knit

After all the birthday shenanigans, I got the flu!!! Boohoohoo!!!! But that didn’t stop this party animal!!! LOLOLOL! Yeah right!!! Although I was floored by that pesky virus I’m back now!!! My baskets, overflowing with birthday yarn and fiber and just the coziness of the Fall days and evenings sent me back to my needles and hooks. My finger is much, much better and I was so excited to start crafting again.

This weekend past, I made a little “mat” to add to my Fall decor to put my candles on. And since this home-girl is crazy about handmade and crazy about Christmas, I broke out my 100 Crochet Snowflakes book and made two snowflakes as well. I think I’ll make a couple more for my little Charlie Brown tree. Because I’m a total New Yawker — with that kinda “go big or go home” style, I didn’t use fingering weight yarn for the snowflakes … nooooooooo, that would have been too easy! LOLOL! I celebrated my finger feeling better by crocheting with thread and a teeny tiny hook. Yeah … I’m a nut, but they are so cute though. Wanna see?

I think I need some extra starch on these puppies; I’ll take care of that tomorrow! I can’t wait to finish some other designs then hang them on my little tree. 🙂

The pattern for the the leaf is “Leafy Washcloth” by Megan Goodacre on Ravelry. I haven’t added notes to my projects folder yet but I made this in worsted weight heathered yarn (an old line from Knitpicks) and followed the pattern exactly as is. The next time around, I think I’m going to use beads somewhere in the design. I could see it in my head already! After I weave in the ends, I’ll show it again with some “model” shots. LOLOL!

I hope you’ve all been well and it’s nice to be back in this space. ❤

Let me know how you’ve been in the comments. How are you crafting your way through Fall?

Knitting is supposed to be fun and it is, but what I also love is that it’s a great teacher. Any knitter worth his/her salt will tell you that while we adore fiber and everything related to the craft, one of the best things about it is how much you can learn (if you pay attention) in a single project, even from a small one.

At the beginning of the year, I told you that my goal is to make this:

source

Quite ambitious since I’d never made a mitten before. So I decided to remedy that. I figured I’d start with something easy like a bulky mitten since what I really wanted was to get an idea of the construction, kitchener seaming and finishing (especially between the thumb gusset and the rest of the mitten). As I used bulky yarn, within a few hours, I’d finished the rest of the mitten (excluding the thumb) and kitchener stitched the top. In about 15 mins or less the next day, I was finished the thumb. Wanna see the proof:

The thumb was actually perfect, the kitchener stitch mostly okay (so much easier than I was told to expect) except for the side I pulled too tight, but the mitten doesn’t fit. No fault of the pattern but my hand is apparently longer than I thought it was. I should have gone another inch before the decrease so the mitten itself doesn’t sit right although it looks just fine. The other part of the mitten I’m not particularly happy with is the area between the thumb gusset and the main part of the mitten. I know it’s normal to get holes there because of general mitten construction but my perfectionist self wanted to have those holes seamed/finished better than I did them this time around. I decided to go to one of my favourite online teaching sources — VeryPink — and of course, she had a video tutorial of how to make fingerless mitts including how to close up those annoying holes better. Can it get any better than that?

On this mitten, I learned three techniques and crossed an accessory I never did before off my list. I’d say that’s pretty good learning! I’m not going to finish the second one yet, at this point, I think I might undo this first one and convert this pair into thrummed mittens. How awesome would that be?!!! Not bad for my first mittens or should I say … mitten. 😀

Next stop … these: