6.

success!

after becoming totally disheartedned by the last experience i had with knitting pattern's, someone lovely pointed me in the direction of the most simple pattern of almost all time and now, i've had my confidence restored. a pictorial adventure of my mishaps...

this is supposed to have a thumb hole :




post giving up, i was sent this pattern which made my life a whole hell of a lot easier :




so, i've decided to not give up on the first hand warmers i was trying to make... what i'm going to do is sign up for a 4 week "choose your own pattern" course at downtown yarns on ave A. they're all pretty nice in there and i can bring in different patterns for each week if i feel confident with one. it will give me a chance to get someone to show me all the things i don't understand so i'm pretty amped.

something random that just popped into my head, my best friend doesn't even have a drivers lisence yet, she bought a car. her name is super dog (the car).

x
love, granny.

5.

so, after spending 3 hours at knit new york today, i've remembered why i haven't tried knitting from a pattern lately... it is incredibly discouraging if you can't figure it out. in the pattern i've chosen (hand warmers), there are k2tog/yo's, this part i figured out with the help of my little blackberry and google.com... i made it about 10 rows in when i got to the part where i'm supposed to be forming a thumb and it tells me to knit, working (k1,p1,k1,p1) into yo.

i must have harassed this lady (charlene) about 5 times before i felt guilty asking so many questions considering the woman does get paid to teach people these things. needless to say, i've managed to mess it up because i do not in fact, have a hole for the thumb.

i can figure out k2tog, yo 4 times, ssk, knit to end of round but i cannot figure out how i am supposed to knit and pearl the same stitch the equivalent of 4 times. anyway, i've put down my hand warmer and picked back up my kerchiff that i'm making because at least, i know how to make it.

if there is someone out there who can tell me how i'm supposed to knit, working (k1,p1,k1,p1) into yo... please help.

feeling slightly discouraged,

granny.
x

4.

so, i have a whole slew of new things to post up. i'm between jobs at the moment so i esentially have nothing to do all day until i train for 3 hours at my new job. this leaves me to sit on my couch and knit for 6 hours (like i did yesterday). i have been working on these neck/warming/collar/hood-ish things for a while, i was making huge rectangles at one point and sewing them together but now that i've discovered these crazy things called circular needles i'm saving yarn (which is awesome cause the alpaca is expensive) and it seems to go by a whole hell of a lot quicker. the grey is 70 sts across down to 55 in the middle then back out to 70 :




my grandmothers birthday is coming up this month and i figured she might be pretty happy if i made something for her considering she is the one who taught me how to knit. im sure 70 year old ladies who live in retirement communities in northern ontario aren't looking for stylish or cute so i made her one thats a little more practical and would be better used for actually keeping warm. the yarn i found in a junk store near my house in brooklyn, its not too bad for being .50 a skein. i started 60 sts across, went down to 45 and back out to 70 sts. purl, knit :




finally, yesterday in my knitting marathon, i thought i might try to make something that requires me using a pattern but, in efforts to not leave my house and only having left over yarn from other things and one skein wonders... i decided that i'd try to make little kerchiffs. i was successful in making one after i butchered my first attempt. i got a bit impatient and started decreasing 4 sts per row after decreasing only 2 sts per row for the first 10 rows. so, i of course found a cute button for it and gave it to my roomate who can seem to make anything look good :




and finally, last but not least... this is the second kerchiff i made after basically brutalizing the other one. i was going to use green for the tip but the blue and white looked so good together, i didn't want to mess it up. i was more patient with this one and decreased only 2 sts per row. i started with 90 sts which from my measuring would of been 27' long. its all knit because i was too afraid to mess it up after working on it for so many hours and i used some help from Judy and came out with this :






one of my favorite things about these kerchiffs are the buttons. i was trying to figure out how to use the button in different places on the kerchiff so i had the option of moving them around so, what i did was sew 2 buttons together! pretty excited about that one. movable buttons!

in my long day of knitting yesterday i also went on the hunt for some knitting blogs that i could maybe learn from and i came across this one. this girl is adorable and she made me realize i have so much more to learn with the knitting.

x
love, granny.

3.

the latest creation... a 'scood'. i'm not entierly sure i like the name 'scood' but, i have yet to come up with something better for these things i've been making.

i was once browsing through urban outfitters this past winter when i came across these collar/scarf/hood things that were priced at 64.99$. i figured, i could most likely make one of these for half the price and so i tried. i started my first one using baby alpaca wool from the yarn store on Ave A with 13' needles (instead of 10' which was the suggested for that wool). i'd knit 30-45 sts across and just knit a huge rectangle then sew it together. silly me to not think of circular needles...

so, this is the first 'scood' (i really have to change the name of it, if someone has a better one please let me know) that i knit on 13' circular needles 24" long with malabrigo chunky merino wool :



love, granny.
x

2.

i am really interested in finding these people. I suppose i could just send them an email expressing my long time desire to be in with their crew but, then i'd risk the chances of being denied which just wouldn't work for my ego.

have you seen the materials issue of overspray? - my new friends who don't know they're my new friends (knitta please if you didn't pick up on that) got a write up in there.

x.
love, granny.

1.

this is the beggining... a display of item's i'm selling, giving away or just think are kind of cool and want someone to agree with me.

i'm making this blog in hopes of getting feedback on item's i've made or want to make, find some people who can leave handy little tips and/or give knowledge to people who need a clear explanation of how things are done (and of course to whore my stuff out in hopes of selling some of it).

i'll be doing construction over the next couple of weeks, making this little blog a little more esthetically pleasing, recruiting knitters to come by, post, read, etc... but, for now, i will leave you with a picture of yours truely wearing what i do with the ends of my yarn.

the i-cords :












x.
love, granny. p.s - i work at the bar mentioned in this article and i buy yarn from the store in the photos.