Custom Fit

After seven years of being a mom, my body has changed a lot. So have my tastes in fashion (thank God, if I still dressed like I did when I was twenty I'd make people laugh). Unfortunately, my body doesn't always fit my tastes.

Over the last six months, I became increasingly aware that my clothes weren't looking that great on me anymore. Coincidentally, I began knitting six months ago. I have pored over pattern after pattern on Ravelry, looking for tops I could knit for myself. I came up with nothing, because everything I wanted to make, wouldn't look that great on me. More fitted tops accentuate my pooch and love handles (when did those get there?!?!?!), and a looser top just makes me look like I'm wearing a tent. Right around Christmas I fell in love with Camden. My first thought was, "This body can't pull off that sweater".  I really liked it though, so I added it to my favorite patterns list.

Just after New Years, I was getting out of the shower in our hotel room, and couldn't help but glance at my body (Why do hotels have wall to wall mirrors? Some of us don't like looking at our bodies that much!) And I just felt sad for myself. My husband deserves a sexier wife, my kids deserve a mom that is in enough shape to dance around crazy with them, and my clothes deserve a body that they can look good on.

After a couple of weeks of moping around, I came across Camden again, and I decided I was going to make that sweater damnit, and I was going to look good in it! I am estimating it will take me a few months to complete this project, just enough time for me to get back in shape! I'm very excited to complete both goals and can't wait to post the picture of me in my new sweater!

Pieces of Me

It has been a stressful but joyous holiday season. With all the shopping, cooking, present giving, and family visits done and over with, I finally have time to sit and write. Shortly after the new year began, my husband and I packed up our kids into the car and headed to Vegas, where my mother-in-law and her hubby were vacationing. I was forewarned of cold weather, so I made sure to pack hats, gloves, and scarves for everyone. I was secretly happy for the cold, because that meant I had an excuse to make my 15-month-old wear his brand new knit beanie (I was inspired to make it from this blog: Coffeebra).

Before this trip, I had NO idea how much my projects meant to me. I have made a few things for others, and I always felt a little pang whenever I would send the finished product off to its new owner. I quickly got over it by starting a new project. It took a baby who hates wearing hats to teach me how important my knitting really is for me.

Twice during our trip, I thought we had lost his beanie. I need to start off with saying that my daughter lost hers right away. I really didn't care, it was something we got at Wal-Mart for $1. Just two hours later, I thought my son had dropped his while we were out shopping. I FREAKED out, frantically tearing up our hotel room in search of it. I have to say that I have a wonderful husband, he was right there next to me helping me look. I was relieved to find it on the floor of our car when we left the hotel later that evening. My second scare happened when we returned to our car after going out for dinner that night. I was so happy when we found it again in the car, it was like being reunited with a lost child. As we were driving back to our hotel, I realized how much knitting really meant to me, why I felt that pang whenever I would give away something I spent time making. No matter the size of my projects, I grow to love them with every stitch I make. All the frustrations I suffer when I make mistakes are long forgotten when I hold up the finished product.

For some people, its their cooking, others photography, the list goes on. We all have that one thing we love to do that we pour our heart and soul into. For me, it really is knitting. So as I go on and on about my infatuation with this craft, you can sit there and look at me like I'm crazy all you want. That's fine with me, I just won't be knitting anything for you anytime soon.

Growing Up is Hard to Do

I've only been knitting for five months, but I feel like I have been doing this for years. My knitting skills are much more advanced than they were even 3 months ago. I try to view every new project as an opportunity to learn. No other project as helped me grow as a knitter as much as my current one. Let me start off by saying that when I first found this project the pattern said it was "designed for the discriminating knitter". Which I took as, "This is not your average blanket so be ready to put some work into it." Since I learned early on to practice new patterns in my gauge square (avoiding mistakes in the actual projects), I was up for the challenge.

It seemed easy enough for me. the pattern consists of cabling and lace. I've done cabling no problem, it was the lace that terrified me a bit. So I decided to practice it before I started. After about 4 tries, I felt I had learned to do the lace portion of the pattern just fine. I decided to go ahead and cast on. About 16 rows into the pattern, I stopped and realized I had messed up. A lot. So I cried in frustration for about thirty seconds, and frogged it. I started over again, and caught myself making the same mistakes, but this time I realized it much sooner and took a deep breath and unknitted back to the point of my mistake. Pretty soon, I was getting the hang of it. Then I suddenly realized how I would keep making the same mistakes. By this point my head was pretty clear and I decided to try to come up with a better solution rather than give myself a few seconds of deep breathing before tinking back. My biggest problem is that I would keep forgetting yarn overs.

Let me stop for a second to explain WHY this is such a big deal. When it comes to a row with yarn overs I make about thirty. Missing just ONE would be very noticable. The only thing is, its hard to notice you missed one until you get to the next row.

Fortunately for me, I discovered that I could easily pick up some yarn from the previous row and mock a yarn over, and it really doesn't look that different! I stood up and did a booty dance. Okay not literally, my family would laugh at me, but in my head I was doing it. 

I'd like to say that it was smooth sailing, but sadly, it wasn't. No one is perfect, especially not me. As much as I try to pay attention and count everything, I still mess up. Sometimes I forget to change up my pattern, other times I accidentally drop a bunch of stitches. The only difference is that now I know how to fix my mistakes with grace and you can't even tell. I wouldn't call myself a stitch "Doctor" just yet, but I have definitely progressed to stitch "Nurse."

Looking Through Rose Colored Glasses

I was just logged into Ravelry looking at my completed projects, and I came to the realization that I REALLY like pink. With a exception of the brown shrug I made for my first project, everything has some sort of pink worked into it. Apparently, I have yet to discover other parts of the color spectrum! So I think that I will ban pink from future projects for awhile, maybe until my birthday in March.

I don't exactly remember where I read it, but I read a blog where this girl would buy sweaters or other knit items that were on sale in stores, and unravel it to use the yarn for another project! Genius! Why didn't I think of this?! I am contemplating sneaking into my mom's closet and stealing some of her ugliest sweaters (none are pink!) to take apart and use for my own projects... maybe I can make her something less ugly, haha. Talk about being green and recycling!

Warning: Project in picture may turn out better than it appears

So there's a saying that goes, "Never judge a book by it's cover." In the knitting world, it would be, "Never judge a pattern by its picture." I would have to say that is my BIG lesson this month.

Everyone seems to be having babies. I recently completed my first baby blanket which went ok, my gauge was wacky, but I my friend won't even notice ;) . Last week, I realized I have to begin the blanket for my husbands cousin, and soon, seeing that she's due in less than TWO months. AND another friend of mine asked if I could make a blanket for her sisters baby (thankfully, I can put that one off for awhile as she JUST found out she was expecting) So I jumped on Ravelry and began searching for baby blanket patterns. After two hours, I went to bed with a headache. I logged on this morning to look at a project someone had made and saw a blanket she had completed a few months ago. It was gorgeous. What's funny is that, the pattern she used was the one I was going to originally use to make the first baby blanket. I changed my mind after I found a pattern for a "cuter" blanket.

How wrong I was to base my cuteness scale on a picture. You would think I would know by now that there are three factors that determine the outcome of any knitting project: yarn, needles, and the hands that make it. So OF COURSE my project would look much different than a picture of the same project someone else made. From now on, I will definitely keep this important lesson in mind when searching patterns. As I type this, I realize this epiphany of sorts doesn't make my life any easier. In fact, it does the opposite, because NOW, when I search patterns, I will envision how different it can look with a different type and color yarn!

This is why I need to just create my own patterns...

I'm officially a designer!!

If you look under the "Designs" tab you will see a special section to help you search for things created just by yours truly! I have put up my very first pattern, the Hello Kitty leg warmers my sister requested for her birthday. I searched for hours on the web trying to find something remotely close to what my sister wanted, but found nothing. So I decided to just try to make some on my own. While I loved the challenge of creating my own pattern, I think I need to work on my knitting skills just a bit more before tackling any more . Feed back is very welcome, please feel free to share any changes you may have made when making this for yourself!

Hello Kitty Legwarmers

Finished measurements:

Gauge: 4”= 26 sts

Materials:

Size 5 US dpns (set of 4)

(A) 2 skeins Berroco Pure Merino DK in Black Magic (100% Merino 50 grams/126 yards)

(B) 1 skein Colinette Cadenza in Magenta (100% Merino 50 grams/132 yards)

(C) 1 skein Berroco Pure Merino DK in Ecru (100% Merino 50 grams/126 yards)

(D) 1 skein Berroco Pure Merino DK in Cardinal (100% Merino 50 grams/126 yards)

(E) 1 skein Berroco Pure Merino in Mimosa  (100% Merino 50grams/92 yards)

3 stitch markers

**Note Color (E) is only going to be used for two stitches (really) so if you have any leftover yellow yarn that you think will work for her nose, feel free to substitute it in**

CO 64 sts with (A). Divide sts onto 3 needles (20, 20, 24) Make sure the needle you will be working with first has the largest amount of sts.

Join in round. Place stitch marker to indicate beginning of round.

With (A), work 1x1 rib for 12 rnds

*With (B) knit across for 8 rnds

With (A) knit across for 8 rnds

Repeat from * 2 more times

Begin working row 1 of color chart 1 for 24 sts. Finish round with (B)

Continue in this fashion through row 8 of color chart 1

Begin working row 9 of color chart 1 for 24 sts. Finish round with (A)

Continue in this fashion through row 16 of color chart 1

Begin working row 17 of color chart 1 for 24 sts. Finish round with (B)

Continue in this fashion through row 24 of color chart 1

With (A), work 1x1 rib for 12 rnds.

BO loosely

repeat for second legwarmer except use color chart 2

Color Chart 1

Color Chart 2

Burn, baby, burn

I've become somewhat of a yarn snob. I didn't mean to, honestly. I started out trying to be frugal, after all, not knowing how deep into it I was about to get. So when I began working on the back pack for my daughter, I figure, hey its for a six-year-old, no reason to drop a load of cash for her. How wrong I was. I fished out $20 for four skeins of worsted 100% acrylic yarn, and was left with a LOT of left over yarn. I've used it to knit a couple of cell phone covers, and currently working on a hat with kitty ears. Let me tell you, any time I have good yarn I spent good money on, I am quick to begin working with it. My kitty ear hat sits forlorn on my nightstand, day after day, while I knit up blankets, hats, legwarmers, and a shrug with better quality yarn.

So why the standoffish attitude towards the cheap yarn? I like quality. I understand that for most things, if you skimp on the dollar, you skimp on the quality. My husband is just now beginning to understand why I'll spend $60 for a pair of jeans at a department store, instead of $20 at a discount store. Cheaper yarn generally isn't high in quality. The manufacturer uses a percentage of the fiber that makes good quality yarn, and substitutes acrylic in for the rest, making it cheaper to produce. So obviously the cheapest yarn out there will be 100% acrylic. While that makes it easy on my wallet, it takes its toll on my knitting. It's hard for me to work with. I find myself putting more effort into making those stitches because the yarn won't slide off my needle or through the old stitch easily. I don't know why, but it also dried out my hands. Besides, the finished product just LOOKS cheap. I don't want to make something that looks like it could be purchased at the local dollar store. I'm tempted to host a bonfire and just use all that acrylic for kindle. I wonder how it will burn? I know that sounds dark, but really, that's how much I dislike that yarn. I am now a firm believer that acrylic should be for my nails ONLY.  From here on out, if it isn't found in nature (on a plant or from an animal/worm) then it isn't for me!