A KNITTING BLOG
Welcome to my blog, Weeping Woollow. This blog is a log of my knitting journey.
During the spring break of my Junior year in college (3 weeks ago!) I began knitting. After a wobbly start with a cat scarf (not originally intended as a cat scarf) I fell in love, and here I am now.
I don’t know a lot about knitting and I am very new in my journey, but I hope to grow and learn and use this blog as a place to share my progress.
It’s a sad day when you have to frog a project.
I decided to say goodbye to my vanilla socks.
I was doing great up until the heel flap. When I first started the socks I ran out of tail so I didn’t cast on the amount of stitches the pattern required and made no adjustments and I also did not split my stitches evenly…among other things. It all came to bite me in the ass once I got to the heel flap/gusset.
It’s okay. I learned a lot and while it was sad to frog I will try again with another sock…and another color.
learning to knit socks on a dark colorway is Satan’s work.
Socks are a process. It’s a process that I think I am enjoying but it’s definitely a process. It’s taking me a lot longer to knit up one sock than some of the other projects i’ve done. This is in part because of the yarn and needle sizes i’m working with and the other part is because of school .It’s the last 3 weeks of the semester and so I have to focus a little more on homework and less on knitting. That’s okay, but I hope I can find the strength to knit the second sock and not suffer from SSS (second sock syndrome).
I’ve finally reached the point where I get to start the heel flap! Again, I am using the Vanilla Latte Sock pattern that is found on Ravelry. It is a free pattern by Virginia Rose-Jeanes. Instead of knitting the leg to 7 inches I decided on 6. It seemed long enough and I am getting a little impatient…hopefully this doesn’t bite me in the ass later. This is my first ever sock and i’m nervous to begin this process but excited at the same time. I was so excited that I started dancing.
So I decided to do a blog update to tell how excited I am to learn something new. Wish me Luck!
What’s the worst that can happen?
Let me tell you….
Check your gauge!
I didn’t check mine and here are the results.
excuse the top. I got frustrated with the looseness and towards the end I kinda gave up.
The hat pattern is called the Sandoval Hat by Robyn Devine my second hat I’ve ever knit and at the time I didn’t know about gauge. The pattern calls for a size 9 needle and that was the size I used. I think I made that hat the first week I started knitting and so to me I figured that if I followed the pattern it would come out perfect. Never mind gauge, never mind tension, never mind yarn! I didn’t know about all of that yet!
So I finished the hat and as you can see it’s HUGE. If I opened it up it might be able to land a human. My boyfriend has a big head and even it was too big for his head. I didn’t know if it was my knitting or if It was because I switched yarns in the middle of the work so the next time I went to my LYS I asked what I could do better. Know what they said?
Check your gauge.
Okay! You’d think I would have learned my lesson, right? Wrong!
Say hi to Dell!
I decided to knit my mom the Gallatin Scarf by Kris Basta and it called for size 10.5 needles but I only had size 10. I struggled casting on and increasing and I switched to a size 9 thinking maybe that would help. I don’t think my needle size had anything to do with my starting struggles, but I eventually got the hang of it on the size 9 and didn’t want to switch back and have to go through the whole process again, so I continued.
Well, the scarf was considerably smaller than it was supposed to be, and my mom is gifted in the chest area. I still haven’t given her the scarf yet but i’m interested to see how it looks on her.
So I have learned a valuable lesson when it comes to knitting.
Check your gauge.
I now do small swatches so that I can see how my yarn works with the pattern and if I need to go a size up or down with my needles, and I think in the long run the patience saves me from a lot of frustration and disappointment.
I think now that i’ve knitted more and I know about gauge I would like try both the Sandoval hat and Gallatin scarf. I think this time around I think I can make them look a bit more like they’re supposed to.
Hi!
Today is a gloomy day in Michigan. I guess I shouldn’t complain because it’s springtime and rain means beautiful green grass, flowers, and trees in a couple months. So despite the rain and the snow that will come later this week, i’ll still count today as a good day.
Okay so, currently I am working on my first ever sock.
Since this is my first ever sock I decided to use Patons Kroy fx sock yarn in their Clovr color. The pattern I am attempting to follow is found on Ravelry and Vanilla Latte Socks by Virginia Rose-Jeanes.
I’m working on these socks with size 2 circular hiyahiya needles in magic loop. This is also my first time trying magic loop and it was surprisingly simple to figure out.
So far the sock is coming along. It is by no means perfect but i’ve got the cuff finished and I am working on the body of the sock. I did mess up so the stitches are off. I thought about frogging back but I decided to say whatever! It’s my first sock and i’m allowed to make mistakes.
I’m excited to get to the heel turn/flap because that is something I haven’t done before and will be a new learning experience.
Here’s to hoping I don’t get too frustrated to finish!
WEEPING WOOLLOW 