Thursday, October 10, 2024

Where have I been?

 Retirement....getting used to it....is more of a challenge than I thought it would be.    When times are tough, the tough buy yarn.  My stash has expanded....and I am further from its' center.  Oh well.

Watching knitting blogs...and spending time on Instagram...has been tremendously inspiring.  Learning new things has been a joy...that moment when the new technique works.....

YouTube podcasts to see:

  • A Lovely Yarn
  • Wool, Needles, Hands
  • Danish Musings
  • Colorado Knitter
  • Nerdy Knitter

The list above shows my current favorites.  I have learned a lot from watching podcasts.   Knitting ideas, resources, and techniques are the best take aways.   Being able to hear about what other people are doing is interesting as is seeing their work.   The wonders of our age!  Not kidding.....YouTube has been such a resource! 

What is also interesting for me, arising from part of my educational past, is how I evaluate the presentation quality of the podcast.   Some presenters -particularly Tayler Earl of Wool, Needles, Hands - are engaging and draw me in even when what is being presented is not something in which I am particularly interested.  Others.....some I turn off with a few minutes. Yet more I will watch an episode or two but realize that I dislike the program even to skip over any further offerings.   The first time I watched a particular podcast the presenter spent much of the time complaining about dog sitting.   Hoping it was an off day, I watched another episode.   Hmmm.    My first impression was not wrong.  Fortunately there are so many other choices.

Craftsy and Domestika are two course sites that feature many good classes....knitting and many other topics.   Before I retired, I bought classes on sale.  Now, I have the time to do the classes.  I am slowly working through my list.   Being able to play....and replay...sections of the videos has been great.  So many things to learn!

Now that I have time.....I can do this.   This is a great opportunity and I am grateful for the time and the space.

Tuesday, June 18, 2024

 Every year I knit my friend Rob a pair of non-wool socks for his birthday.   On this project, I have been working through my stash of Canadiana.  The vintage Canadiana was wonderful...the new stuff...not as much.

I watch knitting blogs....and learn a lot.  One of the "duh" moments was hearing about striping socks with a variegated and a solid yarn.    I thought about what I had and though....wouldn't it be interesting to do this backwards and see what happens.   

So far, I am really liking it.   The reds are not an exact match but close enough for me to give an interesting pattern.

A mostly finished sock with stripes of red and a red/yellow/green/blue variegated yarn.



Wednesday, May 15, 2024

A Throw in Ocean Teal

 My friend Sandra saw this yarn in a store near where she lives.   Bernat Blanket Ombre in Ocean Teal is a super bulky yarn that knits up quickly and can go through the washer and dryer.....

Cake of Bernat Blanket Ombre in Ocean Teal

I used size 10 needles to get the fabric I want.   As I am a relaxed knitter and this yarn really has no give, I swatched a bit to to get to what I wanted.

While it is not obvious from this picture, the yarn's ombre runs through shades of teal and blue.    Good thing I like the colors a lot and am not tired of them.  I overbought....hate to run out and got a really good priced and cheap shipping...and have enough to knit a second one for someone who loves the first but is not the recipient.

Instagram is teaching me a surprising amount about knitting.   One of the things I saw was a way to make a smooth edge by slipping the first stitch of each row and then making a yarn over.   On the next row, where the yarnover and the slipped stitch are the last two, those stitches are worked together.  I was pretty pleased with the result.

I used three cakes of this yarn for a throw that is 50" by 60" ....  I kept measuring the throw against my body as I knit it to decide when to bind off.

This is what I did:

Cast on 90 stitches using a German Twisted Cast On.

Foundation row:  K10, P10...end K10

Next row:  Slip first stitch as if to purl, yarn over, continue in pattern.

Row 1:    Slip first stitch as if to purl, yarn over.  Work in pattern to last two stitches, Knit 2 tog.

Row 2:  Row 1:    Slip first stitch as if to purl, yarn over.  Work in pattern to last two stitches, Purl 2 tog.

Repeat until you have enough yarn to bind off or until you get sick of doing it our satisfied with the length.

I bound off the on the right side without paying attention to the pattern.   This gave matching edges that, I think, will be more stable.

The result:

Throw knit in Bernat Blanket Ombre


Friday, May 10, 2024

Lots of Knitting

 This has been a year or so of lots of knitting.   Of course, it has also been a year of a lot of yarn buying.  The center of the stash is much further away.

One of my friends suggested watching the knitting vlogs on YouTube.   There is so much information out there....and I have really been enjoying it.

A few good ones:    Danish Musings, Summer Lee Knits, Nerdy Knitting, Northwest Yarns.   There are many, but these are the ones I make a point of seeing.

There is so much more to learn.....can't wait.