Starting the Master Knitter's program
or... Slow down you're moving too fast
I love to knit. I love to take a ball of yarn and make it into a shirt, a toy, a blanket, a bag. Something functional. Something userful. Something tangible. Something to be proud of. Maybe that's a side effect of being a software engineer. I work all day on something you can never touch. On something most people will never use or need. Everyone needs a shirt, or a blanket. But I digress.
I love getting to that finished project. I love getting the chance to enjoy what I've made, to wear, it to play with it, to give it away. I hate getting frustrated and abandoning a project three quarters of the way through. I hate getting to a technique I don't quite understand, and then messing it up.
I taught myself how to knit from books and a few online videos. I feel that I can knit most any pattern that's presented to me. I'm good. But I know I could be a lot better. I need to take a step back and larn how to do things the right way. To understand which increase to use where. To know what type of cast on is best for each project. I want to actually know and understand this craft, not just do it.
Enter the Knitting Guild of America's Master Knitting Program. It's a three-level certification program that involves knitting, research, and writing. It's meant to help you learn the craft to understand it, and to become a better knitter. It's exactly what I'm looking for.
The Level one certification consists of:
- 16 swatches (demonstrating different techniques like ribbing, mirrored increases and decreases, cable and color work).
- 17 questions (discussing guage, increase and decrease uses, bind-off techniques, etc)
- a simple hat knit in the round (not the most attractive hat -- maybe I'll donate it
- 1 report (about blocking and the care of knit garments)
This is exactly what I need. Stop, take a giant step back and really learn about knitting. Research technique, understand what options I have when making a seam (I hate seaming), and what the right way is to weave in ends (ugh... all those ends). This is going to be good.
I've made one swatch so far. It didn't take long to make (it's about 5 x 6 inches), but depending on what I learn as I go forward, I may re-knit it. Although I'm pretty happy with it at the moment. Hopefully I don't screw it up when I block it and weave in the ends (ugh... all those ends...).
Flowered Longies
or... how I love cloth diapers
If you asked me last year, I never ever would have thought I'd say this, but I love using cloth diapers. And I think its awesome that I can knit covers to put over them.
These are a pair of "longies" that are worn over a cloth diaper (like a prefold diaper or prefitted diaper). It works as a breathable barrier between the diaper and the outside world. Because its made of 100% wool -- it helps to wick moisture out of the diaper while staying dry to the touch, and because it has the natural lanolin of wool, its got some anti-bacterial qualities, too. Plus, they're just cute.
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- materials
- 1 ball of Cascade 220 in red
- small amount of Cascade 220 in orange for embellishment flowers
- Size 8 circular needle
- Set of size 8 double pointed needles
- 5 stitch markers
- pattern: Picky Pants by Little Turtle Knits
The picky pants pattern is pretty neat -- it's written with various options that you can "pick" as you go along to create the perfect pair of woolies. You can choose a waist (1x1 rib, 2x2 rib or elastic); choose body shapping (short rows, increases, both, or none); choose a length (shorties, capris or longies); and choose a trim (picot edge, rolled edge, icord edge, etc). Its very well written, and very versatile.- Size: medium
- Waist: 2x2 rib with crocheted drawstring
- Body shaping: short rows
- Length: capri
- Trim: picot edge
- embellishments
I made 2 crocheted flowers to make the pants a little bit girly. They are based on "Square 11" from 101 Crochet Squares, by Jean Leinhauser
Pointy Dodecahedron
or.... a 12-pointed star
Dodecahedron is just a fun word. I really don't know if this qualifies as a dodecahedron. Dodecahedron is 12 an object with sides... a cone has 1 side, right? its one long continuous side?? and this has 12 points (cones) -- so I'm going with my original name. This is a pointy dodecahedron.
I'm REALLY happy with this project. As soon as I gave it to Amiya she started playing with it. That was awesome. All those points make it easy for her to grab and bat around. I used yarn I had left over from my Felted Alphabet blocks. I really like the bold colors. I used 6 colors -- 2 points for each color, each on opposing sides of the star.
I actually started this back in February, and finished the first eleven points a week or two after I started. But I wanted to put some bells inside before I finished the last point -- so the project went into a bag til I got my act together and got some bells. Yesterday I went to Petsmart and bought some jingly cat toys to put inside, so this morning I finished knitting the last point - and voila, its done!
- the materials:
- leftover balls of Patons Classic Merino Wool in contrasting colors (paprika, black, rich red, that's blue, leaf green, old gold, royal purple, and winter white)
- set of size 2 double pointed needles
- polyfill stuffing
- 2 jingly-bell cat toys
- the pattern:
Celestine by Berroco- There are a few minor goofs in the instructions, but nothing that you can't figure out as you're knitting it.
- There's NO SEWING required, which I love -- you'll just get REALLy good at picking up stitches (a very good skill to have).
- And what's even better -- you don't have to weave in any of your ends -- they can just hang out and live on the inside of the star with all of your stuffing!
- I used a size 2 needle, which is much smaller than what is called for in the pattern -- but because this was going to be a toy for an infant, I didn't want to risk any of the stuffing coming out - so I used a small needle in order to produce a tight-knit fabric.