The Fiber Challenge

For all lovers of yarn, so that we can challenge ourselves, expand our skills, get to know each other, and just plain show off.

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knitmecrazy - Fair warning about the circular needles.  You may just find out they're awesome.  I seriously use them for everything.  The best part- you can never lose half the pair.

dancingalongthestars- I've tried double knitting (it makes awesome scarves) but brioche... Yeah brioche is so tempting.  Maybe that one will be next!

yarnfan- Entrelac is so wicked cool.  It took me a while to get the hang of it, but once I did... Oh it's awesome.

and 

laurenjijusu- There is endless fun to be had with color work.  You name the image, and it can be charted and turned into something.  It's just a blast.  You're going to love it.

I seriously wonder if I could write yarn related cheers.  Um...

WAY TO GO FIBER FANS!  WAY TO GO!  OH OOH!  

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Hooray!

Hello all twenty two followers!  I hope you're all going to join in and show off your lovely things.  

Remember you've got until the end of February until the challenge is up.  I wanted to give people plenty of time to play catch up after the holidays.  And remember the challenge is try something new!

Well, I got the first of the altered socks done yesterday while I sat in an alley watching Mister Man fixing my brakes.  So hooray for one more sock made and hooray (a gigantic hooray) for working brakes.  I should get started on the other once I'm done with my assortment of computer related responsibilities.

Got any pictures to show off yet?  Any progress reports?

[fiberchallenge]

My something new (at least the first one).  I'm altering a sock pattern for the first time (this is only my third sock).  I've narrowed it from the pattern and added ribbing to the top of the foot.

Socks have intimidated me for a long time.  The construction confused me.  And then there's the size.  I have some arthritis.  Small scale things can be rough on my hands.

But... the only limits I have are the ones I place on myself.  So I bought some really good compression gloves (from a medical supply company.  Way way better than what you can find in crafting places.).  I found a really good book with some instructions that make sense to me and are easily adapted in a million ways.  And I'm going for it.  

One of the benefits of working with fiber is that there's a ton of people who have written about it.  I've found that if one set of instructions doesn't make sense to me, I just search until I find one that does.

So, what are you folks up to with your fiber?

[fiberchallenge]

Challenge Number One

So are you starting to think about what you're going to try?  For those who missed it, this first challenge is try something new.

It can be a new stitch pattern that you think is cool.  It can be a new kind of thing to make (such as socks).  It can be a new technique.  All it has to be is something new to add to what you can do.

So whatever it is that you've been eyeing and holding yourself back from... What are you looking to try?

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Hey, I just had an idea actually; could people possibly tag their work as "fiberchallenge" during the challenges, if they can't submit them to the blog? I follow a writing prompts blog that does that too and if you track the tag you can see all sorts of work people have done. :3

Sure!  That makes perfect sense.  Thanks so much for the idea!

[fiberchallenge]

So here's the idea.

I thought that maybe we, the fiber lovers of the tumblr universe needed a place to show off, get to know each other, support one another, and challenge our projects and skills.

So here it is.

And here's the first challenge (to be closed at the end of February)..

Try something new.

Try a technique you haven't before, a new stitch pattern, a new kind of thing to make.  Whatever it is.  The more you challenge yourself, the more you expand your skill set and the more that you expand the possibilities.

So there's your challenge.

Show me pics.  Submit away and share with the world.  Time for us to show each other some love.

And much love to you all...

Please feel free to follow my main obsessively fiber related blog, zenandtheartofyarn