Finally, another finished project!

I've been working on a bunch of things at once, getting lots of ideas. But then it's so damn cold up here in North Dakota. The wind is unbearable because we have no trees. Dan and I each managed to misplace/lose our favorite hats, and have been sharing one that's UND themed but not very protective against the 30-mph gusts. So last night I had some time between when I got home from work and before Dan did the same, so I began knitting a hat. I decided to make it for him because he's got a bigger head, and if it ended up too small, I could adopt it. Turns out, it was just right:





As you can tell, he is ecstatic about taking pictures. Actually, he just hates bright lights. But he loves the hat. And it matches our school's main color. Anyway, I thought it was a great pattern, and I only messed up on the last row of decreasing from fiddling around two sets of circs and two straight needles because I don't have any DPNs in that size. Lol.

The folded up brim is seed stitch, and the body of the hat is stockinette. Pattern here.

Glove and blanket :)

I forgot to get pictures of the baby blanket I made for Rory and Rhianon's newest addition, Ella, but I have pictures stolen from them to show it a bit. I did garter for the border and stockinette for the middle, although mostly the pictures show the WS.

And I finally decided to give in and post pics of my one glove. It's not looking hot that I'll get the next one finished anytime soon. It turned out great for a first-timer, I think. I managed to drop one stitch and not even realize it until I finished the entire glove. I went inside and stitched it up in there, but it's still noticeable as a fallen stitch. The pointer and middle fingers are a bit tight because I had a lot less stitches to work with than the pattern called for, because I have small wrists and hands. The pinky is way too big, also. But I made it through, and even the thumb looks good. :)




I'm currently working on a secret project that's a christmas gift for my mom, I've completed a couple small things for someone else in my family, and Dan's Slytherin scarf is on hold because I realized that it's nearly a foot wide when it should only be 8" and I'm lamenting frogging it.

FO's and WIP's!

All right, so school and work are killing me. But I am still trying to knit as much as I can.

Here are a couple things I've been working on!

First we have some wristbands. I took a pattern from someone on hp_knitting at Livejournal. The post is here. I used size 8 needles instead of 7 because I can't afford 7 (although I apparently will go out and buy clearance yarn I have no idea what to do with and circular needles that turn out too long but use them anyway). Because of my wrist size and the bigger needles, I cut the 40 stiches into 28. I didn't think Dan would want a Deathly Hallows wristband, so we fashioned him a serpent one. I used all 40 stitches and it ended up too big (I'm going to start on another one with a different design tonight using 36 stitches).

Dan doesn't like the shape of the snake because it looks so closely to a backwards "S" that it bothers him looking at it.

I like mine, but I need to buy Caron's Simply Soft in black; the Red Heart is too itchy for my wrist (I have picky wrists, which is why I don't wear a watch).

Next I wanted to do something bigger. I decided on a baby blanket for my Uncle Rory and his girlfriend Rhianon. Their second girl is due any day now. I decided on making up my own pattern because I didn't like any of the ones I found online. It's 86 CO stitches, 5 on each in in garter and the middle 76 in Stockinette. I'm also double-knitting it so it's thicker.

And then I got too itchy to wait anymore and decided to start knitting my practice scarf. The lavender matches me winter jacket. As I mentioned earlier, I bought circulars that are too long. I actually was able to cast on the 91 stitches recommended on atypically.net, but obviously the scarf is still going to be 12" instead of 8". Now I know better, of course. Looks like I'll have a wide AND long scarf :)

So, a picture with the piece flat... and a pic with me wearing it to show just how big around this thing is (although I DO have a small head, but still). I sarcastically myspaced it, but you can't tell because my mouth is hidden and I didn't actually want to take anymore pictures. Ha.

And finally, here's my random clearance yarn I bought that I have to figure out something to do with! Any ideas? Questions? Comments? Let me know! :)

Cozy!

I love this project. I think ribbing is fun. I made a Patriots-themed cozy for Dan. I plan on making lots more :) I feel like I'm really improving at this knitting thing!

Washcloth #2!

This washcloth turned out fantastic compared to the other one. I love it. It used Stockinette, Garter, and Seed Stitches. It was great for practice. I apologize for the fact that nowhere in my house is there good lighting, and I try to remedy that by shining a portable lamp on the projects.

Washcloth

I was extremely proud of this project that took me hours and lots of starting over/frogging parts. That is, until I finished it and realized I had it facing the wrong direction after frogging it at some point. So I have a section that's the "wrong" side. Bah. I'm going to leave it as is because I still think it's good otherwise. I'm so slow at getting good at knitting! It's difficult to accept.The top one is the "wrong" side, the bottom the "right" side. See where it messes up? Oh, and I didn't weave the ends in yet in the picture, and the holes near the middle are actually just torn/thinned string because one of the cats decided to floss his teeth on the yarn.

First projects!

All right, so I followed the easy pattern in my knitting book and created some coasters. The biggest one (variegated) is my first project, where I practiced not pulling my knitting in so tight. The one with the Slytherin colors would have looked better on the edges had I not had so much yarn to weave in. The book says to weave the yarn into the horizontal stripes, but I feel like it would be more noticeable than on the edges. I think I'll play around with that a little bit.

This one made me sad. It's my third coaster, and the yarn was supposed to be for Patriots' colors (as my boyfriend Dan is a fan of them). However, the white apparently didn't feel like cooperating with the other two colors and segregated itself in the corner, trying to make the piece look like a bad flag. Thought I'd put it up anyway.

Well, I suppose I should get this thing started...

I decided about a couple weeks ago to start knitting again. Although knitting "again" is a rather loose term. I had decided to try knitting almost a year ago after I saw a scarf one of my friends had knitted with the feathery "yarn" stuff (I can't remember what it's called but I did see it at Jo-Ann Fabrics the other day). I bought the same stuff and learned the basics of knitting. Only, I couldn't do it with that type of yarn. I made it way too tight and couldn't see my would-be stitches. So I changed my mind and decided to practice with a regular ball of yarn. When school started again I forgot all about it; that is, until I came across a pattern for a HP bookscarf. Stupid old me thought I could just rush into it, and it obviously didn't work out. So I started over, small. I even bought a CHILDREN'S learn-to-knit book. I like it a lot anyway because it uses bright colors and easily-understandable language without sounding patronizing.

I'm going to put the actual first projects in another post right after this one - I don't want everyone who sees the projects to have to read my rambling preface first. :)