern stitches.

Monday, January 14, 2008

New Name

I changed the name of this blog, as well as my other one to bring it more up-to-date. Face it, at 44, I'm not a girl anymore. I'm an adult woman(geez, when did that happen, lol!) Plus, I think this has a more authoritative sound to it, like I know more about what I'm doing (craft wise that is. Life, well..that's a work in progress.)

I've recovered enough from the holidays to resume work on the crocheted baby blanket I started from the Lion Brand Pound of Love. I've done a row of single crochet around it, and will expand on the edging so I can hopefully get it done by the weekend. I want to pick up the crochet sweater I started a couple of months ago, since crocheting a sweater is one of my New Years resolutions. The others are to crochet a pair of socks, knit a pair of socks, and knit a sweater. I still find it hard to believe that someone who worked in a high tension, high stakes atmosphere of an ICU is scared so easily by crocheting and knitting a garment. This year, I'm tackling that fear head on.

I finished another square from the book I mentioned, or at least I hope I mentioned in an earlier post. (damn brain fog!) I was going to start another one, but I received my new issue of Creative Knitting, and am going to do the cabled spa cloth pattern. I want to get more into cable knitting this year, and this is the perfect project. The newest issue isn't at their website (as of 9:00pm Eastern), so it may be a couple of days before it's there. I'll post photos of my projects within the next couple of days.