An Early Christmas Gift For Me!

So I'm probably a bit more excited about this than I should be...but I got a package in the mail yesterday that I've been waiting for for a while now.  My first set of bamboo double-pointed needles!  Well, technically, 16 sets of dpn's, one in each size of needle.  They were on for a super great price.

I had to label each package in the US size, since the needles themselves are only marked in metric

And the best part of my new gift to me?  I can use them to make gifts for everyone else!

Working with dpn's is another skill that I used to find intimidating -- or at least, confusing.  Kishi often remarks that he believes me to be a wizard, and my knitting is some sort of sorcery.  (I am alright with this.)  But once I got started, my hands seemed to figure it out on their own.  The biggest thing to remember is to double and triple check that your cast-on stitches are straight before joining them to knit in the round.  Considering you're generally using three or four needles at a time, that makes three or four more chances for your stitches to get twisted.  Also, try to keep your stitches centered on the needle, so they don't slip off the end while you're working.

So much faster than knitting flat and sewing it up later!

These new needles will definitely help speed up my gift-making, and besides, one can never have too many needles.  The more needles, the more projects on the go, right?  Now, let's just see how long it takes me to mix up the packages...

Arya's Baby Blanket!

This is basically the project that started it all.

Finished this blanket with just a week or two to spare!

For years, I was the one that knit scarves -- just your basic, run-of-the-mill garter stitch scarves.  Garter stitch was all I knew.  I made a blanket for my first daughter, Morgan, which was basically just a wide, short scarf.

But when I got pregnant with my second daughter, I found a whole new world of knitting.  I was at my friend Lioness' place one day, for one of our knitting dates.  She was working on a baby blanket for someone she knew, in a Fan and Feather pattern.  As I watched her knit, I fell in love with the pattern, and I knew that I wanted one for my own baby.

I found a pattern here, and I jumped on it.  It's actually really simple once you memorize the basic repeats.  I did alter it slightly, first by switching the colors of the border.  Each round, you need to remember to twist the one yarn around the other when switching colors to keep the stitches connected.  This was my first time working with more than one color, and it took a few attempts to get it right.

Otherwise, I chose a 9 pattern repeat.  The number three is powerful, and is prevalent in most religions (ie, the Holy Trinity; the Maiden, Mother, and Crone; the Norns or the Fates: Past, Present and Future, etc.)  Three times three is especially powerful, and is considered a protective charm to many Pagans.  I chose to repeat the fan pattern nine times across, and since the border started in pink, I worked nine repetitions of the cream rows.  This made the blanket a bit bigger than the original pattern's dimensions, but it works nicely for bundling her in the stroller, and she'll be able to use it once she starts sleeping in the crib (which will likely be very soon, the way she's growing!).

It's amazing to look back and see how much I've learned in so short a time -- and there's still plenty left to master!  I'm thinking of trying cables next...

Mystery Gift Knits!

Apologies for the radio-silence lately, but I've been hard at work on some gifts for the coming Holiday Season.  Without going into too much details and spoiling the surprise, I can at least offer a hint as to what I've been up to.

Here's a quick tease of what I've been working on.

First of all, I've got a mountain of yarn that's threatening to take over the bed in the spare room.  More than I need?  Possibly.  Enough time to finish everyone's gifts before Christmas?  Bah, who needs sleep anyways?  Besides, losing feeling in one's fingers is perfectly normal, right?  Right?

There's still about a dozen more balls where these came from...

Anyways, I've been working off-pattern on these, making it up as I go, since there never seems to be a pattern available for what I'm planning to do.  So, a fair bit of trial-and-error involved.  So far, I seem to have hit on a couple of designs that work -- hopefully everyone enjoys what I'm whipping up for them!

Back to work, I suppose...I'll be posting the completed designs after the holidays, so stay tuned!

Baby Hearts!

Though I've been knitting on and off for most of my life, I've only gotten very serious about it in the past year or so.  As such, I still consider myself to be a bit of a newbie, with a lot to learn.  That's one big reason why I'm always finding a new project to try, with new skills I can practice.  I love learning new things (and knitting certainly offers up an endless supply) but I know that it can sometimes be a bit intimidating.  It's easy to look at the work of someone who's had years of practice and experience, and think "I'll NEVER be able to do that!"

This was my feeling towards sweaters.  With a new baby, the urge to dress her in cute little cardigans and pullovers was there; there are certainly no shortages of patterns available, either.  But I just kept thinking I wasn't ready for that yet.  I didn't have the skills.  Or the needles.  Or whatever.

Bubblegum and Raspberry...and they look delicious!

Then I found this yarn.  As soon as I felt it, I knew it was going to be a sweater.  My first sweater.  I pored over pattern after pattern, finding plenty that were cute, but none that were THE one.  Slowly, the nerves faded away as I realized that I knew all of the technical skills the patterns described, and the general formula wasn't so difficult after all.  

So, before I had the chance to psyche myself out unnecessarily, I cast on and didn't look back.  Seeing as I only had my US6 straight needles (I do plan on investing in some double-pointed needles at some point in the near future) I opted for a cardigan style.  It's also much simpler to button a sweater than to wrestle a squirming infant into a pull-over.  Taking the sweater formula I'd worked out from checking out other patterns, I just sort of made it up as I went -- though I made sure to write it all down, so I can do it again, or make some changes for next time.

My first sweater -- finished in only a week!

Using straight needles meant that I had to seam the sleeves afterwards, which is a bit of extra work, but thankfully sewing is another of my strengths so it wasn't a biggie.  And of course I couldn't keep things simple for myself while learning something new -- no, I have to mix it up with some colorwork, too.  Just simple little hearts, and it turned out so adorable!  I do need to work on keeping the colorwork a bit looser, though, so it doesn't pucker...not that it's very noticeable, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist.

Great, now I need to pick up a boat-load of cute buttons for all the sweaters I'm going to be knitting! 

The sweater itself fits the 6 month size average...but I probably should have aimed a bit bigger.  Arya's on the tall side for a 5 month-old, and the sweater just fits.  She likely won't be in it for long, but at least we can get some use out of it while this gorgeously warm fall weather lasts.  It's a lighter-weight yarn, so I think I might make her a new sweater for spring -- but I'll wait until it gets closer, since there's no telling how much more she'll grow by then!

Cuteness overload!

 I will be posting the pattern I created eventually, with a link to my Ravelry page.  For now, I've told myself that I have to finish at least one more Christmas gift before I move on to my next project.  A knitter's work is never done...

This is what my average project looks like on paper...now to translate this archaic text into a proper pattern! 

Getting Historical!

This square isn't for a particular fandom that I'm fond of, but for an area of geekiness in which I excel.  I'm a huge history buff, focusing mainly in ancient history -- Ancient Egypt, the Greeks and Romans, right up through Medieval Europe.  When I was little, I always wanted to be an archaeologist when I grew up.  Oh, who am I kidding, I still want to be an archaeologist.

Who didn't want to be Indiana Jones when they grew up ?!

Egypt has always held an especially fond place in my heart, and even if nothing else on my Bucket List gets done, I'd be perfectly content if I could get there myself one day to see the artwork and monuments.  Even as a child, I was drawn to anything Egyptian -- my Foster-Mom used to like telling the story of how whenever we'd take a trip to the Museum, I would wander off by myself.  Every time, without fail, she would find me in the Egyptian exhibit, talking to the mummy on display.  I even began correcting some of the tour guides when they made mistakes while discussing the artifacts -- I got in trouble for that one, even though I probably did know more about the exhibit than they did.

This square pays homage to someone who is probably my most beloved historical figure.  I kid you not, I have always had a serious, hard-core crush on him, despite the fact he's been dead for almost 2,000 years.  My dear husband has learned to cope with this fact remarkably well, might I add.  Without further ado, may I present to you His Royal Highness, Ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt, Lord of the Two Lands, King of the Sedge and the Bee, Nebkheperure...or, as most of you know him, King Tut.

King Tut's famous death-mask

Most people know Tut because of his famous tomb discovery in 1922, which was one of the only tombs to have had all its treasures still intact.  I was actually fortunate enough to get to see his exhibit when it came to Toronto (the guided tour was actually voiced by Mr. Harrison Ford himself -- how many archaeological exhibits can say they're led by Indiana Jones!?)...my Foster-Mom got me tickets, and I gushed at her over the phone for hours afterwards.  It was actually one of our last conversations before she passed, and I'm so glad I got to share it with her.  She always encouraged my passion with the past, and shared lots of stories about the places she'd been.

My Foster-Mom actually visited the Temple of Indiana Jones's Last Crusade...it's in Petra, Jordan

Here are just a few quick tidbits about him:

• His father Akhenaten tried to abolish the worship of the traditional Egyptian Gods.  He worshiped the sun, spent hours staring at it every day, and eventually went blind.  And crazy.  The crazy may have come first.
• His step-mother was Nefertiti, said to be the most beautiful Egyptian queen of all time, and it is believed that one of his Great-great-something-grandmothers was Hatshepsut, who was one of the first women Pharaohs, who dressed like a man and ruled her kingdom like nobody's business, and said "Screw you world, girls can be kings, too!"
• His sister (and wife -- they did like to keep the royal bloodlines pure...) was Ankhsunamun...which was the name of Imhotep's girlfriend in the 1999 version of "The Mummy" with Brendan Fraser.
• Tutankhamun brought back the worship of the old Gods after his dad died of crazy, stopped the destruction of the old temples, and if it weren't for him, we likely wouldn't have half the knowledge of the Ancient Egyptians we have today

So knitting in hieroglyphs was definitely something new for me, but thankfully this cartouche (the symbol which holds the name) was fairly simple.  It's actually Tut's royal name, Nebkheperure, spelled out.

The trouble with double-sided knitting is figuring out which side to display...

Hubby spent a good while trying to figure this one out...at one point, he asked if it was a bowl of ramen.  While I do enjoy cups of noodles, I do not enjoy them enough to designate a square of my blanket to them.  Sorry, ramen noodles, though you are delicious.

Apparently this is a depiction of ramen noodles in a claw machine...okay, I can kind of see it...

My pattern design can be found here.

Frills Everywhere!

Soooo...I may have a new addiction.  These little skirts are so quick to turn out, and super easy, since I'm basically designing them on the fly.  Each one turns out a little different, while I'm working out the basic numbers for the various sizes.  This second one is a bit bigger than the first, and it's my back-up for little Sabby's gift, in case the first one is too small.  I haven't seen her in a while, and kids have this really annoying habit of getting bigger.

I am super loving these frills lately!

 The ribbing around the waist, as well as the drawstring, means that a bit of growing room is allowed.  I can say from experience with both my girls that there's nothing sadder than finding the most adorable outfit for your little one, only to find they have outgrown it before they can ever wear it again.  Also, because they are so super cute, you will likely be too absorbed in squishing their adorable selves to take any pictures to forever prove how sweet they look...thankfully, little Arya won't likely have this problem, since Daddy's camera-trigger finger would put an Old Western gunslinger to shame.

The one thing that this whole skirt kick has emphasized for me -- which is an ongoing issue I have dealt with my whole life -- is that I have no visual sense of measurement.  I honestly cannot compute distance or size by sight, whether it's an inch or a mile.  I can look at something I've knit and say, "Oh, that's about an inch of ribbing," when it's actually closer to four...or else I can say "Yep, that's a whole six inches of stockinette!" when it's really only two.  As such, sizing is really hard for me.  I can look at something and think that it will fit the intended recipient for sure, when in reality it comes nowhere close.

The black and purple makes me heart this piece

Most of the wearable items I've made so far have been either one-sized or accessories, which is safe for someone like me...but the one thing I wanted when I first started this blog was to learn new things, and that means stepping out of my comfort zone once in a while.  This has definitely been a new experience for me, and while I may never be able to accurately judge the length of a garment on sight, I have at least learned a few things.

First of all, I have come to rely on my trusty measuring tape while I knit, and to double-check the sizing as I go.  Having the exact measurements of the recipient helps, but checking online against market sizing standards helps, too.  Also, I keep a sort of knitting journal, where I record each and every step I take in creating the piece, as well as any variations I make.  Everything from the type of yarn used to how many stitches and rows in each...it's a great help when drafting patterns that other people could use, and it really helps keep track of what works and what might need some tweaking.  All things considered, I might have some new patterns ready to post soon!  Keep an eye out for me on Ravelry, as DizzyStitchin.

Frilly Skirt!

Ever since I got my Sashay Sparkle, I have been envisioning little frilly skirts.  Like, a ton of little frilly skirts.  For everyone.  It helps that between my friend Lioness and I, we've got three little girls under 8. It's great practice for figuring out different sizes for my patterns, and I have the safety net of knowing that even if the size is a bit off, at least one of the girls will fit it (or grow into it).

A bit of asymmetrical flair adds to the floofy-ness

This was also my first attempt at knitting in the round, and I'm super pleased with the way it turned out.  Rule number one, though, is make sure your stitches aren't twisted when you're joining them, or you'll spend about an hour undoing the rows you've knit and untangling your yarn.  Trust me.

The frills are on the purl-side of the work, which is the inside when you're knitting.  I'd stop every few rows and flip it inside-out to check that it was looking the way I wanted it to, but there was also the added plus that the knit-side ended up looking really cool, with a stripe of color where the frills were on the other side.  Honestly, I think this skirt would look great both ways -- either all ruffles, or with the ruffles just peeking out the bottom.  Hooray for reversible knitwear!

Love the way the black makes the color pop

It has taken me a while to get around to this project, mostly because I was waiting to find the perfect yarn to pair with each of the colors I have in Sashay.  Salmon, rhubarb, and emerald aren't the most common colors at my usual yarn depots, and the vibrancy of the colors made them pretty difficult to match.  Thankfully, inspiration hit me like a Glam-Rock Hair-Band (which may have come from watching too much Glee lately) and I realized I have a ginormous amount of black yarn lying about.  Hello, 80's!  

I used a length of Sashay for the drawstring waistband

I'm still working out the pattern in different sizes (there's a lot more math in knitting than I'd imagined) but for now, this one's going to little Sabby, who turned three last month.  My girls will have to wait, I guess, though probably not long, since I've got a second skirt on the needles already, in a slightly different style.  I have a feeling that there will be an abundance of frilly skirts in the girls' wardrobes shortly.  I'm also thinking up a big-girl version for me, though maybe with a little less frills.

The inside, showing off that little bit of flair