Category: On the Needles

On the Needles – January 2, 2015

camo blanket 010215OMG it’s January! Last week I mentioned that I took apart a crochet blanket I was making for my sister and started it over as a knitting project instead. I’ve got the border and first repeat completed and I’ve just started the second repeat (26 rows) tonight. This is going to take awhile to complete, I’m a very slow knitter! Since no one bought me the Addi Click Interchangeable needles for Christmas, I’m going to save up my teaching money and buy them for myself. I’m already halfway there, so it’ll only take another month I think. I have a Craftsy class for socks that I want to start when I have time, but I’ll need needles for it.  I’m really comfortable with needles on cables, so hopefully I can do socks that way!

Linking up with Patchwork Times.

On the Needles – February 14, 2014

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!  We don’t really do much to celebrate, we really just get each other cards. We are going out to dinner tonight with Alex, and I guess we are taking him to Amazone, so he can play with other kids and we can sit and enjoy him having fun.

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I have been working VERY hard on the blanket for little girl and I’m happy to say I’m almost halfway done.  I just finished the third repeat of the pattern and have 3 to go, plus a half repeat, plus the border.  I might decide to make it a little smaller and skip a few of the repeats, I’m not sure yet.  We’ll see how big it looks when I get the next repeat completed.  I only have 6 weeks until she’s born, and it’s already taken me 6 weeks to get this far! I’m really liking the pattern and it has gotten LOTS easier as I go.  I had a problem last week where I was missing a stitch and had done 2 rows, thank goodness I only had to take out 1 row and a little bit of the second row to pick up the dropped stitch.  Unfortunately I didn’t see where the dropped stitch was until after I got that first row out.  I’m still working on getting my stitches to be uniform in tightness, but it’s really difficult for me.

I still haven’t worked on any quilting in the last few weeks, I’ve just been too busy trying to get this done.  I really miss my hexagons and I have a new design I want to do with either 1/2″ or 3/4″ hexies – the pattern calls for 1/2″, but that might be too small for me I need to do some testing first!

Gotta run, time for lunch and get Alex to bed for his nap, or we’ll never be able to go out tonight!

Linking up with Patchwork Times.

On the Needles – January 24, 2014

2014-01-24 15.37.10I totally forgot to post last week!!  I haven’t done ANY quilting lately, I’ve been devoting all of my free time to working on the blanket for the baby.  I’m making lots of progress, I can get a row done in about 20 minutes now instead of 30.  I’ve had some issues along the way with doing wrong stitches and then not being able to work backwards to take them out.  I have an entire row that should have been taken out, but the stitches were SO tight that I just decided to leave them in.  It was a lot less stressful for me!  I’m ok with some flaws in the blanket, I’d rather it be done than be 100% perfect and it’s still something special that I’m making for my baby girl!  I added a second skein of yarn the other day, that was WAY easier than I thought it would be.  I found this on YouTube and it was quite easy AND you cannot see the knot in the knitting. Since I ran out in the middle of the row, I thought this would be the best way to join the new yarn in.  I know there’s a lot more ways to do it, but this was the best for me at this time.  I’m proud of how much I’ve finished considering I’ve only been working on it for 3 weeks!  I know I’m not going to be doing the whole pattern, this 2nd skein might be enough to make it big enough, we’ll see as I get more repeats completed.

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I was at Walmart this week and saw some real cute Caron yarns.  I couldn’t help myself and bought them.  Have no idea what to do with them, but I bought them!  Each of them were under $5 so it’s not like I broke the bank for them!

Linking up with Patchwork Times.

On the Needles – January 10, 2014

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26 rows completed!
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Detail shot – excuse the shadow!!

I am very happy with what I have accomplished on my daughter’s blanket so far.  I messed up in a few places on the border, but because I know it would take me forever to get back to where I’m at if I took it all out and started over, I’m leaving it where it’s at.  It doesn’t bother me too much, and I’m pretty sure that if I didn’t say anything no one would notice.  Well, unless you are a knitter! 🙂  I’m still trying to figure out the best way to keep track of where I’m at on the pattern, I’ve been keeping a paper copy of the pattern on my lap and my iPhone next to it with StitchMinder running to keep track of the repeats in the row and the number of rows I have completed.  I’m thinking of installing it on my iPad Mini and see if that helps any.  Also, I downloaded an app called KnitCompanion to the iPad, but from what I can tell if I want the row counters, etc to work I need to pay for the full version.  Looked like that was on the expensive side, so I’ll have to see if I can find another app or just install StitchMinder on the iPad Mini and keep using the paper pattern.  I’m going to keep working on this as much as I can, just because I have a deadline!  I really want this done so baby girl can use it on the way home like Alex used his blankie from mommy on the way home.

Linking up with Patchwork Times

On the Needles – January 10, 2014

2014-01-10 22.52.49
26 rows completed!
2014-01-10 22.53.17
Detail shot – excuse the shadow!!

I am very happy with what I have accomplished on my daughter’s blanket so far.  I messed up in a few places on the border, but because I know it would take me forever to get back to where I’m at if I took it all out and started over, I’m leaving it where it’s at.  It doesn’t bother me too much, and I’m pretty sure that if I didn’t say anything no one would notice.  Well, unless you are a knitter! 🙂  I’m still trying to figure out the best way to keep track of where I’m at on the pattern, I’ve been keeping a paper copy of the pattern on my lap and my iPhone next to it with StitchMinder running to keep track of the repeats in the row and the number of rows I have completed.  I’m thinking of installing it on my iPad Mini and see if that helps any.  Also, I downloaded an app called KnitCompanion to the iPad, but from what I can tell if I want the row counters, etc to work I need to pay for the full version.  Looked like that was on the expensive side, so I’ll have to see if I can find another app or just install StitchMinder on the iPad Mini and keep using the paper pattern.  I’m going to keep working on this as much as I can, just because I have a deadline!  I really want this done so baby girl can use it on the way home like Alex used his blankie from mommy on the way home.

Linking up with Patchwork Times

On the Needles – January 3rd, 2014

I know I mentioned a couple of months ago that I was beta testing EQ for the Mac.  They released a blog post today with more details on the final release.  Can I just say that I can’t wait???? 🙂

2014-01-03 15.59.51Anyway, on my needles today I’m happy to say is my first knitting project. I’m making this blanket that is a free download on Ravelry for my coming daughter.  I cast on last night and started working on the first row, but didn’t realize what time it was and wasn’t able to finish working on it.  I have until mid-March – here’s hoping it’s enough time for a newbie knitter to finish a blanket!

Linking up with Patchworktimes