Just Like Knitting a Bike

So I forgot I loved knitting. But yesterday I remembered.

I want to knit myself a balaclava, but I thought I should make sure I still have knitting skills before I try out a new pattern. So I picked up the needles on a project I started THREE years ago. A winter hat for John. I guess he has just gone without all this time. It has been so long since I knit something that wasn't a dish cloth, that I actually had to look at my knitting book to make sure I was purling correctly. Thankfully I have retained my skills and knit pretty much all day yesterday.

I accompanied my day of knitting with bad fantasy movies. I started with the 2011 Conan the Barbarian (it was terrible), moved on to Krull, and ended with The Sword and the Sorcerer. None of them were the kind of movie you had to pay attention to, so I focused on knitting and had some fantastically terrible background noise.

I might actually complete John's winter hat this winter. I made some significant progress yesterday.

I also started knitting myself a 1st year Gryffindor scarf, because I've had the yarn for years and just never got around to making it. Now is the time!

Mother's Day Bouquet

Wait, those aren't roses! Those are dishcloths! My mom absolutely loves knitted dishcloths and luckily I just made a whole bunch of them. Just in time for Mother's Day! She was very happy! :)

Happy Mother's Day everyone! I hope you are having a great day!

Growing Dishcloth Pile

There was sale on Handicrafter Cotton yarn recently and I planned on picking some up so I could knit some dishcloths. The only problem was, I already had a tonne of the stuff in my yarn stash, and I haven't been knitting much lately. So I made myself a deal: use up all the yarn in my stockpile and I could buy more. It was a pretty motivating deal, as I have since knit ten dishcloths! I guess I really hate missing out on a yarn sale!

I only have about five more to knit before I get to replenish my stock. I hope there is a sale, as I am excited to pick up some fun new colours!

I love having a pile of these around!

Out With The Old...

I had an unplanned break from knitting but have been itching to pick up some needles all week. I have friends who have recently had babies or are soon to have babies, so I want to knit adorable baby stuff.  I am a planner and spent many hours this week looking through patterns and thinking about yarn.  I also invested in some knitting supplies, as a pattern I want to knit used some tools I didn't have yet (16" circulars, I am looking at you!). I also picked up some stitch markers, some dpns, and soft yarn.

I tried to start a new project today that involved double pointed needles, and despite my three attempts, I could not get a handle on it.  I realize I need to take a step back; I basically haven't knit in almost a year and am a wee bit rusty.  I was still itching to knit, so I am on task to complete all my outstanding projects (luckily there are only three).  So new and cute baby projects are still to come, but here is what I accomplished today:

Reusable Swiffer Cloth - I just had to seem the edge to complete this.

Top view.  Just ignore how dirty the Swiffer is!

Bone dog toys - seemed and stuffed. I still need to learn proper seeming.

I also made headway on a winter hat I began last February for John.  I am only about a third done, but I am so happy to be knitting again.  Working on all these projects has me really inspired for all the new things I will create.

#Winning

I have joined to ranks of my friends Tasha and Joanne and won the Canadian Living Craft Blog Weekly Giveaway!  The prize is perfect for me -  an adorable knitting pattern book to knit farm toys!  Having grown up on a farm, and as the aunt of two young and adorable farmers, I will definitely be making all of these projects.  There is even a pattern to make a barn!  I am so excited!

Too cute!!

If you have never entered the Canadian Living Craft Blog giveaway contest, here is my overwhelming endorsement that you should.  There is normally a new giveaway announced every Monday, and prizes vary from books to supplies for many types of crafts.  For your chance to win, all you have to do is comment on the "Weekly Giveaway" blog post.  They usually pose some sort of question for you to answer, so it's pretty easy to think of something to say. The winners are chosen randomly, and I love that you don't have to sign up for anything to leave your comment.  Also, I think the odds of winning are pretty good, as I've never seen more than 180 comments on a giveaway post, and most times the number of comments is far lower than that.  The contest I won had only 30 comments and they had two copies of the book to giveaway, so I had a 1 in 15 chance to win...and I won!!  Also, there is no moratorium on entering the contest after you've won, so if win and you like the following week's giveaway, go ahead and enter that one too!

Here is the link to the current giveaway: Giveaway for the week of April 25, and as of now (9:30pm on Monday night), there are only 10 comments!  Readers have until 11:59pm on Sunday May 1st to write a comment.  Be sure to read all the guidelines on how to comment (you can only comment once) to ensure your entry is part of the draw.

Good luck!  I hope you win a cool book too!! :)

My Psychology and Finishing a Project

I have been hesitant to start a new knitting project, as I still have my outstanding  Knitting Bag of Shame.  For well over a year I've had a half finished scarf project that I had absolutely no interest in finishing.   

Part of the problem was that I just started knitting with a basic idea in my head, but no actual pattern to follow.  Half way through knitting, when I encountered my motivation problem, I think I subconsciously decided that the scarf was too wide and I wouldn't like it when it was done.  So I stopped trying to finish it.

On Monday, I woke up with the freeing idea that the scarf didn't have to be a scarf at all.  With a little tweaking, I could transform the half finished project into something else.  As it was already quite long, I decided to modify it into a door draft stopper.  With a new goal in mind, my motivation instantly returned, and I worked on it non-stop Monday evening.  Nearing completion, I put it around my neck (just to see) and I realized I wanted it to be a scarf again.  It was long enough and I actually liked it.  So I nixed the door draft stopper idea and finished the project as originally intended.  A girl has the right to change her mind, right?

I am now the proud owner of a wide scarf.  If I fold it in half, it becomes a super thick and super warm scarf.

If there is a bitter wind and I need more neck and face coverage, I can wear the scarf at the original width.

I finally finished my year old project and I am really happy it is a scarf.  It matches my hat, so now I have a set.

So the next time I lose my motivation to finish a project, I am just going to relabel it in my mind as something new and exciting and hopefully that will get my ass in gear to finish it.  It worked for me this time!

Knitting Time With Grandma

I'm at my Mom's this week, and the awesome thing about Mom and Dad's apartment is that it is directly upstairs from my Grandparents apartment.  Lots of family fun in this building, that is for sure!

Grandma is knitting herself a sweater right now with a pattern she has from the '80s.  There is an amazing photo in the pattern booklet that is just too amazing not to share.

Taken from Patons All in the Family pattern booklet (#609) from 1988, this photo has it all.  The sweater design and colours, the leather skirt, the giant belt(!!), and especially the wicked walkman with those rocking headphones! (Note: this is definitely not the sweater Grandma is working on).

Being around Grandma when she's knitting is great because I'm always able to pick up something new from her.  Spending time with her yesterday, Grandma showed me how to test a pattern's gauge. Ensuring a proper gauge isn't something I've ever done before; partly because I knit simple patterns, and partly because I never learned how! I didn't realize that testing gauge was something you did before you started your project, I thought you incorporated into your project somehow. And because I haven't knit something where gauge really mattered, I never bothered to learn more about it.  But thanks to Grandma, now I know all about knitting a swatch before starting a project. Thanks, Grandma!  I also found an instructional video from Red Heart Yarn (featured below) in case you want to learn more about testing gauge too (I actually have the tool featured in the video, I've just never used it!)

Knitting Bag of Shame

There is a bag of knitting sitting on a random shelf that has been there for almost half a year now.  The bag holds a third finished scarf, the required needles, and a few balls of yarn.  The bag also must have my motivation in it, as I have absolutely no desire to finish this project.  The problem I’m finding with this particular scarf is that it is BIG, LONG, and WIDE.  I am using a double strand to make it THICK too.  This scarf also has no pattern, other than stockinette stitch and colour changes where I see fit.  Even though I am using a bigger needle (8mm), the scarf seems to be taking forever.  As I have no pattern, I don’t have the comfort of knowing if I am on row 32 of 65, or 10 of 100.  I have no idea how far along I am, and that makes it seem like it will never be finished.  Also, every time I hold the scarf up around my neck it doesn’t feel or look any longer, which doesn’t reassure me that an end is indeed in sight.

What keeps me from just ripping out all the stitches and washing my hands of this GIANT scarf, is that I really want the finished product.  I am knitting it to match my Grandma’s Coat, and I have already put so much time into it, that it would be a shame not to finish it.  I worked on it for a few hours last week, but now it is back in the bag along with my motivation to complete it.  :(

Is there a project you’re working on that you want to finish but it seems like it will never get done?  Maybe we could encourage one another! :)

Different Styles of Cupcakes

My friend Alison recently had a cupcake tasting party, so we could try some vegan cupcakes she has been experimenting with.  The cupcakes are being made for our friend Sarah's upcoming wedding, and due to her lactose intolerance, a vegan recipe is a good way to ensure the bride can enjoy her wedding cupcakes along with her guests.

Since I have been expanding my double pointed needle skills, I thought I would make a knit cupcake to take to the hostess of the tasting party.  Following a pattern I found through Ravelry (the only place I seem to get my patterns now), I knit this quick and easy cupcake.

The cupcakes we sampled were chocolate-banana and vanilla.  Both were good, but the chocolate-banana were exceptional.  I'm looking forward to eating some more at the wedding! :)

All Dressed Up

I am working through the easy projects I put into my Ravelry queue.  I knit this fancy little dishcloth dress rather quickly and I think it came out quite well.

It is supposed to be a dishcloth, but I don’t think it’s all that practical.  It looks super cute though!  The photo that went with the pattern had it hanging off of a bottle of dish soap.  So sweet!  I couldn’t get mine on a bottle of dish soap (it is resting on a bottle of hot sauce in the above photo!), as I didn’t make the neck opening as big as the pattern suggested.  To make the neck opening bigger I would have had to crochet a chain, and I wasn’t in the mood to learn to crochet the day I knit this.  Maybe next time.

While knitting this dress, I was reminded of the cute little dresses that my Nanny and Aunt Shirley used to make for Barbie dolls to wear that would cover up a toilet paper roll.  When I was young, I think every relative we would visit had one of those Barbies in the bathroom guarding the toilet paper.  :)

2d(pn)6

I’m just going to put it out there that I play Dungeons and Dragons (D&D).  I haven’t been playing very long (I am only on my second “campaign”) but I play enough that it was decided that I should have my own set of dice - preferably pink dice.  So we went on a trip to the game store in Barrie and I picked out some pretty cute dice that I can now infuse with my power so they can assist me on my campaigns.  I don’t actually believe that one can infuse dice with power, but my character does, so I’m doing it for her. ;)

I got my dice home and realized I needed a dice bag.  Thanks to my new addiction to Ravelry and all the geeky patterns within, I quickly found at least ten dice bag patterns to choose from.  Only problem - they all involved double pointed needles.

As with most new knitting techniques, I was intimidated to try using double pointed needles (dpn).  I’ve had a set of dpn’s for over a year, but five needles instead of two sounded a little to advanced for my abilities.  That is actually my line of thinking about all new techniques - they must be too advanced for me.  It is silly to think this way, as I have continually proved to myself that I am capable of learning new things, but I still have this hesitation to start projects that have new techniques.  It probably has something to do with my self-imposed perfectionism - that inner voice that is demanding me to “make sure you do it right.”  I just have to keep in mind that trying something new is amazing in itself and if at first I don’t succeed, I can try, try, again.

Thus was my experience in learning to use double pointed needles.  Even with the help of an internet teacher,  it took me three tries to get it right.  My first attempt, I had my stitches cast on evenly across four of the needles, but when I knit them “in the round” I did it in such a way that the needles didn’t come together in a square like they are supposed to.  Oops.  I pulled out the stitches and tried again.

This is wrong somehow...

My second attempt, I got the needles to form a square, but must have crossed my stitches, because it just didn’t look right. Plus one of the needles fell out of the stitches it was holding, which made me a little cranky, and without thinking on how to fix it, I just pulled the rest of the stitches out and prepared to try again.

Third time was the charm.  Something just clicked and I was knitting in the round as if I knew how.  Following my internet instructor's advice, I put a stitch marker on my first needle, so that I would know where the start of my “round” was.  I don’t actually own stitch markers but a twisted pink paperclip worked perfectly for my purposes.  This was incredibly helpful, as I can’t imagine having to remember where the round started - that sounds like far too much counting for me.

Much better...

I am really happy with how my dice bag turned out.  It is adorably pink for my adorably pink D&D dice.

The only problem I experienced with this project, is that by the time I finished, my left hand was cramped and achy from the hours of holding the square of needles.  Plus, the points on my needles are quite sharp, and the index fingertip of my left hand was actually red from repeatedly being stabbed with the right hand needle.  The next project I make with dpn’s, I am going to try and be more aware of how intensely/awkwardly I am holding the work in my left hand, so that I don’t end up with carpal tunnel syndrome.  As for the fingertip stabbing - I wonder if this is what people use thimbles for?  I just might have to get one.

Everybody Get Together

Through the magic of the internet I found myself signed up to a social networking site that is specifically for knitters and crocheters.  Called Ravelry, it has been around since 2007 and Wikipedia says it has about 600,000 users.  Well, about 600,001 now.  I don’t exactly need another internet obsession in my life, but now that I have joined, I am so into it.

The hours that I have spent on Ravelry so far have involved setting up my profile and searching the countless patterns available to the community.  In the profile section, you get to list projects you are working on, post photos of finished work, have an RSS feed of your blog, list all the needles you own, and list all the yarn you have on hand. There is even a cool function that lets you save patterns into a page called the “queue”.   The queue lets you keep track of all the patterns you have found online that you want to try.  I already have nine patterns saved in my queue, as I spent the weekend searching through all the different patterns this site has to offer.  There are literally thousands, and many of them are free.  In my extended search I found quite a few patterns that are geek oriented (Star Wars, Firefly, superhero themed) and I’m excited to knit some geeky things in the future.  I put a pattern for knit Chainmail in my queue!  Is that geeky or what?

I haven’t engaged in the social networking aspect of the site yet, but there are hundreds of groups to join - everything from Tim Hortons Lovers to fans of Lord of the Rings.  I have only just grazed the surface of everything there is to find on Ravelry, and I have a feeling I'm going to be completely obsessed by the time I finish exploring it.

Ready, Willing, and... Cable?

This weekend, I spent more time than I would like to admit surfing through free online knitting patterns.  I love what can be created though knitting, and even though I only have basic skills, I love clicking on the photos of finished projects and looking at them dreamily, with the thought that "one day I could tackle you".  I am still learning, but that doesn't mean I should be intimidated by abbreviations I don't know or techniques/tools I have never used before (I'm looking at you circular needles!).  Even though I still consider myself a beginner, with each new technique I learn, the more capable I become to tackle complex patterns (I'm looking at you fancy design charts!).

I am a little intimidated to take on big projects when I am learning something new.  I like to have some sort of grasp of what I am doing before I commit to a giant project, so I'm not just free-wheeling it and hoping it works out properly.  Knitting is a fun process in itself, so it wouldn't be a complete let down if I worked on something and it didn't turn out, but I do enjoy the satisfaction of having something awesome to show for my efforts. 

Yesterday I learned how to make a cable.  It was way easier than I thought it would be, and I watched this amazing video on YouTube that showed me exactly how to do it.  I absolutely love YouTube for it's massive amount of 'How to Knit' videos.  I am a highly visual learner, so being able to watch someone knit is incredibly helpful.  Free knitting teacher in my house at the click of a button?  Yes, please! Big thanks to everyone who records themselves knitting and posts it on the internet!  You really are teaching me to knit!

The small project I tackled to learn cabling was a coffee cup sleeve.  I have made coffee cups sleeves before with a different pattern, but I was happy to make another one because they are so practical and quick to complete. 

Here is my first attempt at cabling:

And here are my efforts as a coffee cup sleeve:

This patten was free online, and you can find it here.  I am happy that I learned a new technique!  Pretty soon I'll be knitting circular sweater dresses like the pros!  :)

We Go Together Like a Cat and a Ball of Yarn

Sometimes I sort though my stash of yarn to see what colours I have forgotten about.  Organizing for me is playtime for Gary.

This is bliss.

So is this.

So. Much. Fun.

A little grooming on the yarn pile.

She needs a small break from all the joy.

Rolling around some more.

Sweet and innocent with her stash.

Getting to Know My Mother's Mother

A year ago, my parents moved out of the family home they lived in for more than 32 years. During the clean up and move we got rid of literally tonnes of junk and donatables, and discovered some treasures that had been accidentally hidden many years ago. One of the treasures we found turned out to be incredibly important to me: Grandma Barb’s knit sweater.

I didn’t know my Grandma Barb. She was my Mother’s Mother, and she died in a car accident in 1964. It is somewhat awkward to write about because the Grandma I do know, Grandma Sue, has been married to my Granddad for 43 years, so calling her “step” Grandma seems weird to me because she is not my step anything - she’s my Grandma. Finding the knit sweater reminded me that Grandma Barb is my Grandma too, and wearing it gave me a connection to her that I had never really known how to find before.

My parents move was overwhelming in a lot of ways, so when I brought the sweater home last March, I didn’t know how much I would fall in love with it and how much impact it would have on my life. That is why it spent some time on the floor with the countless other things I brought home that day. At least Gary knew it was special right away and showed it the love that only a cat can.

Gary knows a great sweater when she sees one

The story goes that Grandma Barb knit five sweaters in 1960, one for herself, her husband, and each of her three children. They were made from Mary Maxim patterns, each sweater having a particularly Canadiana type theme; my Mom’s sweater had figure skates on it. Adorable. The sweaters were put away for the summer in 1961, stored in garbage bags, which resulted in four of them mistakenly being taken to the dump and lost forever. The only survivor was Grandma Barb’s sweater, the one I have now, and it has amazingly made it all the way to 2010. It is hard for me to wrap my head around it, but this sweater is fifty years old! What a life it has had.

My Mother wore the sweater constantly throughout her twenties. She recently showed me some photos of herself, at twenty years old, wearing it out to a winter carnival in Barrie, circa 1968.  Somehow the sweater is still as colourful now as it was then.  My Mother is too, actually.

My Mother and the coat circa 1968

My Mother is a beautiful person - inside and out

Every place my Mother moved, the sweater moved with her. It eventually ended up in the house I grew up in, hidden in plain sight in the coat closet. My sister wore it for a few years in the ‘90s, but returned it when she was finished, and back into the closet it went. I claimed it in March 2009, and began wearing it non-stop when the temperatures got colder in Autumn. I fell head over heals for this sweater, decided it was a coat, and was determined to wear it all winter long, regardless of how cold the temperature got.  I wore a fleece jacket underneath the sweater, providing it with a make-shift lining that every northern Ontario coat needs, and wore it for the entire winter.  I even knit myself a matching winter hat to go with it - I could not leave home without this coat!

I would be the first one to tell you that I don’t know a thing about fashion. I don’t follow trends and I definitely don't know anything about what’s “in”. That is why it completely floored me when every outing I made in the coat led to compliments from, and conversations with, strangers. I started wearing the coat when the world was gearing up for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.  The official Olympic clothes riffed on the Canadiana style, so Grandma Barb’s coat was fashionable. A stranger even told me I was “sooooooo in right now”. For the first time in my life I was fashion-forward, and I just so happened to be using a coat that was fifty years old to do it!

Every time I got a compliment, I would tell the person: “My Grandma made this coat in 1960!” This lead to conversations about legacy at the grocery store, discussions about how awesome knitting is, and being able to share the Grandma I never knew with strangers who fell in love with her coat as much as I had.  Over the winter I got to know Grandma Barb a little better by taking her with me and telling people about her. I also got to tell everyone that I stole the coat from my Mom, which brought her along with me as well.  All this heritage surrounded me, just by wearing and loving a pretty amazing old coat.

Me, Mom, and Grandma Barb, all in one!

The Olympics are over now and Spring is here.  I still don't know anything about fashion, so I don't know if this coat will still be "in" this coming winter.  I'll still be wearing it regardless and if anyone asks, I'll gladly tell them all about my Grandma Barb and the sweater she knit, all those years ago.

For the Coffee and Knitting Enthusiasts

When I first started knitting a year ago, my friend Tasha sent me a link to a pattern for Coffee Cup Sleeves.  These sleeves wrap around your take out coffee cup (or non-handled travel mug) so that your hands are protected from the burning hot coffee.  If you carry your coffee sleeve with you, you'll never have to use the disposable ones from your favourite Coffee Shop.  This project is practical and eco-friendly!  When I first saw it, I knew this pattern was awesome, but I hadn't had a chance to try it out until now.

The Coffee Cup Sleeve is a quick project to complete and you could probably make two in an evening, depending on your ability to work through distractions.  I am still relatively new to knitting, so I still find it difficult to concentrate on knitting and anything else at the same time.  If there is a movie on, my hands frequently stop moving if I am focusing on a scene.  Also, I still haven't mastered the art of knowing how many rows I have made in a certain stitch so I really have to focus on keeping track.  I often use a cheat sheet and check off each row I complete, so if I am doing 10 rows of Stockinette Stitch, I write the numbers 1 through 10 on a piece of paper and check off each row as I finish it.  I'm not sure if this is how expert knitters do it, but it works for me.

I really like this pattern because it is easy and practical.  My mom now has one in her purse and I went out and got myself a Tim Horton's just so I could try mine out.  I like when my reward for knitting is Tim Horton's!  

A Different Kind of Farm Hand

I began knitting just over a year ago and I am always looking around for new and free patterns to try out.  I love knitting as both a pastime and as a practical skill; knowing that I can make my own clothing and accessories is incredibly satisfying.  This year I didn't have to buy a new winter hat to go with my new coat - I just knit one.  The total cost was $3 for wool and a few nights spent knitting. Right now I have a knitting "To Do" list that is miles long and I have two or three unfinished projects on the go.  As with the many creative projects I am working on, sometimes starting/completing a  knitting project is all about having the right amount of motivation and inspiration.

This week my inspiration and motivation were sparked by my nephew Earl's upcoming birthday.  Earl is turning five years old this week and I decided to knit him a gift that reflected one of his favourite things: farming.  Living in the country, my nephew is definitely an up and coming country boy who regularly rides on tractors with his dad, collects John Deere farm toys, and owns a pair of cowboy boots!  I found a perfect (and easy!) farm knitting pattern online: Farm Finger Puppets.  There are five characters to create (one for each digit!) and each one takes about an hour or so to make, depending on skill level. 

Farmer, Dairy Cow, Duck, Horse, and Pig.  The Duck is by far my favourite.

I only started knitting a year ago, so often while working on a new project I have to learn new techniques as I go.  For the finger puppets, I learned how to knit an I-Cord, do a Make-1 Increase, and finish with a Mattress Seam.  By no means can I execute any of these new techniques perfectly or do I have them completely memorized, but working as I go, I am able to get the basic idea enough that I can complete a project and be proud of it.  I have a feeling that being an expert knitter comes with years of practice, so until I get to that point, I happy to know that I am able to learn the basics free and easily online.  No project is off limits!

Will a five year old in 2010 even like these finger puppets?  I definitely think they are adorable, but I am not sure what children think of toys that don't blink laser lights, or make loud noises at the press of a button. These might not be a technologically advanced toy, but they are simple, cute, and hopefully will spark some ideas in my nephew's imagination.