Simona's Baby Blanket

I don't know how I felt about the blanket when it was finally completely. I was happy with it because it turned out fairly well, but at the same time, I almost wish that I had used larger needles because a) the blanket could be bigger and b) the stitches were fairly tight.



As a result of the stitches, it's a fairly thick, heavy blanket probably more suitable for a stroller lap blanket, or perhaps a blanket to play on when she gets bigger.



The color in the pictures above are more accurate to the actual color of the blanket, which I quite liked, but in the photo below you can see the pattern more clearly.In addition to the border going around the blanket, there were 5 different square patterns. A 3x3 square, a 4x4 square, a striped square, a stockinette square and then a square with an embedded square (which was my favorite). That was the best thing about knitting this blanket, I taught myself a bunch of patterns.



My absolute favorite part of the blanket, I couldn't be more happier with how the label turned out :).

Gah
So I was doing a lot of knitting yesterday (fixed the afghan, I am a knitting GODDESS) but as in between knitting sessions I am despairing over how severe my eczema has been the past few months. It's so bad, that it's too the point where if I scratch it, it's like scratching a sunburn. A flaring, intense pain that I can't accurately describe.

So then I'm sitting on the sofa, working on a hat that I started for Simona and I'm alternating between knitting and scratching my arms when a dreaded realization started to creep through me.

I drop my knitting and go upstairs to get my prescription that I had gotten shortly after my eczema started flaring up really badly. I wanted to check the date - and was trying to convince myself that my problems started well before I started knitting.

I found the cream and read the date - January 14.

I started knitting on January 1st.

Gah.

At approximately 9pm last night I went cold turkey. Haven't picked up my knitting since. (Sorry Simona, no hat, not tomorrow at least, which was my intention). I'm going to not knit for a couple of days and see if the large angry red patches that have been covering the backs of my shoulders, my elbows, wrists and lower back fade. If they do fade, and my theory proves correct, I don't know what I'll do.

I LOVE knitting.

Knitting will be the DEATH of Me
Last night, while watching WPT, I screwed up one of the rows of my afghan. I sighed and put it aside, thinking that I would unravel and redo the messed up row at the end of WPT.

So that's what happened.

Except.

Somehow, when I picked up my stitches, something went horribly wrong and now, ten or so rows later, I have discovered that my pattern (which is diagonals), which was formerly going right to left is now going left to right.

Rather than try and fix the mistake now, while I am infused with a frustration that is quite possibly some of the most severe frustration I have experienced (at least in my knitting career), I think I will go and run it off and then fix it later.

Either that or I will just burn the damn thing and be done with it.

Knitter's Suicide
I have a habit of ripping out rows and rows of stitches and then using my needle to pick up my stitches and start knitting again. H yells at me all the time when I do this - I think it makes her very anxious and she almost watches with bated breath. "You're brave," she declared once as I unravelled and picked up a row on a hat I was knitting.

On the weekend I made a mistake with my afghan and I stared at the rows with a bit of fear. I'll rip out 30 stitches, even 60 stitches and pick them up fearlessly but my afghan was 102 stitches per row AND on round needles.

I took a deep breath and ripped it. Tay came downstairs and saw me hunched over the dining room table, carefully looping stitches onto a smaller, straight needle. He wanted to know what I was doing knitting at the table (I usually knit in the chair by the window or perched on one of the tall chairs at the kitchen counter).

"I'm committing knitter's suicide," I said, my voice shaking slightly as I picked up another stitch.

But it was fine. I got all 102 stitches onto my straight needle and then transferred them back onto the round and started knitting again. That was about 20 rows or so ago.

After that, unravelling doesn't faze me.

Knit Obsessed
I have been waiting somewhat impatiently for this scarf to make it's way across the Atlantic - I heard from Jody this week that she had finally received it, so I can now post photos of it and not ruin the surprise :).



I used a yarn that I had never used before, it was fairly soft and really nice to work with. The color was Purple Haze, which you can see better in the photo below.



This scarf was my first attempt at doing a stockinette stitch (a combination of purling and knitting). Unfortunately, the pattern meant the scarf would start to curl along the edges, but I quickly took care of that with my iron and some spray starch! :)



As I folded up the scarf to mail, I almost wanted to keep it for myself :).

I don't think my knitting obsession will fade at all - it's been almost 3 months and I'm still going strong. I've completed two other projects since the scarf - a winter hat and a baby blanket for Simona - and I'm currently working on an afghan. A fellow knitter/blogger that I know suggested that I start a knitting blog and I am considering it - at least that way I can blather about yarn and needles and only the people that care about that stuff will be forced to read it :).

And a Scarf To Keep Me Warm



Ironically, the weather is hovering at around -3 so I probably don't NEED a scarf, but I'm going to wear it anyway.

Approximate cost of yarn to knit scarf? $3 and some change (I didn't use all the yarn.)

(Of course, we won't talk about the time that went into knitting the scarf...)

On Knitting
In the first chapter of the book I bought on knitting (Stitch N' Bitch), the author talked about her family history of knitting. Her grandmother, mother and aunts all knit and so it only seemed natural that she would follow in their footsteps. I read the chapter a little wistfully and wished for my own colorful history. As far as I knew, my grandmother never knit, nor does my mother or my aunts. So, feeling slightly alone, I set out on my adventure to teach myself to knit.

Last weekend, during a vist from my father, I proudly pulled out the swatch I was working on to show him the new skill I had taught myself. He admired my handiwork and then told me about the knitters on HIS side on the family. It would seem that my paternal grandmother used to be able to knit and read at the same time and the mittens that my father and his siblings wore were always knitted by my grandmother. She used to knit five rows and then stop and count her stitches (I count my stitches after every row because I'm not very good at fixing dropped stitches. I've also developed a habit of counting my stitches as I knit them). My dad told me about the very last thing his mother knit for him, a red pullover vest that he absolutely loved. My grandmother taught my aunt how to knit as well, my father remembers his sister once knitting a sweater with broomsticks. Even my father learned a little bit about knitting. It was at my dining room table that he taught me how to cast on using just one needle and how to remove stitches one at a time if I made a mistake.

It appears that I come from a family of knitters after all.

Last Tuesday I started working on another square swatch and when it turned out perfect, I couldn't just cast it aside so I kept knitting but referred to my book on how to add on an alternate color. That task proved to be easy, so some time later, I had a pink square attached to the original white square. I kept going, adding alternating squares in pink and white. Tonight I finished the 9th square and am well on my way to knitting a scarf. (It's not as wide as a traditional scarf, but it's not meant to be. My idea is to make a very long, skinny scarf that is more suited to be worn in the fall months with a denim jacket. So far it's 3 feet long, but by the time I finish, it'll be 6 feet :).



I'm beginning to think that I might have a knack for knitting after all.