Knitting Chronicle

My knitting “hobby” is slowly becoming a full time activity. What that means is a box full of overflowing yarns, needles in all possible shapes and sizes. What it also means is sore wrists from winding all those yards and yards of yarns into balls. When I can’t order yarn from US, ordering a yarn swift is totally out of the question. The yarn winding pain is felt more by my husband because he volunteers (no, really he does) to do it. I bought a bag full of yarn and also received RAK packages, so more winding for him. He anticipated how will wrists will feel in the coming days and set out to make a yarn swift for himself.

He looked at pictures of the actual swift, the DIY ideas and then he knew what to do.

What you need:

Two aluminium cloth hangers
Adhesive/Insulation tape
An empty bottle
That’s it!

What to do:

Straighten out the hangers so that they turn into straight rods. Each rod will be around 37 inches long. Approximately at the center you bend each rod so that there is a circle at the center and two end of the rods at 90 degrees. Each arm should be 13.5 inches. Now you have two pieces which look like this:

You place both the pieces so that the circles coincide and you have the four arms meet at right angles. Secure with adhesive tape. Your basic structure is ready.

You bend each arm in a Z shape. At 5 inches from the end, bend the rod until the angle is 50 degrees. At 2.5 inches from the end, you bend the arm again in the opposite direction to get a Z shape. Like this:

You mount this on a bottle (filled with water) and it is all ready to use. See it being used here:

The result:

I thought the swift will be wobbly, but it is surprisingly stable and the rotation is smooth. My husband is mighty happy with this one. His eyes are set on a niddy noddy which he agrees is more complicated than a swift.

Disclaimer: No, the yarn swift is not capable of turning a pink yarn into a grey one.

Who doesn’t like surprises? And what if the surprise package contains colorful, soft and yummy yarn? Even better, right?

Ravelry has a Random Act of Kindness (RAK) group dedicated for just that - RAK. You post your wish list (knitting related and otherwise) for others to see. If someone is able to and willing to fulfill your wish, they will contact you for your address and send it across.

My wish list was simple - all I had asked for is yarn - any kind, any amount. I can only get acrylic yarn here and I am dying to try out some different kind. I was lucky enough to get offers from 6 people! The best part is I don’t know what kind of yarn they have picked out for me.

The first of the lot arrived yesterday. It was a wonderful surprise from LoneStarNeedler. When I opened the box, I screamed with joy. She has picked out a variety of yarn and has even included patterns for them. How sweet!

My first sock yarn and what beautiful colors! I so wanted to try knitting socks.

Sugar ‘n Cream cotton yarn. Included are two patterns for dishcloths. This the first time I touched cotton yarn and it is so lovely.

Enough yarn to make Surprise Baby Jacket. So thoughtful of her to pick out the pattern and then collect the necessary yarn! The paper in the background is the pattern. I love the colors. It is going to be one beautiful baby sweater.

Nothing like receiving a personal, handwritten note along with a lovely card.

LoneStarNeedler, I can’t thank you enough for the wonderful gift. I always dreamt of knitting with ‘real’ yarn and you made my dream come true. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

After thoroughly enjoying Calorimetry, I decided to knit another headband. I wanted to knit something for my nieces-in-law and headband was the best - knits fast and it is useful for girls. I chose Bamboozled because it has cables and I wanted to try knitting cables.

Bamboozled comes with a chart and instructions. I wanted to learn a new skill (reading charts) so I tried that first. For every stitch, I would see the symbol, then see the glossary to see what the symbol means, then figure out whether I am on RS or WS and then knit that stitch. Phew! I tried knitting a few rows using the chart, but I was taking ages to knit a single row. When I realized I am going to be knitting this headband for the rest of the year if I use the chart, I switched to instructions.

Knitting cables is stressful. I would knit a few rows and then realize I goofed up somewhere and start all over again. That’s when I realized the importance of lifelines. They are exactly that - lifelines!  After I started using lifelines, I hardly made any mistake. Isn’t there a Murphy law that says: it doesn’t rain when you take the umbrella with you, but always does when you don’t take it.

In the knitting world, cable and lace projects have high regards. To be considered a real knitter, one has to attempt cables and laces at least once. This headband was my first step into the cable world. If you ask me, I don’t know what is the big deal about cables. Yeah, they are fun to knit, but stressful too. It needs my complete concentration, so I can’t knit cables while watching TV or when I am multitasking. I knit to relieve my stress, but this project actually aggravated it. Also, I didn’t especially like the end product either. When I look at a cable sweater, I don’t go weak in my knees like some knitters do. I don’t mind knitting a cable project again, but I don’t think I like wearing it. I think I am weird!

This is probably the most frequently asked question in the knitting world. Which is better: Continental knitting or English knitting? Continental knitting is where you hold the yarn in your left hand. In English knitting, you hold the yarn in your right hand, so you are a “thrower” because you need to throw the yarn over the needle while knitting.

My first knitting teacher was an English style knitter, so she taught me her style. I struggled with it for a few days and after that it was a piece of cake. I have read many threads about Continental vs. English on knitting forums, but never bothered to think over it even for a second. Until I started the seed stitch scarf. I consider myself a moderately fast knitter, and when I saw I have knitted just 4 inches of scarf over the past 2 days, I was shocked.

I have to throw the yarn for every stitch and I also have to switch the yarn back and front for every stitch. Thanks to all this throwing and switching, my right wrist hurt. That is when it dawned upon me that Continental knitters must be fast in 1×1 ribbing because they don’t have to switch yarn and they don’t have to throw.

So, I started learning Continental knitting. I learnt knit and purl stitches from Knitting Help. Knit was fairly easy. I fumbled for a few stitches, but purl was the rebel. After purling for a few rows, now I think I get the hang of it. The movements are still not smooth, but I know I will get there one day.

I need to practice this style till my knits and purls are consistent. The day is far away when I can continue my 4-inch seed stitch scarf in Continental style. Even then, it feels good to know I can knit in Continental if I want to. Who doesn’t want to learn a new skill?

I am in no way answering the question of which style is better. I think when I am doing alternate knit and purl stitches, Continental knitting will come handy. It will speed up my knitting and give some relief to my wrists.

I plan to visit my in-laws this April. I am always trying to impress them (aren’t we all?) and I wanted to flaunt my knitting skills. I decided to make a sweater for my nephew-in-law (errr…).

This is my first sweater. I chose Daisy because the pattern is simple and beautiful. This sweater is knit in one piece for the body and then divided for front left, front right and back.

I know oh-so-boring grey is not really for kids, but I still used it for two reasons: One, I didn’t know this sweater would turn out well enough for it to be gifted. Second, I wanted to use that yarn. I had loads (and still have 2 skeins left) of it and wanted to use it up.

Once the sweater was done, it looked so plain and boring! I had to spice it up by adding a few daisies (as given in the pattern) and a few borders on the sleeve. I also added buttons made of yarn. These are just decorative - I am going to added “press buttons” for the sweater. Now the sweater is see-able.

One daisy out of the three didn’t come out well: I amputated one of its petals. The duplicates stitched border on the sleeves almost represent the Indian flag which was completely unintentional. One border row is so off the track, as if it is drunk - it goes up and down, and up and down. Or was I drunk while knitting it?

As usual, lots to learn. Seed stitch, dividing stitches, raglan shaping, mattress stich for seaming, backstich for the daisies, duplicate stitch for the sleeve border.

All in all, end result: an ok-ok sweater. I think it is good enough, so I am going to give it, after all.

After completing my last knitting project, Peter Vest, I decided to make something quick and easy. I haven’t knit anything for myself so far, so this time the FO had to be for me! I found just the thing I was looking for - Calorimetry. Easy, knits quickly and is fun to wear. It uses short rows, which I hadn’t used before, so a new technique to learn.

It is knit flat using short rows - work till the desired stitch and then turn your work and resume knitting. For a beginner like me, it was difficult to imagine how the knitted garment was turning and taking shape. If you spend a minute to understand how we achieve the oval shape of the garment, it will be easier for you to knit it without getting confused. It knits quickly. Me, being a newbie, could finish it in to 3-4 hours. Makes a great last-minute gift.

I don’t really like the color I used, but that is the best choice I had. I didn’t have much stash and couldn’t wait to buy new yarn. This project is so cool I am planning to make this for my three nieces.

This vest follows the Berroco Peter Easy vest pattern. I used Vardhman yarn in gray. The yarn was not good - one of the skeins was really bad. Needle size - US 8 and 9. I should have used 9 and 10. I made it for medium size (Chest 44). I used up 2 and a half skeins of 50 gms. each.

This is my first project at this scale - both size and complexity. I was hesitant initially whether it will come out well. It has turned out better than I expected. It is not perfect - it looks like a vest made by an amateur knitter. The ribbing on the v-neck is not sharp enough. The front portion and back portion ended up at different length and width - so seaming was a challenge. Knitting was consistent and it shows in the different shapes and sizes of ‘V’ on the right side.

Nevertheless, I learnt a lot from this project. Ribbing, circular knitting, picking up stitches, armhole shaping, neck shaping, knitting a v-neck - the lessons are endless. Looking back at this project, I am happy and proud of myself. I think for a beginner, I did pretty well.

This was my first project on double pointed needles. I got the basic pattern idea on the net (Can’t find the site now). It was a simple rectangle in a single color.

I learnt knitting on dpns from Knitting Help.  Amy’s video on dpns is very very helpful. It’s clear and easy enough to understand for a newbie like me.

After knitting a few rows, I got a hang of it. I thought a rectangle in the same color would be boring, so added two rows of a contrast color to spice it up a bit.  Result: a warm, cosy cover for my shining iPod.

I used this for a few days. I used to keep the iPod and the earphones together and my iPod was getting scratches because of this. So, I added a pouch to the rectangle. What you see is this version.

I want to add a flap with a button or Velcro.  This will make the cover complete.

This was extremely easy to make. I haven’t used a double pointed needle or a circular needle before, so this was perfect for me. Flat needles, no advanced skills necessary, knits fast - it will be over before you know it. The patter can be found here. I left out the VW because I am not a big fan and I wanted to keep the hat simple. I followed the pattern word to word and ended up with a very small hat. Not a problem, at least I have a finished hat.

I have started on another journey: knitting. I learnt the basics from my previous landlady. She was kind enough to bear with me and teach me knits, purls, yo’s and tog’s and

what not. After struggling with it for almost a fortnight, I was the proud owner of a pair of baby socks. They looked cute, but not as cute as I wanted them to be.

I knit two more pairs of socks, one for my nephew and one for my colleague’s son. I got bored of socks and wanted to try something different. What better place to look for but internet? That’s when I landed on knittinghelp.com, such a lovely site for knitters. I got a free pattern for a baby bib from this site and knit one. It is a nice baby blue bib and is so easy to knit. I am so proud of it.

I am on to more exciting things now. Plan to knit a dish cloth listen on Knitting Help.