Introductions.

It should have been apparent to me as soon as I began to knit feverishly that it was only a matter of time before I started keeping a record of some type to remember all of my frustrations, anxieties, successes, ambitions and purposes. Now that I'm getting closer to opening my online shop, that thought is becoming better than ever. The idea of blogging about my knitting experiences first came to me when I began to look around for a blog to read as I developed as a knitter. I found plenty of knitting blogs, but not a whole lot that were meant for people in the earliest stages of their lives as knitters. So here is my place to post what does and doesn't work, patterns I've found or created and other nifty stuff. When I open my shop this fall, I'll post all of my products here ahead of time to give everyone a chance to snag stuff up before the rest of the world does. I'm also hoping that this blog gives me the chance to meet with like-minded thinkers, and get myself wholly involved in the world of knitting.

That said, I suppose I'll talk a little about my two current projects. My first is a rather ambitious midnight blue blanket. The plan is to create a blanket that resembles the midnight sky. It's made out of soft acrylic, dark blue yarn. I chose size 10 circular needles to make it nice and tight and defined.


Seed Stitch
If using an odd number of stitches:
Row 1: k1, *p1, k1; rep. from *
Repeat this row

If using an even number of stitches:
Row 1: *k1, p1; rep. from *
Row 2: *p1, k1; rep. from*
Repeat these rows.

I'm trying the seed stitch for the first time, which is easy enough- knit, purl, knit purl, forever- as long as you keep remember to do so. If not, you get this annoying ribbing. Naturally, I screwed up. Another thing I constantly had to remind myself to do was to move my yarn back to front, front to back. Otherwise you end up adding stitches. I had to place close attention in the beginning. I also discovered that all odd stitches will be knit and all even stitches will be purled. I used an odd number of stitches (125) and discovered quickly that if I arrived at the end of my row and the last stitch was a knit, then I was set. If it was a purl, I need to go back. Because I was new to this stitch, and a bit lazy, I didn't. I didn't really have an idea what I was looking for because I didn't have much experience, and I was to lazy to do the whole row again. So I kept going, and going, and going. Well, about 5 inches in, my little mistake became glaringly obvious. After thinking about how to fix or hide, I opted to just tear the whole thing up a start again. This time I add 20 more stitches just to be safe. It's taken awhile to work up, but I'm getting there. I'm so glad that the dark cloud that was my screw up is know longer hanging over my head. Once I get this all finished, the next step is going to be adding the stars. That's going to be my finishing touch. I want to place little yellow stars all over the blanket. That's my next challenge. Learning how to knit stars. Tomorrow I'll show you the ridiculously crazy yarn I'm using to make a scarf with. If I can get my old camera working properly.