Knitting Up a Storm

Christmas is just around the corner, so what does that mean?  It's time to bust ass on your crafting projects so you can be done in time to give them out to all of your appreciative family and friends.  I hadn't knit anything in a while until recently when a friend asked me to teach them how to knit.  I've been working on knitting projects every day since.  I just thought I could write up a quick post and show you guys what I've been working on lately! This is a close up shot of the scarf I knit first.  I used a pattern I found off Ravelry.com but unfortunately even after digging around for it, I can't find the exact one I used.  If I come across it later I'll definitely post it. I actually messed up reading the knitting chart, but it still ended up working out.

I absolutely love how this one turned out.  It was my first attempt at blocking, and I think it worked out quite well.  I didn't really measure anything out, I just stretched and pinned, so some areas are kind of wavy but overall it looks good.  I used the Tiger Eyes Lace Scarf pattern I found on Ravelry.  Personally I think it looks more like owls than tigers.

This is my current project.  I found the pattern on, you guessed it, Ravelry, but I actually couldn't find the Ravelry link in my history- I could only find the direct link to the pattern.  So here it is!  It's actually grown about two feet since I took this picture.  It's quite a fast and easy knit.  I like how it's turning out so far.

Here's a close up of the knit.  It reminds me of rice. :)

I like to consider myself as an intermediate level knitter, I've knit some scarves, gloves, socks, hats... but there's one thing that will always scare me.  Sweaters.  It is my goal to knit a sweater soon.  Here is the one I'm going to attempt to knit: Hundred of sheep, but I decided that I won't start a sweater until after Christmas so I can use my time to knit more gifts for people.  Here's hoping I won't chicken out!

Socks socks socks!

     I taught myself how to knit, so I've never been really adventurous with my knitting projects. I pretty much only knew how to knit and purl so all of my projects were scarves, and even then I can probably count on one hand how many of those I've finished. So what got in my head about knitting some socks? I think it was when I was digging through my yarn stash and came across a bag full of alpaca yarn that my boyfriends parents got for me while they were in Peru. To me it looked like it was the perfect weight for socks and I had just found a few sets of double pointed needles. It was obvious, I had to knit some socks. I had to. I only had sets of 4 dpns all in different sizes, but almost every pattern I came across called for a set of 5 dpns. Finally I came across Silver's sock class. Using this pattern successfully made my first sock!

Unfortunately it was a tad too big. I used the directions for sock weight yarn. I decided not to waste my time and yarn making a matching sock for that one. Instead I jumped right into another much more advanced sock making technique. I had heard about people knitting two socks at the same time, one inside the other on dpns, and I was determined to try it myself. I took some progress pictures along the way so I could share them with you all!

Humble beginnings.

Working on the gusset.

Here I've flipped the other sock out to show that I really am doing two at once, one inside the other.

Toes!

Instead of trying to do the kitchener stitch with both socks on the same needles(I knew I'd probably accidentally sew them together) I moved the stitches around so each sock had it's own pair of needles. I stitched the inside sock, then the outter sock.

Yay socks!

I've been thinking about dyeing them though. They look a little too ketchup and mustardy to me.

Crafting Fail

I'm trying to revive this poor blog, and to do so I plan on posting more entries from my phone. I'm excited because I will be able to be more spontaneous with my posts. This post right now is going to be about my current crafty fail. Recently I've been having a string of craft fails, most of them involving knitting somehow, but today it involves a project that I've done before. A while ago I told my sister I would make her a braided bracelet with black embroidery thread, and while looking through my crafting pile of crap I found some black embroidery thread so I figured I could make her bracelet right then! I got everything together, cut the thread and started braiding. I hadn't made one of these in a while so it took a bit for me to remember how to braid it onto the chain, but once I got it I flew through it. And then it happened.

I ran out of thread. Noooooooo. Guess I'll be running out to the craft store later today! In the mean time I'll be attempting work on my next knitting project- socks- which I've never done before. I don't know if this is a good idea.