Wednesday, September 27, 2006

My On(and on)going Boucle Blanket

Can you believe the size of this thing? I purchased this enormous ball of rainbow boucle which was bigger than a basketball at my local Joanne Fabric store and immediately decided I'd use it all up on a blanket. Hey, no one will ever accuse me of lacking in ambition (braincells, well that's another story).
But mom, my bum is still cold! As you can see, I haven't gotten very far in this project. I decided to knit it up in seed stitch using #9 needles and it's taking an eternity to make any progress. I've completed this panel and am 3/4's of the way through panel #2 but am getting bored of the monotony. I'm anxious to start something a little more challenging but insist on finishing this up first. I used to be this way with books. I'd see the crappiest of books through to the deadly dull end just because I thought I had to. Now I'm too crabby and impatient to be bothered.
Here's a closeup of the oh-so-soft blanket in progress which I keep telling my 3rd grade daughter will be finished just in time for her high school graduation.

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Knitting for Amazons

Herein lies my first finished scarf which I knit for my then seven year old daughter (who is very petite and was still in size 4T clothes at the time). Actually this was my second attempt. My first was mistakenly done in the stitch (is it garter?) that rolls up along the edges and I tossed it in frustration. This one is done in an alternating and mighty sloppy knit, purl combo. I lost track more than often than not while knitting and purling and the pattern doesn't bear close scrutiny. As I cluelessly knit along I kept wondering why a simple little scarf was taking so darn long to complete. Scarves are quick and easy so say all of the knitting books. Finally, I deemed it long enough and then second guessed myself and decided to add a bit more length by adding 4" long tassles. Yeah, clueless doesn't even begin to cover it.

Well, it's been over a year and, as you can see, it still doesn't fit my youngest even when wrapped around her neck twice. Will that child grow up already?! Weary that all of my hard labor was for naught I decided to see whom else might benefit from my first masterpiece (pink isn't my color and I'm also cursed with short legs).




Nope, not quite. Though the color does look quite fetching on my brown pal, eh?




Darn, still not right. This is the tallest dude in the house who will allow me to humiliate him in such a way.














Hmmm, now we're getting somewhere. Maybe I can supplement my income by knitting ratty looking scarves for Amazonians!

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Hello, is this thing on?

I'm a busy mom of seven (2 human, 3 canine, 2 feline) who has tried cross stitch, candle making, sewing and scrapbooking in an attempt to be "crafty". Candlemaking is fun but takes too much time (and I can't carry the stuff with me!),cross stitch bored me, sewing overwhelmed me even though I did make a snazzy pair of MC Hammer pants in the 80's(!), and scrapbooking, well, I just never "got" it. It's so much easier to just stick those photos in an album and be done with it, if you ask me.

I discovered knitting when my daughter received a knit-your-own scarf kit last Christmas. Neither of us had a clue what the heck we were supposed to do so I spent an entire weekend attempting to figure out the cast-on, garter stitch and bind-off from some horridly written directions. I was ready to throw the whole thing in the trash when it finally clicked. Since then I've fallen in love with knitting and am painfully stumbling my way through new skills. This journal will (hopefully) keep me organized and on track project-wise.

Soon I'll be posting pics of my few completed works starting with the "know when to quit" scarf, followed by my current WIP's.