Tuesday, March 16, 2010

yarn-love

Oh and I forgot to mention that I have fallen in love with a new yarn. I have not even seen this yarn in person, let alone knit with it, but I can foresee a long-lasting and loving relationship between this yarn and myself.

  Cascade 220. 

There are 95 (NINETY FIVE!!) colors in this worsted weight yarn. Cascade makes many different types of yarns and I am sure that I will fall just as madly in love with all of those other yarns as well. http://cascadeyarns.com/

There is another company that makes fabulous fiber that I have learned about from my favorite knitting podcast Cast-On. The company is called Briar Rose Fibers. 


All of these yarn discoveries are very exciting, and they make me even more excited about my future projects than I already was. I feel like I am finally started to build my own yarn "stash", and I know that as I can afford it, my stash will continue to grow with all of these fabulous fibers that I am discovering.

sweater, sweater, sweater

Currently on the needles: Corona sweater. Which I am calling "My First Sweater". Lately, I have had issues with coming up with clever names with things, and apparently that block is still happening.

This sweater is knit from the bottom up. I cast on 160 stitches. Knit one round, and then began the 1x1 ribbing pattern (K1, P1) for five inches. I ripped out no less (but possibly more) than six times to get where I am right now. Anyway I am pleased to announce that the first five inches of my first sweater have been completed. I just finished knitting one round in knit stitch so I can start the stockinette stitch that will make up the main part of the body of this sweater (the part that will go around my stomach). As I work the stomach of this piece there will be a decrease round every inch until the sweater measures 11''.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Hat Box Foundation

I just read about the Hat Box Foundation which is an organization that strives to give out handmade hats to cancer patients. Each hat is handmade using various mediums and then is individually wrapped and boxed and then given out to someone! This seems like a great organization so I thought I would share with all of you crafters out there in case you wanted to make a hat to send to someone. Here is the link if ya'll want to check it out. :)

http://www.hatboxfoundation.org/

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Corona

As always I have not had as much time to knit as I would like. However, last week I did place an order with Joann and an order with Knit Picks and I got one of the boxes in the mail yesterday! (See up there^!)

Since I had yesterday off I decided to cast my first sweater which is what I bought the circular knitting needles from Knit Picks for. It is the Corona pattern, which is a hoodie with some cable knitting around the neckline. It is adorable and I am very excited to be knitting it.


Yesterday I cast on and knit about five or six rounds before I frogged. Then I cast on again and have knit about ten rounds and I am going to frog again. The problem was me trying to figure out how to make 1x1 ribbing work while knitting in the round. I think I have discovered the problem and the secret to fixing it. That is all just a theory at this point but I will let you know how it goes. :)


The other problem that I have is that I have no idea what negative ease is. The pattern calls for the sweater to be "knit with 5' of negative ease". Since I have no idea what that means I am currently in the process of searching the internet to figure out what the H the pattern is talking about.