Knitting is cool... right?

just a small town girl, livin' in a knitting world...

[itsknittingtime]

So now can you see what he is?! Of course I had to make something with one of these guys on it! I’m just about finished now, all that’s left to do is cast off!

[itsknittingtime]

Making great progress and things are coming along well! You might recognise the first two as the patterns I tested out before but the lines are open for guesses at what the third will be!

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Alrighty so the previous two samplers that I made were in preparation for this guy, I’m having a go at making a headband (because my ears get super cold in the winter!) I really liked the original colours, blue and purple, and after raiding my mom’s stash managed to find two balls of wool that were the same size this time so here we go! 

I’m knitting it in the round so there is no seam, but at the same time this simplifies things because now I don’t have to worry about which side is the front and which is the back because I will always be knitting from one side so this should move things along much quicker!

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Sampler 2 is complete! So do you know who it is now?? Using the same size wool definitely helped in this, you could clearly see the image appearing as I moved up the rows and it sits really flat and neat, overall very chuffed! 

With the success of this bad boy under my belt I think I might be ready to move onto the actual project I wanted to make, a big headband for the winter when my ears will inevitably attempt to freeze off...

Tune in next time to see how I get on!

[itsknittingtime]

Second double knitting tester! Bonus points if you can guess what it is...

This time I found two balls of wool that were more the same size and I think it’s looking a lot neater than the other one so this is good times!

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Once again I have been scared away from trying fairisle because it just seems too craycray, so I’ve been messing around with the next best thing, double knitting! These are pictures of the front and back of a little patch/sampler I made just to try and get the hang of how to do it. 

After reading a whole bunch of patterns and still not really getting it I finally paid my trusty friends at youtube a browse and came across this tutorial that I found really clear, simple and understandable! I really like the colours in this and I think they look awesome together but unfortunately the two wools are actually slightly different sizes, the purple is a bit chunkier, and the blue is pretty fine so the pattern doesn’t quite sit right in a few places and also made it slightly harder to see if things were working right during construction!

[itsknittingtime]

It is finished! 2 years of planning, practise, and wool (plus assorted side projects) have finally come to an end. I’m so chuffed with how this bad boy turned out, I’ve hit many an exciting milestone, gained so many exps and levelled up so much since I started this. First cable project, first buttonholes, first buttons! Plus now kelsey can have an awesome new cushion for her awesome new flat, skadoosh!

Now onto the next project, potentially an attempt at fairisle... stay tuned for more exciting knitting adventures!

[itsknittingtime]

The assembly begins! I spent a long time puzzling over how exactly to go about this final step, since I’ve made all of this up from scratch I had to stop and think. The front cabled square turned out to be slightly smaller than I’d originally planned so to compensate I purposely made the two green back panels slightly bigger, but then I need to mark out exactly how much of an overlap I’d need to get the right size. So in the end I finally decided to first sew one side of each green panel onto the front piece and then using the cushion I would lay the two panels over the back and line up the button holes to figure out where to sew the buttons. 

Mocha wanted to be involved in all this/i had to fight to stop her from lying on top of everything but we got there in the end! All four buttons are now secured and all that’s left to do is sew up the tops and bottoms.

[itsknittingtime]

The 3rd and 4th buttonholes were completed to the tune of Aladdin and the King of Thieves. If you’ve never seen it or never even heard of it, I discovered the reason for that. It is hands down the weakest of them all. This is why I’ve generally sworn off sequels, they never live up to their legendary predecessors. 

Anyway! With the 2nd back panel finished all that’s left to do is assemble all the pieces! This has been such a long time coming, I’m super excited/kinda nervous to see how it all turns out!

[itsknittingtime]

Buttonhole number 2 is complete to the tune of ridiculous pretty little liars drama!

[itsknittingtime]

Row counter level up! The little red guy on the blue yarn is something of my own creation, just a row counter made for putting on the end of your needle that I threaded onto a piece of yarn so I could wear it around my neck. I came up with it primarily as a way of still using the row counter when working with circular needles and then everyone who saw it thought it was a really idea. 

Then my Yia-yia came over and she had a fancy clicker one, like this pink guy and I was like wow that’s so cool I just made my own one! 

And then a long time later my mom lost her row counter so when she was buying herself a new one she gifted me with one as well, scooooooore!

[itsknittingtime]

Up to the second buttonhole! The 2-stitch mess-up that you can see is the previous location of the second buttonhole. I showed it to kelsey and she was like “ummmmm aren’t they kind of close together...?” and then I looked at it, and I thought about it and then I was like crap you’re right. So had to rip out a couple rows and a few recalculations but at least we caught it early on and now we’re back on track, steaming on towards buttonhole no. 3!

[itsknittingtime]

Nothing like an episode of bake off to accompany the revelation of learning to knit buttonholes! 

I do believe this qualifies a level up!

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Just doing a little planning and some calculations (and recalculations) for the positioning of the buttons to figure out what rows to put the buttonholes in

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So it’s been a very, verrrrry busy final year at uni and as a result knitting sadly took a backseat for a while/like 6 months... but now I’m getting back on track! Throwback to the time I sat back and finally binge-watched the latest season of game of thrones and finished the first back panel of Kelsey’s cushion cover. Now to browse youtube for its knitting wisdom and learn how to make buttonholes!

Tune in next time to see how the saga continues!

[itsknittingtime]

Knit Soc's latest group project was a commission from the Dr Who society to make them the 4th Doctor's scarf so we split the scarf into sections and a bunch of us volunteered to make a section and this is the life and times of mine, took me 1 week exactly to get this bad boy done! p.s. I will actually finish Kelsey's cushion cover... one day....

[itsknittingtime]

Progress update: the front is finished! During an evening filled with mulled wine, presents, audrey hepburn and chillin with this one babe, this little guy fulfilled (part of) his destiny. 

Next up, the 2 rectangular back panels. Skills needed for this level up: the mysterious entities that are, button holes.

Tune in next time to see how my padowan training progresses!