Month: June 2012

Do you remember the silly mistakes I made with the knitted beanie hat?

Hopefully the knitted beanie hat mistakes are behind me. I did make another simple mistake yesterday. Instead of doing 3″ of the brim color, I went ahead and did 5″.

I included the large brim in the above picture, shortly afterwards I frogged it back to 3″. The purple isn’t part of the design, those are my lifelines, in case of a mistake (like was made here) I just have to frog (rip out stitches) to where it’s mistake free, or in this case frog to 3″.

In my defense I do like making the ridge stitch. It’s simple and elegant. After ripping out the stitches, I immediately proceeded to add one more row of that color, before switching to purple for the crown.

You could say this was a teachable moment, since I used this opportunity to talk with my nine-year old daughter about mistakes, and how we all make them. Instead of giving up, we should continue trying until we get it right. It sounds simple enough right? Amazingly a lot of people give up on many things, because they weren’t able to master something, early.

The reality is there are many things in life that will take a lot of practice before you master the technique.

Today in my Lutheran church, I noticed that we’re already starting to promote Operation Christmas Child, It’s nice to see this is something going on throughout the year, because lets face it… some families could use our help all year-round. A lot of the gifts for Operation Christmas Child, are sent to children in other countries, but there are plenty of children, and families, here in the USA that could use assistance, so I support them too.

The mention of Christmas in the church bulletin, made me think of my own Christmas list…

Of course I’ll be making handcrafted items for a few local charities, it’s something I’ve been doing for years, but I’ll also be making items for those I know too; if they’re craft worthy. At the top of my list is my nine-year old daughter, and my father comes next. He loves anything I make for him. This year I’m making him a few handcrafted items; a hat, scarf, mittens, socks, and I’m thinking of making him a traditional knitted Guernsey Sweater.

Before morning service, my online search landed me onto this page featuring a free guernsey knitted sweater by Debbie Bliss. Naturally, I saved and printed the .pdf file, and within the next week I’ll start working on the sweater. Since I’m starting on the sweater in advance, there’s really no need to rush, it will be one of my longer “works in progress”.

I’ll definitely use some type of wool for his sweater. Unlike myself, it doesn’t make him itch. While I could never wear the item, because of a rash that would develop from the wool I don’t have any problem crocheting or knitting something made out of wool. Perhaps it’s because the project only stays in my hand, and not other parts of my skin?

My father loves to be outside, even when the weather is cold, I know knitting him something such as this will be helpful in keeping him warm, and perhaps my mother won’t fuss about him coming in the house.

Interesting knitting tidbit: Did you know that many historians believe that men created knitting?

Vacation Bible school is over, and while I enjoyed my time volunteering with the fifth grade class, I’m pleased that it’s over, since some of my work was put on hold while I volunteered.

This evening, during my down time, I knitted a few more dishcloths. In the past I’ve made them out of terry cloth, and a few months ago, I crocheted washcloths and dishcloths… But I’ve never knitted a dishcloth (although I’ve received a few). Which makes no sense whatsoever since I’ve been knitting for thirty-three years.

With the knitted dishcloths I made this evening, I used a simple waffle stitch; first row.. knit and purl (k3,p3) second row, purl, knit (p3,k3) next row knit, next row purl, rinse and repeat to desired length…. I used 100% cotton yarn (Sugar’n Cream).

Knitting video tutorial: How to knit the waffle stitch

 

The waffle stitch, adds texture to a knitted dishcloth, which comes in handy when you need to do a bit of scrubbing. I find cotton to be a much better option than an acrylic yarn, some of the dishcloths I crocheted were made from acrylic, but cotton is definitely more absorbent.

If you think about it, reusable dishcloths are a better option than the standard store bought sponge. You don’t have to continue to replace them as often, some dishcloths I’ve been using for a few years, since once they’re dirty just toss them into the washing machine, and reuse. I love it, economical and environmentally friendly too.

It looks like I’ve really beanie bad knitter; refer to my last post about the knitted beanie hat…

Naturally this is where I realize that I forgot to repeat a pattern with the beanie hat I’m making. These big mistakes rarely happen, so I’m laughing at this big oversight. You see… I was knitting each row, when I should have been one row “knit” and the next row a “slip” knit” sequence. Since I put off adding my knitting lifeline before I moved on to the color purple, guess who’s going to be frogging and starting over? Yeah… that would be me.

The good thing is, its not a big issue for me. I’m a process crafter, and while I could continue knitting, and it wouldn’t be that noticeable, unless you’re an experienced knitter (or someone really observant) it would bother me that I left this mistake, so yeah the stitches are being ripped out. As I mentioned before, I’m very tough on myself, so since it’s not right, I’m redoing this hat. 

Note to self… Opal, when you think about putting in a lifeline, do it. Yes, it looks like I’ve really beanie bad knitter.

I’d wanted to go down two needle sizes for the crown to make a tighter cable stitch, and now since I’m starting over… I won’t wait to the next knitted hat. I’ll make those adjustments, now.

Get it? “I’ve beanie” instead of “I’ve been a”…

Ok, that was awful I know, I know…

Apparently I couldn’t stay away from pattern testing…

So while I’ve been a “bad knitter” and not keeping my promises on no more pattern testing for a while, I’ve made progress with making handcrafted gifts for Christmas.

Although it’s not complete this knitted beanie hat has already received a lot of compliments. I’ve been bringing it with me to Vacation Bible School. I crochet and knit in public whenever I have the chance, so this isn’t something “new” for me. It usually brings up a few people curious about what I’m doing, and it’s nice to listen to peoples perception about the craft.

Quite a few tell me about someone they know who does one or both. With certain knitted stitches like “knitting” and “pearling” I don’t have to look at my work, since my fingers “know” where to go. Perfect since I can knit while keeping my eyes on the class (fifth grade) I’m helping. I’ve been knitting while they’re eating their snack in our church’s huge fellowship hall. At that age, it’s wise to keep your eyes on them. They can get into many things.

Knitting video tutorial: How to do Slip Slip Knit (ssk)

I’m so used to working without a pattern that at times I have to not think of how I’d do something and instead focus on following the designer’s instructions. With a pattern test, you can’t deviate.

In this pattern, Spartz, the talented designer, is using the SSK (slip, slip, knit) stitch. It’s a stitch I’m familiar with but I didn’t check the way she wanted the decreases made, and now I have to frog the row.  Whoops!  Good thing I had just added a second lifeline, right? Installing a lifeline right before I start decreasing a row, is standard for me.

I’ve included a YouTube video so a new knitter can see how to make decreases using the slip slip knit (ssk) stitch.