I finished something, woohoo!

Ok I made up a headband pattern and I actually finished it!



Close-up so you can see the ribbing.



This really didn't take too long to make, maybe like a day or two, but then it sat around waiting for a button for like a month.

It ended up being too big for my head, but that's really fine because headbands have never worked for me. I'm going to try to sell this one and see what happens. Maybe someday I really will get an Etsy shop going, we'll see :D

I'm also including pictures of the white cardigan I finished back in May that I haven't posted yet because I hadn't taken yet. No reason, really, just never got around to it. Here they are:




I do like this cardigan, but next time I'll make the sleeves longer and I'm not sure how much I like the button so I would probably change that a bit. With this I learned that you REALLY need to be careful to bind off VERY LOOSELY when doing the edging. It ended up curling funny because I didn't do it loosely enough. I was able to undo it and redo it just fine, though.

Also an update: I am still working on Rachel's dress. I finished one sleeve, but when I started on the next I realized I had read the pattern wrong and made the first sleeve skeewompus. It made sense after I read it, because I wasn't done decreasing by the time the sleeve was to its end and I was wondering how that happened. I'll post pics later so you can see what I mean.

Current projects

I have three.

I am making a grey cardigan, as previously mentioned, but I'm thinking of just making it a vest instead. I finished the back the other day, wooha!

I am trying to come up with a cute headband/earwarmer pattern. I need to add a button to my first attempt and then it will be finished.

I have been very slow in working on Rachel's dress, because I figured it won't fit her until she's at least two. Well, she's almost two, so I'm back to working on that. I'm getting close to finishing the first sleeve, so maybe this week I can start on the other. At the rate I'm going, I might end up giving it to my next child lol.

New project: Grey Cardi

I did finish my white cardi a few months ago, but I haven't gotten a picture of it yet. And after finishing my afghan I was itching for another huge project, so I started this cardigan:

It's gonna take a while, but I hope it's done by the time it starts getting cold. The one I'm making is almost the same colors, but the grey in mine is uniform and the gold is more of a tan and it's a multi. Also I'm not going to put pockets on, and I'm not going to do that goofy vest looking pattern with the gold. Hopefully that will make things go a bit quicker, too.

I'll let you know how it goes!

Finished!

I finished FOUR projects this week!

1) My afghan!!! I finished my afghan!!!
Here's the story one more time. My friend Rizzybet taught me how to crochet my freshman year of college. She taught me how to make snowflake granny squares. I was not very good at it, but I kept trying. I had learned to knit earlier, and made a catastrophe of a scarf that I ended up buying TONS of blue/green multi yarn for, then I pulled it all apart and was left with tons of yarn. I decided to make my snowflakes out of this color, and I wanted to use green as the border.

This worked very well, until my yarn color choices were discontinued! They still had blue/green multi and bright green, but they were not the same color so I couldn't use them. I sulked for many years before my husband finally pushed me to finish the stupid blanket. I finally decided to add a different color, and I chose pink/blue multi with a pink border.

I ran into a problem with the pattern I ended up using to combine the colors. I had absolutely NO extra green yarn, so everything that could be joined with pink had to be. A target pattern ended up working the best, so here it is!


2) I started a beanie and scarf for my brother years ago when he was getting ready for his mission. I finished the scarf a few weeks ago, and I just finished the beanie the other day. No pics, cuz it's just the same hat I always make.

3) Kitty beanie
A friend of mine has really short hair, like girl-hawk short, and she's decided to grow it out. She called for hat donations for the ugly part of the process, so I told her I'd make her a beanie. It only took me a few days to put together, and it was a fun experiment. I ended up throwing in some fair isle stitches, and she asked for kitty ears on it so I found a pattern for that. So cute!


4) I went to Tai Pan Trading with my mom on the way home from a yarn boutique last fall. It was pretty boring, but they did have huge barrels filled with really cute knitted headbands with flowers. I loved them, and what I loved most was that I was SURE I could make them. I've been looking off and on for a pattern ever since. I'm not quite good enough to make up my own pattern, sadly. BUT I found one the other day, and whipped this puppy out in just over a day:



I love it. I think I can sell these for like $8 too :D (let me know if you want to commission one!)

Recently...

Today I plan on putting up more pictures, I promise.

I recently completed my white cardigan. I was not entirely pleased with the results, and I plan to post reasons why with a picture of the final project later on. Mostly I think I had higher hopes for the pattern than it actually yielded. The next cardigan I am planning on making is a different style, so I hope it turns out a bit better.

I took a trip to Germany with my husband a few weeks ago, and had a chance on the plane to work on my snowflake afghan. Since returning home that has been my main project, so I'll be posting some pictures and hopefully a video of that later on as well.

So...see you later!

New Project: White Cardi

Here's the new sweater I'm working on:



I'm doing it in white with a little sparkly. I started it last Monday I think, which was 26. April. We'll see how it goes :D I've already messed up a little...I found a hole a few rows back and had to pull out a few rows to fix it. When I did that my markers came out, and I put them back in the wrong spot. So my sleeve line is going to look a little goofy in one spot :D But I don't think it will be too noticeable.

Current Project Pics

Here are pics of the projects I'm currently working on.

This is what Rachel's dress will look like when I finish it:



Here's the sock pattern I started working on but haven't picked up for three weeks:



And I just started this poncho the other day. It's purple. And for sale.

Rachel's Sweater: GOOD pics

Here's a better pic of the sweater I made for Rachel a few months ago:

Socks!

I started another project lol. I'm making a pair of socks. Kate gave me a bunch of sock yarn, and I realized I have a lot of sock yarn scraps, so I decided to learn to make socks. I'm not very far yet. I find working with size 3 dpns quite difficult, so I'm not nearly as fast on them as I thought I would be. I'll get better, though :D

Today is General Conference, and that means I'm working on my snowflake afghan! I think this might be finished sometime next fall. I'm planning on making most of the snowflakes on the flight to Germany and back in June/July, and then I'll be working on the borders off and on for the rest of the summer and fall. Once I get all the squares it should only take a day or two to put them all together. I'm very excited :D

Rachel's Dress

My mom has a friend who owns a yarn store up in West Valley City (or somewhere around there). She sells really expensive yarn as well as tons of pattern books and needles and hooks and all kinds of stuff. I liked it, but it was really expensive. My mom took me up there when I first started knitting (like the day after I finished my leg warmers) and bought me a pattern book as well as a single pattern for a baby dress for Rachel. She also got me the needles I needed to complete the project. The smallest size is 2T, so I'm not in a huge rush to finish it, which is why I made my purple sweater first :D But I figured since I can't find the needle I need for my next sweater I might as well make this dress now and once Rachel fits into it she can wear it.

Anyway it's a cute dress. It's going to be very warm, as it's intended to be a winter dress. I'm thinking of doing something different with the sleeves because they're huge and silly looking, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

I feel I should start recording the start date of my projects from now on so I have some idea of how long they actually take to complete. This will be helpful when I start commissioning projects, so I can give my customers an accurate time frame.

So. I started Rachel's winter dress yesterday, der 29. Maerz. It could take me over a year to finish, because I don't need those needles or that yarn for anything else. But we'll see what happens :D

Finito! Purple Sweater!

I love my new purple sweater! I've finally finished and perfected it, and I'm wearing it to school tomorrow no matter what anyone says!



Things I learned:
How to cable stitch
You can't add darts to a knitted sweater the way I tried to do it
When binding off an edge that's not going around something (like the collar of this sweater) do it tightly rather than loosely or it curls weird
Keep track of where you are in the pattern somehow! I used a tally system to make sure I knew which row I was on, and when I got off it was nicht gut. I had to undo a few rows, and that always sucks.
When starting with a crochet cast-on, make sure you put the correct loop on your needle or it won't pull off easily like it's supposed to. I'm not sure which is the correct loop, because out of three I only got one right. When I figure it out I'll explain it haha :D

This makes me so excited. I can knit sweaters! Granted this is an easy pattern with no seams, but the point is that I DID it! My next project is going to be a bit more intense if I can ever find the right needles to do it.

Preemptive *squeeeeee!*

I'm not finished with this one yet, but I'm so excited that I'm running around my house saying "Look at my sweater!" to everyone. This will be my second functional project, and as it's for me I'm doubly excited about it. This is to be the first of three sweaters I'm planning on making for myself. As you may recall from an earlier post, I can never find sweaters I like so I decided to make some.
I found the pattern for this one online and fell in love with it mostly because it's purple and I've been wanting a purple sweater to wear to school on Fridays (school colors). Plus I love the collar :D

Alright so here's what I have so far. I've been working on this for just about a month, and I'm pretty impressed with how far I am considering I've taken it apart twice already. Today is exciting because I just joined the two fronts together, and I'd say I'm almost to the halfway point :D Just two more inches, then six more inches, then two sleeves, then collar! Bam! I give it another two months lol. Here's what mine looks like today:
And here's a closeup of the collar. The cables are really pretty.I still have quite a ways to go, but I'm really excited about how well it's turning out :D

Rachel's Sweater

I finished this a while ago but haven't gotten a pic up yet, and these aren't the best anyway since they're from my phone. But here's the cute sweater I made for my daughter!



I'll put up better pics of just the sweater later, but right now I'm just ultra excited that I actually finished a usable project! It's only going to fit her for a few more weeks, but she likes it and so do I :D



Things I learned:
How to guesstimate pattern changes as necessary when using a different size yarn
How to knit sleeves :D
How to follow a more difficult pattern
How to effectively bind off
How to adjust sweater length after you finish the project and it's too short lol


COUNT YOUR STITCHES AS YOU GO!!

Things I'd do differently:
I'd still like to make it a little longer haha
It calls for a button on the front that I didn't add. I think I'd like to put one on but I just haven't gotten around to it.
Richard suggested I turn this into a dress, and I think that would be a fun experiment :D

Crochet: My First Love

I started crocheting my freshman year of college. I think I saw a friend with a cool scarf and she told me she made it, so I decided I wanted to try. I had a friend show me how to make a scarf and hat, and that was it for a while. But then I moved in with a yarn fanatic who really showed me how to get going. She had made a snowflake afghan that I just loved, so I decided I wanted to make one too.

Funny story...the yarn I ended up using for the afghan was the same yarn I bought when I was 16 for a mutual night where a girl showed us how to knit scarves. My scarf was ridiculous beyond belief. It was about 3 feet wide and almost 4 feet long before I decided to bag it and try something else. I pulled the whole thing apart and ended up with all these balls of blue and green multi. I decided to use that color for the middle of the snowflake squares, and I'd find a bright green to border them.

After my roommate showed me how to make the snowflakes, I got working. I was really slow and my work was really tight, but after lots of crochet nights with the girls where I was able to watch and learn some better techniques I got faster and looser, and now I think my gauge is perfectly average for most patterns that I've found, which is nice :D

I worked inconsistantly on these snowflakes for the next year or so, until I had enough to put a couple rows together. I decided that once I finished that afghan I was allowed to get married. Well, I ended up getting married before I picked it up again (lol), and three years later my husband is urging me to finish it. Really the reason I haven't yet is that they discontinued the yarn and I've had to figure out another option. Which I recently did, so hopefully in the next few years I'll be able to finish the afghan I started when I was 18. But I digress.

In between working on that afghan, I decided to learn to crochet beanies for my little brothers and sister. Here are a couple of the beanies I've made since then:


This is the one I made for Richard. He bugged me and bugged me to make him a beanie. I think it was a little thicker than he was expecting, though, so he didn't end up wearing it much.

This is three yarns crocheted together in just a double crochet all the way around. I've got a how-to video in the works.







This is the one I made for myself. I like the yarn I chose because even though there's three strands, they're really soft and thin so it's not too bulky. Again this is just double crochets all the way around.









I made beanies like these for my siblings a couple Christmases in a row and then took a break for a while. This year they really missed them, so I decided to try something new. Mostly because I lost my N hook so I had to use a smaller one. I experimented with a hat for Rachel first, since I couldn't seem to find a hat at the store that would fit her head for longer than a week. I had some yarn left over from her baby blanket, so I stuck that with a shiny white color and came up with this:


It's basically the same pattern as before, just with two yarns and using a half double all the way around. It worked out pretty good.

When I made the hats for the kids they ended up being a bit thicker, but they sure love them. If I can round them up I'll post some pics later.

Recent Projects

I recently (ok like two months ago) finished a couple knitting projects! Here are some pics and details:

Richard's Beanie
Things I learned:
Knit in the round
Knit with circular needle
Knit with double pointed needles
Decrease

Things I will do better next time:
Don't decrease so soon. It ended up being a little shorter than I thought.
I need to figure out a better decrease pattern as well, as the top of the hat kind of looks silly.




Leg Warmers!
Things I learned:
How To Knit (basically)
How to undo stitches without starting completely over
How to cast on
How to bind off
How to purl

Things I'll do better next time:
I got excited about them being done too soon. The next pair will be a lot longer.
Even though I used a bigger needle to bind off it's still really tight. I need to think "loose" when binding off.

I'm having so much fun knitting! I finished a sweater for Rachel a few weeks ago (post forthcoming in a few days once I get pics) and now I'm working on one for me. I need to make Richard a better hat, or fix the one he has. And don't worry, I have three more sweaters lined up to make for myself. Really that's why I started knitting: I couldn't find any sweaters I liked so I decided to make my own.

Here are some of the past projects I've made.

This is a scrap afghan. I made scarves for my friends one Christmas and ended up with half-skeins of lots of colors. My friend who taught me to crochet has a scrap afghan her husband made, and I always liked it, so I decided to make one.








This is my best so far :D I made this while I was pregnang with my daughter.












A lot of my more recent projects are borne of necessity. My daughter inherited her father's large head and I can never seem to find a hat that will fit her for very long. I made this simple beanie in about an hour out of two colors of yarn. My three youngest siblings are big fans of my hats, and they wanted some just like this one. Pictures to follow (once they get home from school).





This is my favorite hat. Very simple and very soft. It's three colors and it probably took about an hour. I made one just like it (different colors) for my three youngest siblings for the next Christmas, and sent one to my brother on his mission.

Welcome to my new blog!

I really should finish the Graham Saga before I get started on something new, but I've recently become addicted to yarn to a point I can no longer control. This is the result, and I hope it's helpful for at least one person out there :D

I learned how to crochet from my roommate Elizabeth during my freshman year in college. She got me going on a granny-square afghan that is yet to be finished, and since then I've made several beanies for my siblings, daughter, and myself along with a scrap afghan and some scarves. I'm currently working on that same granny-square afghan (in my defense, the colors I was using were discontinued and it took a while to figure out what I was going to do to finish it) along with another scrap afghan. A few weeks ago I got the urge to start knitting again. I learned the basics about ten years ago but never did anything with it, and my one set of knitting needles stare at me every time I pull out my yarn basket.

Starting back up again was pretty easy, thanks to youtube and a lot of knitters who post how-to's, and I'm 5 rows away from finishing my first project: legwarmers. Next I will be knitting a hat for my husband and a sweater for my daughter (THAT will be an adventure), and then once I get the hang of things I want to make myself a sweater.

Let me point out that I'm still very much a beginning knitter, so you won't see anything amazing on here for a while. I plan to get a lot of projects done this summer (gotta keep my mind off the fact that my husband will be half a world a way) and then maybe this blog will be more interesting and amazing. For now, I'll just post as I go and include some projects from long ago as well :D