I keep finding myself wanting to write about my knitting on blogs dedicated towards other topics, so I'm starting a knitting blog! The idea is that I will post pictures of my projects while making them. Hopefully I'll be consistent with this, though my knitting gets spastic at time. My plan is to post pictures of the pattern I plan to make and the yarn I'll be using before actually starting the project. I'll post pictures during the project, most likely highlighting problem spots or parts that are going particularly well. I want at least 1 "in progress" picture per project. Then once the project is complete I hope to post pictures of it having close ups to show details as well as pictures showing it modeled (if family cooperates when I make something for them) and laying flat.
Now a touch about my experience with knitting. I tried to learn to knit as a child (probably around age 7 or 8, but I really don't know for sure) and it did not go well. All I managed to make was a 13" X 4" rectangular stripped thing in garter stitch. I ended up sewing fringe onto it and using it as a sleeping mat for my Barbies, but it was enough of a failure (it had started out as a scarf, but I just couldn't keep going) that I didn't try my hand at another project. I didn't seem to be able to knit more than two rows without dropping stitches and I couldn't get my tension consistent.
When I was in my late teens I started picking up crocheting, and it seemed pretty easy to me. Bolstered by how good it felt to make something pretty I kept crocheting. After getting married and starting a family I starting making more projects and getting into experienced level projects that while a bit time consuming were rather easy. I tried my hand at knitting again and found that my experience with crocheting had vastly improved my grasp of knitting as well. Patterns were no longer daunting and I enjoyed the challenge that came with learning new stitches and techniques.
I have made a couple sweaters, a hand full of dresses for my two young daughters, several ponchos, shrugs, shawls, hats, scarves, blankets, baby items, and recently I've been experimenting with bags.
I am currently working on a large hobo/market style bag that I am designing as I go. It may end up back in the scrap pile though as I'm not sure I'll have enough yarn to finish it. I could always go buy another skein to finish it, but that really defeats the whole point of my trying to use up scraps (I will admit that I have done this on several occasions in the past). It is brown and I'm using a double seed stitch which is looking very nice for a bag texture. Once I make some real progress on it I will post a picture. It would be a bit weird to post a picture currently as I just recently started it and am not even far enough for it to be a square yet.
I do have a couple goals for this year in knitting. I want to learn some more techniques, one of which is knitting a sweater top-down. I have always worked from the bottom up, but am finding that most of the really beautiful sweaters and dresses are knit top to bottom. I want to complete at least one project this year that is knit from the top down. I also want to learn to graft rib and seed stitch, as I currently only know how to graft stockinette stitch. I want to learn what setting in means when working on a sleeve. It looks very nice, but I need to find out more about it, perhaps by doing a pattern that uses it. Another goal for me this year is to make an utterly hunky sweater for my husband. I made a sweater for him previously, which sagged, stretched, and otherwise contorted itself into an overgrown mess, lol. I have considered ripping it out and using the yarn for something else (he almost never wears it) though the more I knit the more I have this creeping notion that I hate knitting with Red Heart Super Saver yarn. It used to be fine, but now knitting garments with it feels like I imagine eating dirt would feel when you knew you could instead be having a nice thick burger. I want to branch out to using finer higher quality yarns, even if it means doing less projects because the yarn costs more.
I will end here. I've another post to create in which I'll post my 4 upcoming projects, but I'm done with this one!
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