I'm not really sure why I decided not to blog for the entire month of April. It wasn't really intentional, but it happened! Sister was in town for spring break so that accounts for a good chunk of my time, but the rest is just laziness I guess :)
A slight employment update: I did not get the job I interviewed for last month :( But I've had over twenty sub assignments over the past few months. So that's good. I've also spent a lot of time on education employment websites (yes, those are a real thing) and I've been applying all over the state of California (shhhh don't tell my roomies. haha, just kidding. I live with my parents. They are looking for an excuse to kick me out.)
But the main reason I wanted to post today? To share about my latest yarn project!
I usually have several WIP but I tend to focus on one at a time for an extended period of time. So my VIP WIP right now is the making waves scarf from The Knitter's Bible- Knitted Accessories. It is a beautiful pattern and I love it, BUT it has also been the hardest project I've attempted probably ever.
I know what you are thinking. A scarf? Really? That's a knitting 101 first project that all yarn crafters do. Scarves can be made in a matter of a few hours. They are the mindless activity of the yarn world. Well. This is not your typical mindless scarf pattern.
I started this project on Super Bowl Sunday (a.k.a. national knitters/crocheters day). It took me the entire day to figure out the pattern. In case you didn't know, I'm a self-taught knitter (via youtube). I don't even know what style I knit in (Continental vs. English). I also don't know most knitting abbreviations or how to do most stitches. Crochet, on the other hand, feels like a second language to me and I rarely have to look up techniques (that's what happens when you start at age 8!) Thankfully the book I am using has an index in the back (as do most yarn craft books) with directions and PICTURES (most important part) for the stitches used throughout the book. And if pictures ever fail me, there is always the internet (I swear you can learn anything on youtube). So, all this to say I had to spend a decent amount of time decoding the pattern.
To create a wavy look in a knitted scarf you have to alternate between increases and decreases. I got really hung up on on the increase section. In crochet, the instructions call it like it is and label steps as increase or decrease. This pattern doesn't even mention them. I had to figure that out as I was knitting. So when I read (p1, yo, p1) into next stitch, I went, huh??? It involved a lot of me staring at the page, knitting what I thought I was supposed to do, ripping out the stitches and starting again. Luckily I don't care much about football so I didn't mind that I was completely missing the game (Sister denies our relationship whenever I state this fact). But, by the end of the day, I was successful. I had figured out the wave pattern. And, you only do that for two out of eight rows. So that should mean there was only potential for stress 25% of the time. hah.
Any seasoned knitter will tell you that knitting builds on the previous stitches and if you make ONE error-- one dropped stitch, one step you didn't follow correctly, anything-- you will be messed up FOR THE REST OF THE PROJECT.
Now if you like your knitted items to change appearance as you knit ("it's artsy!") then this is not a problem for you. For the rest of the world, this is probably the single greatest reason people don't knit. It's incredibly frustrating to realize FIVE rows later that you made a mistake. In crochet, if you make a mistake, it's not that big of a deal. Find the error and rip back your stitches back to that spot (unless you find an error in row one and you are on row fifty-- in that case, if you didn't notice until now, probably no one else will either so let it go ;) Ripping out your stitches in knitting is, as far as I am concerned, impossible. You can't just put your needle back in where you want to start, not if you are working with a scarf that is 39 stitches wide. You have to do that for every single stitch, one at a time. And chances are, as you are slowly putting each loop back on your needle, the next five will come out and as you are trying to fix those five, the next thirty will fall apart.
My particular method to fix my knitting errors is to basically "unknit" my scarf. I don't know if this is an actual technique or if there is a better way out there (please someone tell me there is!!) Instead of knitting, I reverse and unknit each stitch. It's a tedious process and it is very disheartening to watch it slowely unravel. The whole time all I can think about is how I want to be creating something instead!
So, although I adore this project it has made me want to tear my hair out more than once. My biggest complaint is that I keep messing up the wave rows and don't catch it in time so I have to rework my scarf A LOT-- super frustrating. I'm sure it will all be worth it in the end, right??
I probably would never have tried this color combination on my own, but the pattern I'm following had a similar color scheme to it, so there you go. I completely forgot to save my yarn labels. A quick search through Micheals.com yarn makes me think think the green is Lily Sugar 'n' Cream and the multi is Patons Wool but I can't find either skein on the respective company websites, so go figure.
Right now my scarf is about 34" long; at the rate I'm going, I might be finished as early as next month! Wow, that sounds unrealistic. I'll give myself till July at which time it will absolutely impractical to wear a scarf. Awesome, I time these things well!!
A slight employment update: I did not get the job I interviewed for last month :( But I've had over twenty sub assignments over the past few months. So that's good. I've also spent a lot of time on education employment websites (yes, those are a real thing) and I've been applying all over the state of California (shhhh don't tell my roomies. haha, just kidding. I live with my parents. They are looking for an excuse to kick me out.)
But the main reason I wanted to post today? To share about my latest yarn project!
I usually have several WIP but I tend to focus on one at a time for an extended period of time. So my VIP WIP right now is the making waves scarf from The Knitter's Bible- Knitted Accessories. It is a beautiful pattern and I love it, BUT it has also been the hardest project I've attempted probably ever.
I know what you are thinking. A scarf? Really? That's a knitting 101 first project that all yarn crafters do. Scarves can be made in a matter of a few hours. They are the mindless activity of the yarn world. Well. This is not your typical mindless scarf pattern.
I started this project on Super Bowl Sunday (a.k.a. national knitters/crocheters day). It took me the entire day to figure out the pattern. In case you didn't know, I'm a self-taught knitter (via youtube). I don't even know what style I knit in (Continental vs. English). I also don't know most knitting abbreviations or how to do most stitches. Crochet, on the other hand, feels like a second language to me and I rarely have to look up techniques (that's what happens when you start at age 8!) Thankfully the book I am using has an index in the back (as do most yarn craft books) with directions and PICTURES (most important part) for the stitches used throughout the book. And if pictures ever fail me, there is always the internet (I swear you can learn anything on youtube). So, all this to say I had to spend a decent amount of time decoding the pattern.
To create a wavy look in a knitted scarf you have to alternate between increases and decreases. I got really hung up on on the increase section. In crochet, the instructions call it like it is and label steps as increase or decrease. This pattern doesn't even mention them. I had to figure that out as I was knitting. So when I read (p1, yo, p1) into next stitch, I went, huh??? It involved a lot of me staring at the page, knitting what I thought I was supposed to do, ripping out the stitches and starting again. Luckily I don't care much about football so I didn't mind that I was completely missing the game (Sister denies our relationship whenever I state this fact). But, by the end of the day, I was successful. I had figured out the wave pattern. And, you only do that for two out of eight rows. So that should mean there was only potential for stress 25% of the time. hah.
Any seasoned knitter will tell you that knitting builds on the previous stitches and if you make ONE error-- one dropped stitch, one step you didn't follow correctly, anything-- you will be messed up FOR THE REST OF THE PROJECT.
Now if you like your knitted items to change appearance as you knit ("it's artsy!") then this is not a problem for you. For the rest of the world, this is probably the single greatest reason people don't knit. It's incredibly frustrating to realize FIVE rows later that you made a mistake. In crochet, if you make a mistake, it's not that big of a deal. Find the error and rip back your stitches back to that spot (unless you find an error in row one and you are on row fifty-- in that case, if you didn't notice until now, probably no one else will either so let it go ;) Ripping out your stitches in knitting is, as far as I am concerned, impossible. You can't just put your needle back in where you want to start, not if you are working with a scarf that is 39 stitches wide. You have to do that for every single stitch, one at a time. And chances are, as you are slowly putting each loop back on your needle, the next five will come out and as you are trying to fix those five, the next thirty will fall apart.
My particular method to fix my knitting errors is to basically "unknit" my scarf. I don't know if this is an actual technique or if there is a better way out there (please someone tell me there is!!) Instead of knitting, I reverse and unknit each stitch. It's a tedious process and it is very disheartening to watch it slowely unravel. The whole time all I can think about is how I want to be creating something instead!
 |
| My scarf in progress |
So, although I adore this project it has made me want to tear my hair out more than once. My biggest complaint is that I keep messing up the wave rows and don't catch it in time so I have to rework my scarf A LOT-- super frustrating. I'm sure it will all be worth it in the end, right??
Right now my scarf is about 34" long; at the rate I'm going, I might be finished as early as next month! Wow, that sounds unrealistic. I'll give myself till July at which time it will absolutely impractical to wear a scarf. Awesome, I time these things well!!
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