Knitting update...

Wednesday August 27th, 2008

Why have I posted a photograph of some ball's of wool. Well its a sad story really, I started working on a lovely jumper (aka sweater, pullover) for my yet to be born niece about two weeks ago. The pattern was great very simple, no complicated design just one colour. I've been knitting it over the last couple of w/ends when I have a spare moment, knit, purling away. I had 90% done - was so close to being finished - had the back, front and 1 sleeve done.

When...last night I thought I would measure it all just to make sure it was the correct dimensions. After double checking it and getting J to check my measurements just incase I was wrong, it became apparent that I it was out by 1 inch under the arms and the sleeve was out, the front was out and the back was out. The more I measured the more pain I felt, realizing that the only way to fix it would be to undo it all. (The pattern is knitted sideways not across!)

Late last night I worked on another gauge swatch and this morning decided I'll have to go up again in my needle size from 5 to 7, but guess what I don't have the circular needle I need or the double pointed needles in the correct size. So this project is going to be put away till the w/end when I'll pop out and purchase some more needles. It's very annoying to have sooo many needles by none in the size I need!

So my plan was to post a great pic showing a nearly completed jumper, oh well. I'll have to go back to finishing Miss S cardi - alot of sewing in threads on that project. I think that will take a couple more nights, then I will need to block it, sew it together, sew on buttons then - yeah finished. Well one step at a time.

K 4, P4, rep till end then P4, K4 rep till end.....

Wednesday, June 4

This is a busy bee week for me with J away this week, no extra help with S. J will be back home late evening on Thursday & is taking Fri off so we can have a fun day as a family, so far I don't have any plans for Fri, I should start putting together some ideas so we can do some fun activities with S. Sometime during the day we need to do our grocery shopping, which S loves - gives her a great opportunity to check everything out and tell me about it, this makes the shopping trip very exciting and entertaining.

Well I've decided that I wasn't doing enough projects! - what with my scrap booking, needlepoint, recipe book (a huge work in progress), being super mum to S and general household chores etc. I've decided to take up knitting.The other day I was inspired by this book, that I found on Amazon and fell in love with the jumpers (aka sweaters). BTW if you knit you will know the title is the secret knitting language. So I decided to give it a go, ordered the book, purchased wool, needles and re-taught myself. A couple winters ago, I knitted a very chunky scarf with my MIL helping me - it turned out surprisingly well.

I was amazed when I started how I remembered so much, it was like getting back on a bike. You soon remember once you start. My first project for S will be a knitted block. It's a nice project each side is a different knit and measures three and bit inches square, so it's fairly quick to knit. Some pics are below.

My new project!

Green - Seed Stitch

Pale Blue - Single Rib

Pink - Stocking Stitch with Ribbing

Pale Blue - Basket weave Stitch (my favourite)

Pink - Double Rib (actually is a tad small so may need to redo this square.)

Green - Garter Stitch
(ignore my fingers, the knitting curls onto the purl side at the moment, once sewn together the curling will stop!)
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My paternal nanny (aka Grandmother) was fantastic at Knitting - she passed down the secrets to my Aunt, who has 4 girls but unfortunately none are interested in learning to knit. If I can become half the knitter that Nanny was, then I will be getting somewhere. Nanny was known for her cables & Fair Isle sweaters they became true works of art - sorry I don't have a pic to show, wish I did.

I find knitting so relaxing, the feel of the texture as the project grows, knowing it's something that you made & hopefully will be passed down. I'm slowly getting a rhythm together though it's not fast enough to hear the click, click of the needles. I know in time that will happen. So at the moment I'm taking baby steps & plan to make 3-4 blocks for S then will progress onto a hat then jumper. Well better get back to my P4, K4 - it won't knit itself you know! I'll post pics of the finished block within the next week.