January of 2022 I decided to make a small art/journalling project of my knitting notes, today I filled the last page of the journal I started and look at what a chonker it has become:
80 projects documented within it's pages: 78 knits and 2 crochet, 6 still as WIPs and 3 have been since frogged to make other things, and 11 of which are made with handspun yarn!
Broken down by project type that's: 31 pairs of socks, 29 jumpers/tops, 7 shawls/scarfs, 5 hats, 4 home items, 3 baby items, and 1 wall mounted dragon head.
So here I am, with my little test piece and wool my aunt brought me from the store and new knitting needles and a bunch of wool I acquired myself on day 3 of my knitting journey.
So.. we hit September 29th - the day I just went for it.
I figured I had done plenty of practice for just doing something as basic as a scarf, I mean, basically I already made a little animal sized scarf already right so how hard can it be to do this on a larger scale?
Well. Lets start with the fact that while I knew the basic movement of knitting I had not yet learned how to cast on wool to start something new. Because remember, my aunt did that with the test piece and did the first two rows - so over to the auntie we go and we run back into the same issue as before - she can't explain and I can't follow.
Hand manipulation became funky business because neither of us realized that when I tried to copy I held the threads wrong and tried to cast on loops with the thread connected to the wool not the other one. It was a bit of a funny back and forth because she looked over my hand movements, saw me pick up the thread and of course it did not work as intended and neither of us cottoned in on what was going wrong here.
It might seem silly, but I was very pleased with myself once she retried on her own hand to figure out what I am doing wrong (remember we are both kinaesthetic creatures, she needed to replicate my movements to find out what is wrong but as opposed to me she held the threads - both of them - correctly for this step so she did not realize what went wrong on my end) that it dawned on me that I had thrice looped the threads wrong around my fingers and of course it could not work that way.
So I took the thing back from her, wound the threads around my hand again and this time it worked. My first correctly cast on loop. Fuck yeah.
The upside of fucking around so much on this basic step and then realizing what went wrong would ensure that this is now second nature ain't no way I am doing this wrong again ever.
Good thing too because my aunt was starting to get mildly frustrated because this is easy basic stuff but somehow it is complicated and I get why it frustrated her a bit how clumsy my humble beginnings are but I reminded her gently, that she did this for years, she does not have to think or plan anything for her it is all muscle memory, just like riding a bike.
But I have not learned how to ride this particular bike - would she expect me to know how to hold my balance without having it ever done before? Of course not. And any new task that involves your body and movement needs to be hardwired in your brain to make you perform it with the same ease she does it.
The older we get, the more we forget how tricky it can be to pick up something new you have never done before and many people get frustrated and stop learning something because they wrongly assume being an adult means you should learn shit in a snap.
Nah.
Everything we learn kickstarts new neural pathways in our brain, those want to be engaged and nurtured by repetition you can't just go into something new and come out a pro in the same day. 's not how it works.
But my aunt is in her late 50s so it's been a while since she got into any new craft. But she understood when I explained and reminded.
So here I am, happily casting on loop after loop and I have no concept on how much to get a good broad scarf so my aunt estimated for me to make like 40 (I am working on another scarf right now and she was absolutely right - 40 is the perfect amount for this particular bulky wool) and I said "I want it huge, really really big you feel me? So she said "make it 45 then".
By the time I started counting how many I already had on there I was at 55 but instead of stopping there I figured, ehh extra bulky - and made it 70.
And let me tell you, with absolute no shadow of a doubt, this was both a mistake and overshooting the goal widely and also the best thing ever.
It is soft, it is bulky, it is wide enough that if I get it to the length I wish to achieve I could very likely roll myself up in it. And I mean completely. Like.. drape and wrap it nicely, use some safety pins and bäm. Could make it some sort of eccentric statement piece in the next ballroom.
So yeah, Friday the 29th was go-time and I was knitting until like.. what.. 2am happy as a clam.
Next morning, Saturday I woke up, grabbed the thing to knit a bit before getting up, count the loops and.. I lost one. No idea were it went, no idea when it went and no idea how to spot were it is.
The good thing for me was, that on this very Saturday my mother would drop in to help me with something and if my auntie is an expert in knitting, then my Mother is the master. There was so much crafted stuff in my childhood home and my fondest memories of my mother are her crocheting, knitting, or crafting something. Mostly fancy Easter eggs with fabrics pearls and feathers and stuff. Really fancy shizzle.
So of course when she dropped in I was like "Mama! I started to knit! Also I lost a loop and I do not know where it is or how to spot it in this bulky thing help meeeee!"
And she gave me a look. You know the one. The one only an exasperated Mom can give you. But eh, she found it. Six or Seven rows below and so she unraveled all those rows, threw everything back on the needle, counted, and then redid the rows with speed I could not comprehend. She also muttered something about this wool being bad, it's too dark too bulky can't see shit with that why would you use that as starting project yadda yadda yadda.
(I think she was pleased tho, she tried back then to get both of her children into crafting but my brother was more for gaming and bionicles and I was more art, writing and gaming the spark was not quite there yet)
She gave me a second look when I showed her the wool I had acquired already for future projects because she lowkey thinks I might not stick with it - well, let it be known I am in deep. I might eventually balance it out again with all my other hobbies but for now I just wanna progress and create stuff and I like to have a lil stash on hand.
She promised me to show me how to knit with 5 needles to make some legwarmers I am very exited and down the line of talking she told me not to try a blanket because she wanted to do that and was discouraged because its expensive and takes too long. But she also told me that the bulky wool I have going for the scarf she would do away with in 1 hour so I'm like... damn woman if you're so fast and money is no longer an issue you could probably pull this off in record time.
It also gave me a lil kick because this bulky thing? 1 hour??
Now that it a goal to work up to >d
This is the state of the scarf currently by the way, pulled over both of the knitting needles so I can show you just how broad this thing is. The lighter is a normal sized lighter that fits in the palm of your hand.
Like I said, 70 loops was both the worst and best decision I made with this. I already had to start a second roll of wool for this. It will take a bit to finish. In fact I already finished something else in the meantime while working on this because just one WIP is not a thing I can do (I have now 5 things I work on truth be told)
But yeahhhh it huge I love this thing I can wear this as fullbody piece eventually I am very pleased. And it is soft. It is so soft. I love it so much.
I’m really interested in starting a knitting journal, but have no idea where to start. What does everyone else include in their knitting journals? Do you format it similar to a bullet journal?
It is apparently nearly the end of January already somehow, so now is as good a time as any to share my knitting plans for the (rest) of the year
My make 9 (that's actually sort of 10)! Starting at the top left:
I want to try out something in fisherman's rib: The gujo collar by aegyoknit
I just really want a textured jumper, simple and stylish: peggy sweater by leknit (I think?)
Colourwork jumper for my (to be) handspun I got from Yarndale last year: Do Ewe Yoke? by Zanete knits
The Astrid sweater by knitting for olive, I just like the hem, it's neat
I want to learn brioche knitting so: brioche cat hat by Natasha sills
A sweater for my huge advent spinning adventure: advent 2020 sweater by heleen's knithouse (very aptly named pattern)
I have a lot of handspun yarn in single breed natural colours and I've been wanting to combine them all: walled garden vest by Sonja bargielowska
Cat knit pullover by Andrea ragnel, another jumper I just need to make for reasons
And finally (sort of) last year I made the ponderosa sweater and I hate it, I haven't worn it out once and it doesn't fit well and it just doesn't look good on me so it is soon to be relegated to the frog pond and the yarn shall become: kaarina tee by sari nordlund. I'm pretty sure I have enough yarn and it's still all over cables so keeping in the spirit of the original
The sneaky 10th knit: colour brick road blanket by purl Soho, this will be a long time in the making and I have ordered 4kg of DK weight yarn for it.... Wish me luck
And with all of that out the way here's my first cast on of the year:
Today my body is a lil traitor and I am also kinda going through the motions of emotional processing some stuff so the general mood of the day is aches and anger. My favourite state of being, clearly.
So what is a short king to do who's feet do not play along and ache every step because the nerves might lowkey be inflamed again?
Fucking knit through it because fuck all that noise if I have to spend most of the time in bed I might as well do myself a triangle shawl yannow? As one does.
This thin yarn is actually meant to be used for socks according to the label. This is one of the yarns I picked up on my first trip to get more hands on material two weeks or so ago and mind, I have no concept on what materials are good for what or what is quality or anything I am new to this after all (I can tell you more accurately which inks are good for drawing and what the difference might be between using drawing inks vs. writing inks and how each behave when you try to use common effect techniques used with watercolours like alcohol, salts or rice and so on but when it comes to yarn I am baby.) and my M.O. currently is "can I touch it, can I stand the feel of it on my skin?" and that is all I am going off.
So yah this seems to be intended for a pair of socks and be enough to make said pair of socks so I will figure out soon enough if I can finish the shawl on the one yarn ball I have acquired or if I need to snatch up another and hope it is colour-wise not too different from what I have currently going here.
Here is the shawl right side up. I saw a yt video were a nice old lady showed the two steps you need to make this diagonal shawl work and I figured hey yes 's doable I have some lovely rainbow yarn that will look nice.
It is also soothing making this pastel rainbow thing like I am still a bit pissed off and all that jazz because it just is one of those days and tomorrow will be a better one for sure.
Also the yarn is very soft and lovely to handle so that does wonders for any frayed nerves today <3
(technically I have a couple more knitting journal entries meant to go out before I am caught up to current events and just liveblog whatever but I wanted to holler my frustrations out to the void so here we are)
