Kara & Her Yarn. Forever.

Share a photo of something that made a huge impact on your life.

That is Leah. That is Bryson. It's old. But, I love them. I wish I had a picture of Big Bryson. Everything seems to remind me of him. But that's my little man. Mr. Man & My Leahz.

This is a frogged project. I more wanted to see if I could do it, rather than finish it. If you want to do lace anything, this is a GREAT startting pattern. It's extreemly simple and easy to follow. It's from Interweave
Knit's Spring 2006 free patterns. It's in Sweet Something and there are

lots of great simple lace patterns.

Part of my problem was I did this on size 8's and worsted weight yarn. (Wool of the Andes from Knit Picks, same as the sock.) I tried it with my Alpaca yarn, but for some reason, lace patterns are hard to see on dark and variated yarn. I should have bought a specific yarn for this project in a solid color. When I do the project "for real", I'll probably use a nice sport or DK weight yarn and size 5 needles. Maybe 4's. I don't know yet.

My Very First Sock Experience

Pattern: Training Sock Pattern By Kate Aterley
Site: Knitty.com
Time Spent: A little over 2 hours.

I found my insperation while grabbing the Cable Cast On instructions for Fetching. I noticed that there was a Sock 101 in the Techniques with Theresa. Freaking sweet.

So I printed it out. Why not. Than I noticed that it noted it "Went with the Training Sock Pattern". It called for worsted weight yarn and larger DPN's. Well, I have tons of worsted and TONS of DPN's. So this was a great project.

I've been bugging myself to learn to knit socks for a while, but this was a great way to learn.

I did the EASY part (K1,P1 rib & regular rounds) than came to the heel. This is the part that made me nervous. But, it was written out in very plain english so that I could easily follow it.

Than the Gusset. Now that part was pretty hard. I had to take out stitches at one

point because on of the abreviations through me off. I'm used to Sl-K1-PSSO instead

of SKP. I saw Slip-Knit-Purl in my brain, so I just went back and double checked and slowed down a little. Than it was cake from there. Mmmmm. Cake.

So anyway. The rest of the sock was simple. Just decreases and picking up stitches. Because I've been doing Danica, I've become adept at picking up stitches.

Things I learned:

• I REALLY like taking pictures of every point in the project. Seriosly. I didn't upload half of them and there are more in my pictures.
• How to shape a heel and gusset! This was a huge acomplishment and I really enjoyed the project.
  
• Take things in stride and slow down. I knit this so fast that I screwed up at one point. I should have slowed down and taken it easy.
  

I'm thinking of making another sock in this pattern on smaller needles with smaller thread. I think it would be a good lesson in slowing down and taking my time.

Now that Ihave rambled on, and on and on about my very first sock, I leave you with the finished sock:

About a week ago, I set about on a mission. A mission to make a hat for my Daddy's bald head! I chose a pattern from the very first Stitch 'N Bitch book. I chose the pattern because it was knit flat rather than in the round. Seeing as how I ave never knit a hat before, I thought this would be a good way to see a hat's construction (increases, decreases, shapping, ect.). I chose to do the hat in Caron Simply Soft because it's cheep, washable and readily available. It is also one of the only cheep yarns I can get in town. This is when I made the biggest mistake. The pattern calls for a bulky weight yarn and slightly larger needles the the ones I used. This meant that I should have done some MATH instead of just choosing the larger pattern size.

I did a decent job on the stitches and the hat pattern was surprisingly easy. I could easily knit a hat in the round with no problems. I think what throws me off is having to cast on a larger number of stitches.

I wanted a rather eratic color change in the stripes. Not perfect. I got that effect for the most part, but not to the extent I would have liked.

The next part I went wrong, was in sewing the hat up. I have several knitting books, and do you think I looked up propper seaming? No. I just did it. I'm a lot like a man in those aspects, in that I will throw out the instructions and just do it my way. This is something I am learning to reamedy. I did a TERRIBLE job. The seaming is AWFUL and quite

frankly, it's embarassing. Everything is crooked and very sloppy. But I kept seaming and hoping that it didn't look "that bad".

Of corse, it looks awful. But all in all, the hat was a great experience and looks nice over all. The only person it fits is the baby, but it looks good on her.

Things I Learned: DO YOUR MATH! If you can't follow the instructions EXACTLY make sure that the pattern is ready or you to make those alterations.

I also learned to read the book before you seam. I think I will do some practice seaming so that my project isn't so funky.

I will be attempting to pull out the seam and re-sew the hat together. I will post my progress, and possibly do some pictures on the process as well.

I normaly am not one to jump on one of these bandwaggons, but honestly, Sock Wars sounds like way to much fun. If I knit socks that is.

The idea of the game, is everyone gets an intended "target". They also get a pattern. If you recieve a pair of socks, you are "dead" and than have to mail the sock you are working on, who your target is, and pattern to the person who kicked your ass. They than quire the next target. So on and so on until the last person has SO MANY UNFINISHED SOCKS that they don't know what to do with them all.

How much fun does that sound!? Like a lot of fun! I'm really tempted to make some socks.

Earlier this week, I picked up the summer edition of Interweave Knits. This was well worth the purchase. I absolutely adore the patterns in this one, and even better are the patterns you can pick up at theweb site.

A lot of great tops (beautiful ones) and one of the free web site patterns was a wide range of simple lace items. All of these items were great for beginers as the lace pattern chosen was simple and subtle.

I'll post some of the pictures from this issue later, as I HIGHLY recomend that you go pick it up and treasure it and it's wonderful patterns.

I'll edit this post with more pictures and links later.

I was hanging out at Discount Yarns.com, when I saw that they have

lamps. This one caught my eye. I love the way that the top lamp is adjustable and that it has a clip and a magnafier, but what really caught

my eye was the tray.

The tray is shown to have places to HANG YOUR YARN. How awsome is

that. Especialy if you are doing Fair Isle or working on something that uses embroidery floss.  I am in love with the clip. I can see my patterns hanging from the clip as I work.

I really need one. Guess what I'm buying with my Income Tax return!? (If I can!)

Hi. I'm Kara, I'm 25, and I Knit. I've only been knitting for a couple of months, but it's something I love to do. It's relaxing, it's fun, and it helps me explore my creativity.

This is my space for all that I knit. I talk about knitting here. My projects, my pains, my purchases. I'll review yarns, books, videos. I'll talk about things that annoy me or a magazine I picked up with a pattern I love. This is what I can do to help the knitting community.

At some point I would like to start a pod cast about knitting, but there are so many. I feel like I'd be intruding.