Weaving in ends

So, I started a new fair-isle project, something I haven't done since my Totoro mitts, and... well, I didn't miss this:

I mean, I'm barely even half-way and I already weaved in some ends, and I've already still accumulated this much! Did I already mention how much I hate weaving in ends??? Well, thanks to google, I searched up if there was some easier, quicker way, and there is! It's called knit-as-you-go, and apparently you just .. well, weave in ends as you knit, so that in the end, when all is finished, you just have to clip the excess. So, my battle plan for tomorrow is.... I will painstakingly weave in all these ends (which will actually probably take up all my time ..), and then start this new method of weaving in ends as you go! Alright, wish me luck!!

Another 'First'

I learned to crochet successfully! You could probably tell from my previous post that I was crocheting a pretty pink something, and that something is ......

..... a shrug!! I think it looks fantastic, and it looks really impressive for such a beginner project. Basically all you need to know is how to chain and single crochet and you end up with something pretty warm and cozy! I guess after I got the hang of crocheting, I must admit that it does work faster than knitting. It feels a little stiff though, but I'm not sure if that's from the yarn being crocheted or because the yarn quality itself felt kind of stiff (I used 100% acrylic Red Heart). Regardless, I love it, and definitely something that I wouldn't be embarrassed to wear outside haha.

 

If you want to make your own, here is the link! I think I will definitely be crocheting again! I want to become more familiar with its techniques and whatnot now that I have the very basics pat-down. I don't know if my knowledge of knitting helped, but I noticed my first crochet project had considerably less mistakes in it than my first knit project (straight single crochet vs. Straight knit stitch). Anyway, for my next project, I have no idea whether to knit something (because I sort of miss it) or to crochet a new something... hm.. but I think I'll give it one or two days before I dive into anything new!

Pulling Through

Family has criticized me for doing nothing but knitting all day. Well, now they can rest easy because for the next little while, I'll be crocheting all day! I'm finally putting my sister's gift to use. Honestly, finding a pattern and just trying to figure everything out was pretty confusing at first (once again, thank god for YouTube videos!) Like instead of CO #, which is how you would typically begin in knitting, its Ch #, and then I had to google what sc meant, and then find a video demonstrating to me how to do it. Figuring out how to read a pattern wasn't the hardest part though .. actually figuring out how to crochet was the most difficult. Suddenly, I've been reduced from two needles to one hook, and so managing my grip felt awkward. I do wonder though, how it must feel if a crochet-er suddenly began to learn to knit. For a couple minutes, I couldn't even maneuver the hook to make the first chain. For some reason, I just couldn't pull the hook through the yarn.

After much effort however, here are my first four chains!

 

 Not looking too bad I hope! I do know that my tension is not even for sure, but I'll worry about shaping my skill later. Anyway, after the first couple of chains, I really got the hang of it. So before I knew it, I finished crocheting the amont of chains the pattern called for:

Then I got to the part where I had to start single crocheting. Honestly, I had some trouble with this. In knitting its so obvious which stitch you're going to knit next, but in crochet, I felt like I have to really look to see if I am sc-ing the right loop. Not only that, but I also had issues with fitting that crochet hook through the loop in the first place. I've heard people say that crocheting is a lot faster than knitting, but I think that it definitely will not be the case for me. It took me forever just to get to this point:

 

And as you can see, I'm not even done that row!

 

Well I will just have to keep power through-ing! Hopefully it will all get better the more I crochet!

My Beautiful Sweater Vest!!!

I'm finally done!! Here it is:

Can you tell how proud I am of this!? It's my first clothing item! And its actually wearable!! I made a medium, but I think the size is too big for me, but that's okay, because I like baggy clothes anyway! There's a few mistakes in there, but not very noticeable. I learned so much while making this vest! The most notable one being that I learned how to make a v-neck, which was a lot easier than I thought it'd be. I was nervous at first because I felt like I didn't quite understand what the instructions was trying to make me do. But... I sort of just went for it, and it just came together!

 

Ahhh, I just feel so relieved that I'm done and it looks beautiful! I feel so productive and .. accomplished!

 

If you want to make your own here is the link to the pattern! This definitely won't be the last top that I make .. it was so much fun!

 

 

Edit: After admiring my pictures, I realized that I need a better camera! The pics are a bit blurry .. I want to show off each stitch of my hard work, but its hard to see. For example, I noticed it's hard to see the neck band part of the vest, and the pattern on the vest altogether. But then again, these may be just little things that only I notice and care about :)

Not Dead Yet!

Man, I'm so slow, so I just decided to update with something.

Not going to lie, but I'm incredibly proud of the cables! I screwed up a while back, and had to frog like 4 - 5 inches of work (thank god not the whole thing though!!), so that's one reason why I'm taking so long. Not sure if you can see, but there's another mistake where the cable is twisted really weird, but I thought it still looks acceptable enough to not frog it .. (partly because I'm lazy!! I don't want to frog again... I'll never get this done!)

 

If you haven't guessed already from this and my last post, I'm knitting a vest! I wonder if it will be wearable. My measurements are a little off I noticed. Nevertheless, I'm learning and have learned quite a bit that will hopefully help with the next wearable project if this one doesn't work out. Right now my feelings for the project are mixed between 'this is looking so good!' to 'wow, am I done yet?'. but, I do see the end coming up fast! I'm hoping to finish up this week. I have so many other project ideas lined up in my head! 

Buy ALL the Needles!

Yesterday my aunt came over and told me she went to a dollar store and saw knitting needles there! I was so excited when I heard that! Only two dollars for one pair of knitting needles?? I needed to go check it out, so this afternoon I hurried over to said dollar store and saw that it was true! At Michaels or Wal-Mart, they are selling needles for $5 to $8 for one pair, and here I was, buying 5 pairs for $10 total. I'm not going to lie to myself, the quality is probably not very good, but what do I know about needle quality anyway? As long as it works, I can't really tell the difference. I mean, it would be nice to have those gorgeous wood or bamboo hand crafted needles I sometimes see others have on YouTube, instead of they gray ones I always seem to end up with ..but hey, maybe I'll get those nice ones when I am wealthier.

Anyway, this is what I bought:

There's a size 11, size 7, and a size 0 (I didn't even know they came in size 0!) I also bought two dpn that are size 8 & size 1. Overall, today was a good day!

Just Keep Swimming ...

My current project is something I am really excited about .... excited about finishing the back at least. Look at this:

That's my work in progress-about 20 inches of stockinette stitches, ~100 stitches wide. It's so boring, and I have to tell myself that I have to get this part over with before beginning the fun stuff. But oh my goodness!! I'm doing one or two rows, then I'd surf the internet for a couple of minutes (or make a blog post *ahem*), and do another one or two rows, surf the net again, realize nothings changed on all the sites I like to go to, then rinse and repeat. I wish there was a way for me to simultaneously read and knit at the same time. Or I wish something interesting was on TV, or maybe even a good Youtube channel? But I got nothing, so I'll just have to keep trucking along. I'm almost done, I'm almost done, I'm almost done ....,

The Other Craft

So, it all started when my sister said she wanted me to knit her a Pikachu doll. Mind you, I actually do have all the right colors of yarn already, yellow, brown, black and red. However, I told her I thought knitting a Pikachu doll won't look very good because those kinds of things are more often a crochet project. At least, I think crochet dolls look way better than knitted dolls even though I am obviously biased towards knitting. So.... my sister goes out shopping and comes back with this ...

 

That's right! A set of crochet hooks! (Apparently this whole set was only $10 at Wal-Mart... are crochet hooks always this much cheaper than knitting needles??) I've thought about learning the other craft before, but always thought I was still such a newbie to knitting that I shouldn't think about learning an entirely new craft suddenly. But since I have these now.. well, frankly I'm a little excited to begin learning! I suppose after my current project, I'll give it a go!

 

P.s. Yes, I've dived into a new knitting project already! It's my most ambitious project yet. a real big step for me, but I think I can do it! It'll probably take me forever though, but I'm going to be optimistic that it'll turn out well!

They Really Like It!

Remember those sweetheart socks that is a gift for my dear friend? Well I finally had the opportunity to give them to her and she loved it! (Well, paranoid me thinks: appeared to like it anyway!) She's the first non-boyfriend, non-family person I've ever given one of my knitted things to, so I was pretty nervous. On top of that, those were the first socks I ever made, so I noticed a lot of flaws with it. It was so nice for someone else to admire all my hard work though, and incredibly, not even notice any of its flaws! I thought for sure she would notice the ladders, or some of the awkward stitching, but not at all! She posted a pic to Facebook of her wearing the socks, and I was so how happy they fit her!

None of my family or me really wears knitted socks, but I thought knitting socks were pretty fun! So in the future, I know who to direct my knitted socks to!

Happy Birthday!!

Yesterday was my boyfriend's birthday! For the last couple of posts, I guess you could see I was knitting something blue with fingering yarn that required several hanks. Well, it was a present for him! I previously made him a scarf already (the first scarf ever made), but he doesn't wear it too often because he says its too hot, so I only see it appear when its snowing like crazy outside. I decided to make him a lighter scarf that he can wear in the spring/ autumn weather, thus why its made from fingering yarn! Here it is:

As you can see, the scarf is unisex, as I think it looks pretty good on the both of us. I took the idea from this pattern, except instead of garter stitch, I did basketweave. Honestly. I think I would've been bored to death if I just did garter stitch (not that basketweave isn't easy or boring, but at least it isn't as repetitive)! Man, does knitting a scarf with fingering knit up slow! It took me practically the whole month to complete this project, and it wasn't even difficult! I love the way it turned out though! Especially the button which I got from Michaels! I think it just gives the scarf a classic feel. I was initially nervous about having to knit button holes, as that is the only new thing that I had to learn from this experience (other than don't knit scarves with fingering yarn ever again unless you want to be bored), but it was a piece of cake. It was literally just about binding off and casting on, both skills which I know already.

Did I already mention how glad I am to be finished? I hate working with hanks!! The third hank that I had to unravel got into this HUGE knot that I tried unknotting for an hour which pretty much ruined parts of the yarn so I had to cut some of the yarn off so now I have two balls of leftover yarn added to my stash when it could've just been one.. I was so mad at myself though because I tried people's advice on how to unravel it properly and I still screwed up! Anyway, although I say that, I do still want to work with hanks again ... I can't give up until I perfect the raveling technique!

Most important fact of all about all this: my boyfriend (appears to anyway ..) really like this scarf! And with the risk of being labelled cheesy, if he's happy, so am I!