On the Completion of My Projects

SOOO...My goal right now is to finish most of my ongoing projects! Tonight several things happened. First of all, Jordyn joined my in my fellowship group and she learned how to purl :) I sincerely hope that she had fun and will be back! The other exciting thing was that I finished my orange scarf!!! WOO HOO!!! Here are pictures of it. I haven't measured it and am packed up for the night but it comes about mid-thigh on both sides. I'm so happy that I could have inspired Nanette to start a super bulky scarf. They are so fun! :) Now on to finishing another project! Later...

Back into the Swing of Things

So, school has been back in session for almost a month now. Tests and papers have picked up. Football is back! WAR EAGLE!! And the most exciting part for me: the Fiber Arts groups! I love these groups and the ladies in it! I get some much needed relaxed time talking about our different projects and being able to share concerns and problems about the projects and life to these ladies. So this means that my knitting has picked up. A stocking project that I had going is now finished. There are no pics of it up yet because it might be a Christmas present and I would hate for that someone to see it before they receive it. :) The large orange cabled scarf is going the fastest and is roughly 3 1/2 pattern repeats away from being finished. The basket weave, ruffle scarf has hit another stand still due to the fact that I'm out of that yarn :( I've been frantically emailing shops to see if they have it. If not I might have to have it special ordered which will cost me more money, but I will do so if needed. The double knit scarf is going well, but it is one that I have to think on and therefore don't get as much done on it when talking to others. So that's it for my short little update! Sweet knitting/dealing with fiber! :)

Hi everyone! It's been over a month since I've blogged and I've got a bit to update on. School's back in session so my knitting has slowed down quite a bit considering I'm going to school 15 hours, working 15 hours and volunteering about 6 hours each week with Project Uplift and my Service Learning (more about that later). The set of scarves to the right are various scarves in various stages. The darker, eyelet orange scarf, the black and multicolored fun fur, the skinny white one beside it, and the wide white one on the end are all finished! Some will be gifts for Christmas while I will hang onto some. The others are in various working stages. My favorite right now happens to be the lighter orange, large cable on the end. I fell in love with some Super Bulky wool at Darlene's Knit Shop before she closed and was inspired by a pattern that I found on the internet here. The small cabled white one is something I'm trying to force myself to finish. It takes a while for me to do all of those tiny cables. There are 6 cables and I tend to fumble and drop stitches left and right. So I've become a pro at picking up stitches on this scarf. The multicolored, non fun fur scarf is a Cameo yarn found at Hobby Lobby that is just a simple knit 2, purl 2.
This scarf is a close second favorite to my orange scarf. The yarn for this one is Merino Wool also found at Darlene's. It is still in progress but will have ruffles on all sides when it is done. The way this scarf is worked starts with casting on 250 stitches in a contrasting color for 2 rows and then switching to your main color to start the basket weave pattern (hard to see here but will get close ups when finished). After working the basket weave pattern for 36 rows, the ruffle starts (completed one on the outside of the circle). The instructions call for a 4 & 5 size 36" needles, but all I was able to find was an 8 & 9 size 29" needles. I like having it larger, but I ran into a space problem on the last increase row. This pattern also calls for me to P1M1p. It is near impossible to find videos on the internet for making one purlwise. I found one here only it is called M1R. After binding off the first longside ruffle, I went back to pick up 249 stitches which is why the contrasting color was used. Then the contrasting color must be cut off. I was doing well when all of a sudden I sliced through part of a stitch. I was praying that there was something that Mom could do to fix it since all of the labor I had put in was about 20 or so hours. She had no idea how to find out if the stitch was still intact and if so what to do about it. So we called Mrs. McSween and she was gracious enough to look at it. We determined that I had not cut it all of the way through so she reinforced in with some of the yarn and I will take it back to her when I'm finished. But OH the agony when I thought I was going to lose all of my hard work!

This last scarf is a Double Knit scarf found in Knit 1 magazine. I found out this weekend that it can also be known as a summer/winter weave since it is one color on one side and a second color on the other. I am using blue faced leicester yarn that I bought on my family's Spring Break trip to Williamsburg, VA. This yarn is hand dyed and hand spun by the ladies who work there from the sheep that are kept there. It is interesting working with two strands at the same time and making sure that everything is falling off the needle the way that it is supposed to. I've not caught 2 mistakes though I have made about 100. :)

That's it for now. Hopefully I'll have something completed within the next week or two to show up here!

On New Things Learned

This weekend's new lessons have been Turning Heels and Pick Up and Knits.  Both are used in making socks!  This has definitely been interesting as I learn best by having Mom demonstrate things to me and then if I have further questions I research it in my books here or online.  Mom, however, wasn't here and was heading on a mission trip this week.  I spent a good bit of time on the phone with her Friday night trying to learn how to turn the heel and messed up quite a few times.  I finally got that down Saturday morning, taught myself to Pick Up and Knit since Mom was out of cell phone service and otherwise busy with her trip, and got about 2 inches into the sole and realized that my pick ups were too loose and I had dropped a stitch soon after switching back to a master color.

*Sigh* Out came all of the stitches that made up my turned heel and following two inches.  I relooked up Pick Up and Knit on youtube.com and didn't come up with anything that helped me.  Everything was too far away, didn't pertain to me, or was way too fast for me to keep up with.  So I tried again with a different look on my pick ups and was successful and have now gotten back to the point where I was last night when all of those stitches came out :) YAY so I'm chugging along on this Christmas present idea and the next thing to tackle will be the toe! Hopefully I'll be able to have Mom help me with it as I go home to celebrate Father's Day this weekend!

I've got a couple of scarves going as well to have something to do when my brain gets tired of concentrating on my "sock project" as I'm coming to call it.  Hope everyone has a great week!

On Christmas projects

This past week has been full of buying yarn and starting projects.  I tend to take on ambitious projects that call for needles that I don't have and yarn that costs an arm and a leg to purchase.  However, my mom is great for helping me stay grounded to some degree but encourages me to try new projects. So I was extremely glad she came down to see my brother and I this weekend! It's nice to sit and knit with her! (That way when I mess up I can go "MOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM" LOL, but I've gotten better about after saying that trying to fix it myself so I can when she's not there)

For the first time this weekend, I began to knit in the round.  I'm taking on a Christmas project for the ladies at work and must start now in order to complete the project on time :)  I'm also wanting to do a wrapghan, which is basically a snuggie except more effort goes into making it.  I'm making this one for my boss :)  However, it's been hard to find this yarn so I'm having to order it from the internet.

I've been knitting for the past three days in the evening and have gotten further than I thought I would in my first round knitting but had to put it down and start a scarf my hands were hurting so bad holding the tiny double pointed needles needed for this in the round.

I'm still working on my spring project and it's coming along.  I've got about 3 inches to go on the third scarf and 3/4 of the way to go on the fourth scarf.

For now, my spinning has been put aside.  I've got to get some questions answered before continuing on with that project.  That's it for now, night!

Crochet Afghan

Here are pictures of me working on the afghan on Christmas Day. Needless to say I did not finish it on time because my goal was Christmas Day. The afghan is basic Granny Squares (which Mom made first) and then I put them together with the white border. Though a daunting task it turned out well though not the queen size Mom had initially been going for!

Summer's Here

So, summer is officially here for me. Though I've been out of school for over two weeks now, I still had to tutor till last week! I've begun to volunteer at the Child Advocacy Center of East Alabama in Lee County and so far it's been going wonderfully! It's great to see what I might potentially be doing for part of my life. I am still holding my student job I've had for over a year now on campus. Between 15 hours at CAC and 20 hours at work I'm still fairly busy. Not to mention my wonderful Project Uplift Little Sister, Mikuel, who I spend 4+ hours a week with!

I am however, not having to study and have been able to finish a rather large bundle of spinning (not quite sure on the yardage for those who know that I'm pretty accurate on that :)! But considering I gave it to my mom to knit with I'll be finding that out! I believe that my previous yarn that was given to lilquiz and amy at my Bible Study was underspun to some degree. However, I know that the yarn I spun and gave to my mom is overspun! So we'll see how it works. I'm still looking for feedback from them as they work with it!

I have also given myself a knitting project this past semester and have completed 2 of the 4 scarves that I've decided were the best things for me to learn how to combine the knit and purl stitches, making the cable stitch, and how to make eyelets. My Christmas break project was finishing a crocheted afghan that my mom had started, well let's just say a long time ago but not too long ago and the granny squares were still holding together :) Love you MOM!

I'm going to try and get pictures up of all of these things so that everyone will be able to see my progress and give me feedback! My hope is that one day I'll be inspired enough to scrumble like lilquiz! She's great at that!

Just Getting Started

I have one more final and then Summer will just be getting started.  I have been fairly if not extremely busy this semester.  I am looking forward to not having classes for the first time in eight semesters! But will be busy working and volunteering.

I learned many things this semester but the one that has been the most fun doesn't even deal with school :)  I learned how to spin yarn! For just 20 dollars I learned something that I will never forget and will be doing all summer!  It has been the subject of many talks at my Fiber Arts Bible Study group.

That's it for now...I'm just getting started!