Harder than it looks…

Y’all, this blogging thing is harder than it looks.  When I started this thing up, I had every intention of posting regularly but now I haven’t posted in nearly a month.  I have been knitting, though.  I designed my first shawlette last month and it was finally washed and blocked in a marathon washing-and-blocking-session this afternoon.  I will hopefully have pictures up later this week and a pattern ready to be published very soon.  If there is anyone out there reading this who would be interested in test knitting a little one-skein shawlette called “daisy,” leave a comment and I’ll get the pattern out to you ASAP!

In the meantime, since it seems to be a little bit of a faux pas to make a blog post with no pictures, I will leave you with a shot I took this evening of my dog helping me block my gaenor in grape shawl (rav link).  I will have more on this project and more later this week!

Knitting fail

So, here in my third post to my brand new blog, I must share with you a knitting failure.  It is sad and it is completely my own fault.  Here is 85% of a lovely Spring Forward sock (Rav project page).  It is beautiful, but sadly, I cannot fit it over my heel.  Now normally, I wouldn’t feel quite so stupid for having this happen–the stitch pattern just is not very stretchy–but I’ve knit this pattern before and I had the exact same problem then, too.

I think the lesson is now permanently etched in my brain–go up a needle size when making Spring Forwards!  There was a bright spot to this knitting experience, however.  The yarn I used was the February Plucky Classic shipment and it just absolutely glows (my less than mediocre photography skills simply cannot do it justice).  Also, this was the first project for which I used my brand new Piddleloop bag in that adorable Orla Keily print.  Happiness!

I have a new project on the needles; one that I am designing myself.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to share that with you soon.

A Little Jazz…

So here we go with my first finished object post for my new blog.  After a marathon photo shoot this afternoon, I now remember why I so rarely bother taking FO photos–because I am not, nor do I know anyone who is, a good photographer.  I also have a tendency to make some pretty strange faces while I am posing for pictures.  Hopefully I will get better, but for now let’s move on to the FO!

Pattern: A Little Jazz by Samantha Roshak (ravel it!)

Yarn: Fiesta Yarns’ Baby Boom in colorway Spring Chill

Needles: Size 5, 32″ circular

Ravelry project page.

Notes: I really enjoyed knitting this; it only took four days!  I made the ruffle about an inch longer than the pattern suggests, and I still have a quarter of the skein leftover.  I used Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sewn bind-off to bind-off the stitches when I was finished, and although it was quite a chore, I am really happy with the end result.  This was my first time working with Baby Boom (or any Fiesta yarns, for that matter), and I found it to be lovely.  It was very squoosh-worthy, but at times could be a bit splitty.  (There were a couple of times where I only picked up a few plies of the yarn instead of the whole stitch and I ended up having to ladder down to fix it.)  But, all-in-all, the yarn was nice and the shawl is a cute design.  I think it goes perfectly with my new spring green cardigan!  Very happy with this FO!

Told you I make some pretty strange faces while having my picture taken!

My name is Kate, and I am a knitter…

I’ve decided to try my hand at this blogging thing–I certainly love reading other people’s blogs, so maybe someone will love reading mine?

In any event, I have realized that I’ve really slacked off on updating my projects on Ravelry (I’m k8crafts over there, if you’re a member) and would really love to keep up with my knitting progress.  I also hope to start designing some of my own patterns pretty soon, and they will be available here.