Posts Tagged ‘knit’
Caught your attention with that blog entry title, huh? :) Well, don’t get too excited … I’m talking about felt as in the material ~ as in knitting a felted purse.
Now, originally I thought that felt was just something purchased at the craft store ~ three pieces for $1, or something cheap like that. I thought that felt was a fabric made by a machine, not something you could create yourself. Many years ago, I accidentally placed a wool sweater into the washing machine, with hot water ~ and it came out all felt-looking. Oops. But then, a few years ago, I saw my friend Carol’s beautiful felted bowl. And felted bag. And I thought, “How the heck would you knit something like that? I don’t see any stitches!”
I finished this knitting project last night for my mom. She asked if I would make her a bunch of kitchen dishcloths, which made me really excited. (Maybe she’s just humoring me, LOL!) They’re incredibly fast and easy. Sometime I’d like to try a tip that my friend Marilyn recently told me about. Wal-Mart’s craft department sells this threadlike stuff ~ it’s intended for a ballerina tutu or a wedding gown, to make the material somewhat pouffy. (I’d never heard of it before, but Marilyn bought some that’s green and said that there are different colors.) She holds this thread along with her yarn when she’s knitting a dishcloth, and it makes the dishcloth very scrubby. I felt one of her dishcloths, and it was like an exfoliant! Perfect for scrubbing dried grime off dishes (and probably lots of other household uses). I’m going to find some of that stuff the next time I’m there. One of my next knitting projects will be an Indiana dishcloth, and I’m very excited about that!
Please skip this blog entry if you’re not interested in knitting! :)
I was very excited about beginning the Berry Basket dishcloth pattern ~ hopefully as a Christmas present for my mom, who is a basketweaver. However, I messed up in a few places (no clue what happened). I ripped apart the entire thing and thought that I’d start a new dishcloth ~ using my own pattern. The border was two rows of K1, P1. Then, I did a row of K2, YO1 ~ followed by a regular knitted row after that. The third row was K1, P1. Then, another regular knitted row. I kept this up, but somehow I started getting 40 or so stitches on my needle (when I had only cast on 30!). The thing was starting to look kind of round, actually!
So, I cast off, then sewed it into a circle. Looked like a snowflake or maybe a wreath to me. I added a loop for hanging. Then, I added some green and red yarn, and voilà ~ a Christmas ornament to remind me of the year that I learned how to knit (or, at least the year where I screwed up a lot of knitting projects!). :)
Wouldn’t a Christmas tree with all knitted ornaments and some cranberry/popcorn garland be *so* pretty? Oh sure, maybe I’ll just whip that out in my spare time. :)
I’m *really* proud of how well I’m doing with learning how to knit. First, I put together just a small square for some practice, and then I tried another pretty new yarn. Sure, I’ve had to “frog” lots of times (did you catch that ~ I learned a new knitting word last night, LOL!). But I’m trying to be patient and go easy on myself because this is all so new. Last night, I practiced some purl stitches but was unsuccessful. I think that I need to watch a video online again in order to get it right. It’s so wonderful to have a craft that I can pick up so easily where I left off (which is essential when you have two young children!). When I get the purl thing right, I’m going to try my very first pattern: a waffle-stitch washcloth. It seems pretty easy, and if it turns out OK, it might be a nice little Christmas gift along with one of my handmade soaps. But I’m not getting my hopes up too high. I doubt that it’ll look as nice as the one in the photo! LOL! :) I want to see whether we have any cool yarn stores nearby, too. You know, all I really want to do today is sit on the futon in our bonus room and knit while the kids play. But nothing much would get done then, huh?
And now for a completely random note: I *really* admire people who enter the medical field. It’s something that I just couldn’t do. My friend Theresa is an xray technician in Indiana, and she has been working *really* hard with her career. It takes such a special person to care for others in that way. I have to take Meredith for the second part of her flu shot this Friday, and sometime I also need to schedule her lead check at the hospital (Luke had the same thing done when he turned two). I also have a routine physical in February, which I’m *so* not looking forward to! But it’s always good to get checked out. My cholesterol levels were *really* awesome last year, so I’m curious to see what they’re like now (hopefully the same).
Gotta go ~ this calendar project is calling my name. I’m *almost* done with it (which is a good thing, considering it’s already December!). I need to work on the cover and then print everything out to make sure that there are no mistakes. I’m waiting on some more information from our neighbor, too, in order to finish it. And when Luke goes to preschool this afternoon, Meri and I are going to make a grocery store trip. We are *seriously* out of food (unless a small box of brown rice and a few onions count, LOL!). Can’t make much with that!
