It is now official, after the husband did a thorough fitting last night and did some muscle flexing in front of a mirror wearing Adam 😄 – I haz knit my second sweater! 💪💪
I haz conquered knitting (and seaming!) dark grey yarn, haz conquered working with snakelike implements of torment a.k.a. circular needles, conquered despair and the temptation to just give up and knit an entirely new and different pattern, and learned that maybe it’s wise to knit a size or 2 bigger than what the tape measure tells you to 😆😉
And I was SO looking forward to beginning a new knitting project!
I am working on the neck portion now and asked the husband to do a fitting last night. Everything else fit (beautifully, I might add), except the underarm portion 😤 😤
Adam follows the pattern Joukahainen and is a pdf download from Ravelry. See the hot stuff here:
It is a raglan sleeved sweater worked from bottom to top, so I don’t think there was any way to have done an earlier fitting that would have properly exposed the tight underarm portion.
I’ve been racking my brains for ways to salvage the project. But since stitch count influences the tapering of the raglan sleeves, which in turn affects length of the yoke portion, short of claiming Adam for myself, I see no other plausible option but to unravel, add more stitches and just basically start from stitch zero.
I’m a little teapot short and stout! Here is my handle and here is my spout! When the water’s boiling hear me shout …
My husband really likes Adam though and I don’t want to claim it for myself because I already have Eve.
Tip the handle and pour me out!
Allez – I am going to put on my big girl panties and unravel the thing and start from the very beginning.
What is worth doing is worth doing well! ~ says Paardje ❤
But maybe not today. Today I deserve CHOCOLATE! 😉
So meanwhile let me regale you with a photo of bat droppings in my beloved reflection place (but they obviously weren’t partying hard last night):
So if any of you out there are wondering why I’ve been posting so infrequently now it’s because I’m working on “Adam”.
Adam is a sweater for my husband and – get this – I’m knitting it using those snakelike implements of torment called circulars that I swear had a mind of their own at the start of this project 😫 😫
I say this because I could not, for the life of me, properly cast on using them! After so many attempts (and running out of colorful expletives) I finally decided to just cast on using regular straight needles, and take over with the circulars from the second row onwards.
This worked by the way. So far so good. 😥😥
So now this is also a raglan sweater that is knit from the bottom to top. I am now at the yoke portion and I’m seeing gaps in my raglan decreases that I am getting vexed about 😒 😒
But I think I’ll just fix it up later on when I’m seaming the underarms 😐😐
And then there were the sleeves.
Somehow the idea of “magic loop knitting” came into my consciousness and at first I was very glad to have discovered a technique that would make it unnecessary for me to buy another set of circulars with shorter diameter.
Glad that is, until I tried it myself! 😱😱
Then I threw another batch of fresh colorful expletives all over the place and almost got a pair of scissors to just cut the whole thing to pieces! 😤😤
Fortunately I didn’t. And since I have to buy any knitting supplies abroad (or online), I just decided to knit the sleeves with the straight needles and will just seam them using the mattress stitch later on.
(Inhale. Exhale. Repeat 3X)
Oh and, you do know that Adam is but my second knitting project ever, don’t you? (Well now you do!) I just feel that you should know this. This is very important (nods head vigorously).
So here’s Adam so far and, I guess the point of this blogpost is just to tell you that I’m still alive and somehow sane 😄😄😄
I have gone AWOL for a while, this is a fact. I had no idea my June goals would be so consuming!
Well, classes also just ended so there were mom/parents’ events to attend to and now my daughter is at home with me, watching Minecraft videos from sun up to sun down.
Kids! 👯 👯 👯
Anyhoot, I’m here to talk about my derriere … err no, my knitting. Let’s talk about my knitting! 😄
As enthusiastically declared in this blog post I set myself the task of knitting my first sweater this month. I did not want to start my knitting-for-beginners stage with dishcloths, scarves nor beanies. Nope! I came here for the sweaters, people! And since all progress depends on the crazy person (or woman, in this case), a sweater I will knit.
I am still flummoxed over the fact that -aside from the sizes and lengths – you also have different needle types. In addition to straight ones (which I thought were the only knitting needles in existence), you also have DPN’s and circular ones, the latter also comes with different cord lengths. It’s a bit like calculus! 😱 😱
But once I started knitting, I was addicted ❤️💋 ❤️
And this is where my derriere comes in. I’ve never had my derriere scream bloody murder before, ever! 😲 😲 😲 But with knitting … I say I’ll take a break after this one row but it turns into 5 rows (or more!) and by then my glutes are staging a rally!
So here are the sweater pieces laid out prior to seaming (it will be a very pink sweater, I know 😄) :
I am making this drop shoulder sweater which has so far been quite easy and thus, very confidence boosting 🙂 🙂 My tension is still very tight but improving.
Already I am lining up so many sweater and cardigan projects to do immediately after this in mad-crazy succession 😄 😄 Starting with this beautiful cardigan for my daughter:
I know, I know … I don’t even know how to measure yet! But, I learn best by doing and right now, I just want to ride my enthusiasm to the hilt! 💃💃💃
I’ve never had a bag like this before. Well for starters, it’s crochet, and I made it myself ❤
It’s also roomy, in a stretchable and unencumbered-by-partitions sort of way. Perfect for those times when you have lots to carry and you don’t want to be saddled with multiple bags – or better yet, when you want to save the environment and just say “no” to those plastic/tote bags that come with your purchased item 👍👏
I made it in black and gray so it would go well with most any style/color of clothing. I made the handles wider, out of rows of 4 dc instead because I didn’t want them to cut into my shoulders as the bag would get heavier. I also made the handles a bit longer so I can also carry the bag across the body, and I can tie them up top if I want them shorter.
I’m lovin’ it! ❤ ❤ And it was pure, mindless crochet. You know, you don’t have to look at a pattern or count or anything, you just make your hands do the work!
One of the advantages of “mindless crochet” is the opportunity to learn something new while working at it. For instance, I learned a bit more about the art of seduction while crocheting this bag 😏 😏
And so on … just let your YouTube TEDx Talks run its course XD XD
Have you ever done a crochet project that was ‘mindless’? What did you occupy your mind with while working at it?
I’ve been crocheting a cardigan which has significantly increased the number of ‘swirling’ motions I do with my right wrist through the copious use of treble stitches.
Plus my quest to improve my wheel pose (which challenges my wrists, among other body parts).
And I’m feeling something just a tad bit off in my right wrist
I am reminded of an amazing crochet artist whose blog I regularly visit for inspiration. She’s been out of commission for quite some time now due to wrist issues.
So my dearest fellow hookers I thought I’d make this post all about wrist/hand care exercises because most of the time, we just take for granted how important our amazing and very hardworking hands/wrists are. And they hardly ever complain! Unless perhaps when it’s too late 😮 😮 😮
I know it’s very hard to put down those hooks and needles but we can do this! XD Here are some helpful videos, most of which can be done where we are in whatever physical state we are, fancy leggings and sexy tank tops optional:
These are under 4 mins – so no excuses! Once you know the movements you don’t even have to watch the video while doing the exercises.
This is my favorite, it’s about 15 minutes and is more extensive.
And here’s an entire series specifically for crocheters and knitters – you gotta love that! 😀 If you want to give every body part involved in crocheting/knitting a good dose of TLC then I recommend doing the entire series 😀 ❤
I’ve been crocheting a cardigan which has significantly increased the number of ‘swirling’ motions I do with my right wrist through the copious use of treble stitches.
Of Snailmail, Books & Vanities 