Knitting - Day 30

And thus comes to an end another monthly challenge . . . how fast this year has gone by! I must admit, I didn't knit too much tonight. I was distracted by a movie, and then my time was filled with planning next month's challenge. I'm not sure I'll be able to do it, but I'll try. I also realized I have much farther to go on the scarf to make it long enough, so I wouldn't have been able to finish it tonight anyways. Have no fear though, I will finish it, just not tonight. Good night :)

Knitting - Day 29

I'm so sad today because tomorrow is my last day of knitting month and this scarf is not done and I did not get to start on the cool scarf I want to make for myself either. I do enjoy knitting, but my right index finger is rather sore on the end where I keep pressing the left needle into it to help scoot the stitches down. I think I'm getting a knitting callus, if that is possible. I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing next month, but I do have a few ideas. If you think of anything, please let me know :)

Knitting - Day 28

Haha . . . I knit today while watching "Chopped" . . . that's such a fun show. We watched a "British Invasion" episode. It really made me miss living in London, but it was so much fun and made me laugh a lot. I love their accents and expressions. Maybe some day I'll get to live somewhere abroad again, I would like that. Nothing too eventful to report in the knitting department except that I can wrap the scarf around my neck twice now. So I just need to keep making it longer so it has a little more length to wrap and then it will be good to go . . . a lovely Christmas present for my husband :)

Knitting - Day 27

Today was a pretty uneventful day. I felt very cold all day, but that was about it. Knitting went well, but I made myself stop sooner than I wanted because I really need to put my laundry away and get to bed early (or at least on time) tonight to catch up on a little sleep. Progress update: 42.5 inches of beautiful scarf :)

Knitting - Day 26

Wow, my first real-time post! After 330 days of being behind on this blog, I am finally caught up :) YAY

Knitting went okay tonight. My husband did some sort of fancy sailor's knot to tie my two skeins together so I am successfully on to the second one. The scarf looks rather long, but then when I try it on, I realize it's not nearly as long as a scarf should be, so finishing in the next few days might not happen :( However, I am well on the way to having a nice scarf, so it will get done, even if it's not exactly in this month.

Knitting - Day 25

Those frizzies are just the extra yarn (not yet used) hanging behind...not bad ends, have no fear :) 

Progress so far

Well, the first skein is almost done, so now I need to figure out how to attach the next one. I noticed a small mistake, I had only gone through half of the strand and so there is a little loop sticking out . . . oh well. There is not much I can do about it, and it’s not that noticeable, so I’ll be okay.

Knitting - Day 24

I don’t even know how long I knit for today, but it was way longer than one hour. I knit through one movie and 4 TV shows, some longer than others. At any rate, I’m doing it because I wanted to finish the one skein today, but I didn’t quite make it. I am happy to report though that the scarf is now 34.5 inches long J If I can keep this pace up, I should finish by the end of the month J

Knitting - Day 23

It is nice to be home again. And since it felt like a 1-day work week, it’s amazingly Friday already J We watched a few movies tonight and I sat on the couch and knit . . . since it’s rather cold out now, it was really nice to have a cozy night in.

Knitting - Day 22

Do you get frustrated when movies you rent from the library are all scratched and unwatchable? I know I do . . . and that’s what happened tonight. We were trying to watch “National Treasure”, but we only got to “chapter” 4 before it wouldn’t play anymore . . . bummer. So we watched a different movie instead. I had never heard of it, but it was kind of cute. It featured Charlotte Church and Craig Ferguson and was set in Wales. Anyways, I knit during the movie. I complete about two rows during my knitting time each day. I don’t think I’ll have enough yarn on this one skein to make a long enough scarf though . . . do I dare go to a store on Black Friday to find more? Happy Thanksgiving everyone J

Knitting - Day 21

We were on our way up to my in-laws tonight to celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow, so I knit in the car. It worked out pretty well, I didn’t have the added distraction of a movie, just music, so I felt pretty productive. I hope I can finish this scarf by the end of the month.

Knitting - Day 20

For being such an unanticipated and last-minute monthly challenge choice, I’m rather enjoying this month. There are just so many things that can be knit. I’m excited about all the possibilities, but in reality, I know I’ll be lucky just to get this one scarf done this month. I’m still pretty slow at it, but the scarf is about 19 inches long now J When I think of it in the grand scheme of probably needing to make it 60 inches, I’m only about 1/3^rd done, but I think I’m getting better and faster as time goes on, so I’m really hoping I get to finish it. We are driving to my in-laws house for Thanksgiving, so I’ll have lots of time in the car, and hopefully on my day off to work on it. I’m going to stay optimistic J

Knitting - Day 19

My right index finger is getting a little sore from all of this knitting. Instead of making a giant batch of clam chowder so I have something to take for lunch tomorrow . . . oops, I watched TV and knit instead. Hmm . . . now I really don’t know what I’m taking for lunch tomorrow. Oh well, knitting went well, slow but sure.

Knitting - Day 18

Almost a perfect knitting day . . . good movies and good knitting, right until the end of my last row for the day, then I made a mistake. Oops. But I figured it out and fixed it, so it’s okay now. I wish I had more time in the day to just sit and knit, I also wish it was possible to take a bubble bath and knit at the same time . . . that sounds nice J

Knitting - Day 17

Today I knitted while watching a movie, and I don’t think I screwed it up! I was watching the most excellent 5 hour long version of Pride & Prejudice. Sigh . . . what a wonderful movie J I didn’t do a ton of knitting, and the girls I was watching the movie with were chastising me for my very tight stitches, but the result looks okay, so I’m not too worried about it. I did manage to get back to the yarn skein now, so that’s good. Today ended more relaxing than it began (too much baking for a Saturday morning), but much yummy food was prepared, so that’s good at least. Now it’s time for bed.

Knitting - Day 16

I’m very tired again tonight. My husband was nice and turned a whole bunch of lights on in our house to help me stay awake long enough to make cookies and knit. But now I think it’s time for bed. I’m almost back to the part of the yarn skein where I had it pulled out to for my practice swatch, so that’s good. I don’t know how long this scarf is going to be . . . I was just going to use the whole skein, but that might be too long . . . we’ll see.

Knitting - Day 15

Sigh, today went much better . . . thank goodness. I’m sleepy now, I should go to bed. I just wanted to update you that peace has been restored in knitting world with less distractions and good music J Good night.

Knitting - Day 14

I knew I spoke too soon when I wrote about not making any major mistakes yesterday. Granted, I did notice every time I did, and it was a good learning experience trying to figure out how to fix them, but geepers, the panic sure was not welcome. I thought I was getting better at drowning my perfectionism, but I was wrong . . . it’s still there. I think I have fixed the errors (by removing the faulty rows) and I learned an important lesson . . . concentrate on what I’m doing. I’m not ready to knit while watching a movie yet I guess. On a happier note, I did remember to take my two week picture, so enjoy that . . . I’m going to go try and relax now, here’s to better knitting tomorrow.

Knitting - Day 13

I’m making progress, slowly, but surely. Amazingly, it doesn’t look too bad. I think I’m getting a little more consistent with my stitches, and it’s going pretty smoothly. I don’t think I’ve made any major mistakes, and hopefully that pattern will continue throughout this scarf. I’ll try to remember to take a “2 week” picture tomorrow to document my progress.

Knitting - Day 12

I knitted during the two hour “The Voice” show tonight. It was a good idea because I don’t actually have to watch it because I just need to listen to their voice, so I could “watch” TV and still pay attention to my knitting. It’s rather slow going, but I knew it would be . . . knitting is slower than crocheting I think. It is looking pretty cool though, and it will keep my husband warm, so that’s what counts. He’s such a dear, he doesn’t mind if it’s not perfect, so it takes some of the perfectionist pressure off knowing that J

Knitting - Day 11

Not too much to report today . . . the gap between the knit and purl sections remains, but for the most part, the scarf is looking okay, so I think I’ll just keep going.

Knitting - Day 10

Oh bother. My attempt to fix the pattern didn’t quite work and I was too lazy to try and figure it out so I just took all of yesterday’s progress out and started over by just doubling the width. Well, this didn’t quite work either, but the fix was easier and I’m on my way to making a scarf. Unfortunately, with this pattern, at the junction between the knit stitches and the purl stitches on one switch it’s great (I think from purl to knit), but on the other junction is gets very loose and looks like there are big holes in it. I don’t know what to do. I’m trying to be mindful of my tension and I am trying to keep the yarn taut, but I'm getting back into that perfectionist, super tight stitches mode. This is not a good sign. I need to try and relax and remember this is just one project and it is still good practice. I hope it turns out okay.

Knitting - Day 9

I pulled all of my stiches out today. It was kind of sad, but it gave me a fresh start too. I started working on a basket weave scarf. The gauge was a little off and my husband wanted a little bigger scarf so I kind of had to create my own pattern. We’ll see how it goes. I’m guessing it will be a little trial and error because I’m not exactly sure of what I’m doing, but I’m optimistic J

Knitting - Day 8

Well, I think I’m ready to begin my first project now. I completed another section of my practice basket weave, and although it felt a little loose between “squares”, it looks okay, so I’m glad of that. Now I have to convince myself to pull it all out and start over, but that was the plan all along, so I think it will be okay. I did have to take a picture of it first before I destroyed it, but now it’s on to bigger and better things.

Knitting - Day 7

I worked on both knitting and purling today, and even started making my own pattern. The first project (and perhaps the only project I’ll get to this month, depending on how long it takes me) I wanted to make was a scarf of the basket weave pattern because it looks cool and is pretty easy to do, so that’s the pattern I was trying out. It looks okay, not perfect since I still don’t have quite the right form and tension control, but it’s not too bad for only a week a practice J

Knitting - Day 6

I think I figured out how to make the purl stitch today. I did a few more rows of plain knitting and then tackled how to purl. Then I managed a few rows of that . . . it looks pretty good. I still need to figure out how to keep my tension steady and now to hold my needles better, but I’m learning the stitches at least. I seem to be having more problems dropping stitches unfortunately, but I think that might have something to do with the fact that I was concentrating so much on tension and how to hold the needles that I wasn’t paying enough attention to my actually knitting. Oh well, I’m still learning.

Knitting - Day 5

Today was a bit more frustrating than usual. Up until now, I had managed to stay very relaxed and enjoy what I was doing, but today didn’t work out that way. I just went back to the plain knit stitch (with the intention of learning the purl stitch today), but first I wanted to make sure that I was learning the form and handling properly. This book that I have recommends holding the right needle under your arm to keep it stationary and I am having so many problems with that. There has got to be a better way. They offer a few other alternatives, but they are no better. The easiest variation I’ve found is to rest the end of the right needle on my lap and that seems to work okay, but I still feel the need to move the needle, but then I drop it to wrap the yarn around the end and then pick it up again, and I guess that’s a big “no no”. I don’t drop the yarn which is a plus, but I just can’t get the proper form figured out. Maybe tomorrow I’ll try to watch some videos on how to do it or something because this book is just not cutting it. So I made a little progress knitting, but not really too much. Hopefully I’ll do better tomorrow.

Knitting - Day 4

I worked my way through a few other variations of the knit stitch today, working more on the knit-back and then a sort of plaited stitch. They don’t really look that different to me on the finished product, so I don’t think they are worth the extra effort that they take. I made a few mistakes, but that’s okay . . . this is just for practice. A friend posted a really funny picture on Facebook today . . . I hope I can be like this grandma at the end of the month:

Hahaha J

Knitting - Day 3

I think I’m starting to get the hang of this! I worked on the “simplified two-strand cast-on” and finally figured it out and then did quite a bit of knitting while my husband drove me to a family party we had today. I felt a little like a grandma, but I was enjoying it as well. After I got a fairly good grasp of the knit stitch, I moved on to the “knit-back” stitch. It’s a little more difficult, and I really haven’t figured out how the best way to hold the needles for me is yet, but I’m working on it. We’ll see what I can figure out tomorrow.

Knitting - Day 2

I made a slip knot today . . . that was my only progress L No, it’s okay, I spent most of today reading and trying to figure out how to start. I did go to the library and get a few books on knitting, but none are the basic “Knitting for Dummies” that I think I need. I got the Reader’s Digest book on everything knitting, but there are like 15 different methods for just starting the first row and I’m feeling a little overwhelmed now. I wish they would just teach me one, and then let me learn the other ones once I got that one down pat. There are so many different ways to hold the yarn and the needles, I’m not quite sure where to start. Tomorrow I have a long ride in the car though, so I’ll work on it some more then. Good night J

November Reveal and Knitting - Day 1

Yup, you read correctly, I’m going to learn how to knit. Yes, at one point I did know the basics of both knitting and crochet, but I was too much of a perfectionist then and my stitches got tighter and tighter as I was so concerned that I would mess it up, and then it got all messed up. So now I think I’ve grown up a bit and I’m not quite as concerned about making mistakes so I hope this will be a relaxing activity for me. I was having troubles deciding between knitting and crochet, but I decided to go for this because I was more in the mood for it at the time. Many thanks to one of my good friends for posting something about crocheting on my Facebook wall today and giving me the idea. I was originally going to do another musical instrument this month, but I was just not feeling up for it, so I’m much more excited about this knitting idea. I went to Wal-Mart tonight and got a few sets of needles and a skein of yarn. I looked at a few patterns and think I picked out a scarf to start with. Maybe I’ll go to the library tomorrow to get some beginner books. Hopefully I’ll have something warm before the weather gets too much colder! Wish me luck J