Knitting Becomes Obsession

Not only do I like knitting, once I get started, I actually crave it and go through withdrawal when I'm not able to do it.  Can anyone relate?  I have been knitting on the train to and from and I think it really annoys some people, while others are curious.  It's kind of amusing.  I try to be considerate when someone sits right next to me on the train and I am knitting, but I have to do it!  I only knit on circular needles which cuts down tremendously on the movement.  But frankly, it's better than sitting next to someone reading the newspaper.  Oh well, people will get over it or go sit somewhere else.

I finished my "so cozy warmer."  I was having size issues and also with a cast on row that was cast on a little too tight.  The trick was taking out my Joy Mangano's trusty handheld small steamer and blocking the warmer.  For those of you not familiar with knitting, a cast on row is the first row of a knitting piece and blocking is a process for shaping or smoothing a piece into the final product.  I like to use steam for my blocking but others wet their knitting pieces.  To explain in more detail: when I knit a scarf, the edges often curl and I block it  to make the edges flat.  This is done by pinning down the scarf and especially the curled edges on cardboard or something similar. The next step is steaming the straightened out scarf and then letting it air dry.  The other good thing about blocking is that it can help with accidents or mistakes.  What I mean by that is:  knitted pieces usually have a little stretch that can be played with to make a piece bigger or even smaller depending on what you need it to do.  Blocking can help, but it can't fix a glaring mistake.  The process of blocking helped make my warmer a little bigger when it was a little small.  I wouldn't recommend relying on blocking though.  Measure, measure, measure!

I am almost done with my circular/eternity scarf and I am almost done making a neck warmer.  The neck warmer is really just a 14 inch long tube that fits over your head.  You can fold it in different ways or just scrunch it down your neck.  The neck warmer is black with a shimmer to it.  Here's a photo, though it doesn't really show well.  

The next knitting project I want to try to tackle, if I succeed, will be the most difficult project I've done yet.  I found a really cool pattern for a sweater vest.  I'm only at the fact finding stage for that one, but hope to have something to show you soon.

Thanks for stopping by and Stay tuned for more creativity!

The Itch To Knit or Tis The Season To Be Knitting, Fa La La...

It's that time of the year again.  Like clockwork, when the weather starts to cool and I get bored of playing solitaire and checking facebook on the daily train commute which I did all the hot summer long, I get the itch to start knitting again. 

I know I always say the same thing - "if you know me by now...."   In this circumstance, I am going to say: if you know me by now, you will know that I can't just work on one knitting project.  Of course, I have to be working on two things at the same time. 

It all started when I was in Michael's looking for something and they had their Halloween decorations out so I was walking around the store.  I ended up in the yarn section and saw this really cool multi textured, multi colored yarn that I had to have.  The yarn is called Red Heart Boutique Magical and the two colors that I couldn't live without are called Top Hat and Fortune Teller.  Here is Fortune Teller which is mostly purple with red highlights and more.  I am making an eternity scarf or a circular scarf that I will be able to wrap around my neck a few times.  I'm almost done! 

See the picture on the yarn wrapper in the first pic? Red Heart calls it the "So Cozy Warmer" and it's a pull on wrap. I am making it in the Top Hat color which is black with all kinds of colors - a picture would illustrate it better - see below.  I followed the directions and when I was finished with the piece, I decided it was too short, so I'm working on making it longer.

I hope to finish this soon, though I came across a little problem.  I knitted another piece and I used the mattress stitch to put the two pieces together with an invisible seam.  It looked really great, but when I tried it on, I realized that the starting row of the original piece (which is the bottom of the original wrap) is too tight.  So I had to take out the mattress stitch (such a waste of good knitting time) and I think I'm going to try to stretch the yarn out with steam.  Otherwise, I might have to either leave it short and use it as a cowl neck scarf or I don't know....  It looks pretty cool the way it is, but I really want it to be longer.  Plus, it's a waste of yarn if I don't use the second piece.  I'm sure I could do something with it though.

Here are some fun close-up yarn pics:

 

Thank for stopping by and Stay tuned for more creativity!