Rita's Rules of Knitting: Lesson 1

This is the inaugural posting of Rita's Rules of Knitting. In this posting, I will discuss the most important lesson a knitter should heed when beginning a project:

Always buy the amount of yarn called for in a pattern, plus 1 more skein!!! I cannot stress this enough.

Let's look at Exhibit A:


















I have about 30 more rounds on my last sleeve, but no more yarn. And I bought this yarn back in September, so I doubt I'll find the same dye lot if I go back to Lakeside Fibers.
On the bright side, while I was discovering this fatal error, I was watching a very good version of Jane Eyre on PBS, and my cat seems to like to sit on the sweater as it weeps unfinished on my kitchen floor. Maybe it can be a kitty rug....

Projects preview

Nice work, Rita! Those mittens are my favorite!

I recently finished my first sweater, actually for my husband, which was the Lace Leaf Pullover from Teva Durham's Loop-d-Loop book...knitted without the lace panels and button closure at the neck to make it less girly. Anyway, I want to make one for myself now, and I chose the Cap Sleeve Vest from the Winter issue of KnitSimple. I also received some gorgeous yellow wool as a gift from my Mom, and I'm going to use it for the Star Bag by Ann Budd from Interweave Knits' Fall 2006 Give Me A Handbag! staff project. I plan to make a few changes to the handle and possibly the top edge of the bag, but I think it will look great in that amazing yellow.

So this picture shows sort of my current projects bag, with the yellow wool and the heathery pink Wool-Ease I'm going to use for my sweater:

...and just because, here's a picture of the trunk that holds my stash...just the top layer...it's about 4 or 5 layers deep underneath that:

Projects follow-up

It's been a little crazy in Rita's world lately but I thought I'd post some follow-up pictures to my Christmas knitting frenzy. Here are the mittens all felted:
















The trigger finger hole worked out ok--I guess we'll find out next fall when my dad tries the mittens out.

Here's the bag I knitted for my mom:

This is actually the Felted Stripe Tote from One Skein by Leigh Radford. It's not felted yet.

And here is the project I'm currently working on, my first sweater:

I've actually knitted all of the body and am currently working on the sleeves.
One of my New Year's goals is to not buy anymore yarn until I finish this sweater. It's looking kind of lame right now, but once I block it, maybe it'll turn into the totally cool sweater I dreamed about.

Inspiration for the New Year

Hello knitting friends!
Among my resolutions for 2007 (next to reading more, taking one professional development course, and generally being a kinder person) is to get *organized* with my knitting. This means:

-Fewer impulse yarn buys - more conscious stash management!
-Actually *finishing* more projects instead of ripping out 10 times before finally giving up
-Knit more of my own clothes and knit more gifts for others
-Doing some charity knitting

I also want to incorporate other crafts into my repertoire, too. I have been looking for inspiration in books, magazines, and on the web, and there are two publication that consistently deliver & I really want to share with you: knitty.com and CRAFT: Magazine.

Knitty is a quarterly web publication with so many fun patterns, I can't list all my favorites here. A highlight from the current issue is the binary scarf.

CRAFT: is a new magazine, only on its second issue, but it's so exciting and very different than anything else out there. In the current issue, there are articles on a crew of urban knitting taggers, an online museum of neuroscience needlecraft art, and some fabulous Star Wars Fair Isle pattern charts!!!

OK, that's enough sharing for today - I'd love to know what's getting you excited about knitting and creating in general!

Tippi

Knitting Frenzy!

Here are some pictures of the project I'm working on right now. They're felted hunting mittens for my dad. The right mitten has a little hole where the trigger finger can easily come out of the mitten (and I never thought I'd type a sentence like that in my life...). I'm using the Adult Mittens pattern from the Beverly Galeskas Felted Knits book, and modifying it a bit for the finger hole. I found this hunter orange colored yarn in Cascade 220, if anyone is interested. Here are the pictures. The first is of the mitten half done, and the second is the mitten all knitted, but not felted.

After finishing the mittens, I plan on making a felted bag for my mom. I'm going to use the "At-Odds Felted Purse" from the Theresa Gaffey Designs and use my favorite yarn, Cascade 220. I attemped to make a center-pull ball out of two of these skeins. We'll see if it worked, or if I'm going to have one giant tangled-yarn mess on my hands.

Holiday Knitting

Please take a moment to share what you will be working on over the holiday break.... I've got two baby sweaters to do. One is for a boy, using red wool-ease in the ML Egan easy baby sweater pattern. The other is for a newborn girl. Not sure what I'll use, pattern or yarn-wise. Might be the Mason-Dixon baby kimino, might be the five-hour baby sweater.

Helpful webpage for crochet and knitting references

Anj mentions that it can be a little hard to follow a detailed pattern, especially, I find when you are not sure of all the abbreviations. There's a great webpage from the Craft Yarn Council of America that includes all sorts of helpful references for knitting and crocheting. Now that I've found this, I might be able to follow a crochet pattern! I also like the standard sizing charts for baby, child, woman, man and head. See Standards & Guidelines for Crochet & Knitting.

Rib-and-Cable Mitts Marji LaFreniere

I'm such a newbie. I'm still working on my Rib-and-Cable Mitts from the Spring 2006 issue of Interweave Knits. The pattern is great but I think it may be a little beyond my skill.
I have never:

1. Knit in the round
2. Knit cables
3. Followed such a detailed pattern
4. Made a "pair" of something

I'm finding it nearly impossible to finish the second glove. I think it would take me all of 10 minutes at this point. I'm a little disappointed because one glove is longer than the other. I'll post a picture when they're complete.

Lopi Stash & Lopi Cat

Photos of my Lopi Stash.....

On right, Lopi arranged in sweater possiblities.
Above, entire Lopi and Lite Lopi stash. I love the Lite Lopi but I've never actually made anything using it. Do you think I have enough to make a sweater? (or two?)

Here is my kitty with some leftover Lopi. I had to distract her from all the new Lopi on the island.

The obligatory Cat Shot...

All knitting blogs need a cat and some yarn juxtaposed in a cute fashion. I give you: