Hats Off to You!

Okay...sorry for the short absence (if anyone is reading this and noticed). I've been busy working and knitting away at my current project. I'm about halfway through a cable knit pillow cover, which I will show you upon its completion in a week or so (yeah, right).

I start school up again on Tuesday. I'm actually very excited. Although this month of R&R with nothing seriously productive to do has been wonderful, I'm getting that itch. It's an anxious feeling I get when I haven't used my brain for awhile and I just need to get back into a classroom, read a book, write down some definitions. Something! So yes, I'm a huge nerd, if you couldn't already tell. But a happy one because I get to study, knit, cook, eat, and live in Philly. All of my favorites. Life is good sometimes, huh?

For this post's project, I give you my first hats! I made these as Christmas presents for my baby cousins Robby and Mary who live in Texas. I used a really fantastic worsted weight wool yarn in a light green for Robby and baby pink for Mary. I found a free pattern online here for a seed stitch baby hat. This pattern was originally intended for preemie babies but there is a size included for a newborn, which I used for Mary since she was just a month old when she got it. For Robby's hat, I altered the pattern a little by adding on (using my gauge, of course) a couple more inches. I don't think the hat fits him perfectly because I couldn't ask my aunt exactly what the circumference of his head was since these hats were a surprise, so I guessed and figured if it was a bit big, he'd grow into it. Mary's fits quite well with room to grow.

Here are some pictures I took of the hats flat and some my aunt took of my baby cousins wearing the hats.

The lessons learned here were purling, seed stitch, ribbing, knitting with double pointed needles in the round, and decreasing. This was a giant leap in my knitting skills and further provoked my knitzophrenia (Christopher's wording, not mine) because I felt so accomplished and a little proud of my work!

That's all for tonight. Now for some Rock Band to fulfill my desire to become lead vocalist for a rockin' band.

First Attempts

I said I would start at the beginning, so that's just what I'm going to do! A friend of mine taught me to knit and at first I was extremely hesitant that I would even like it because I am not crafty or creative whatsoever and I tend to get impatient and mess things like this up (hence why I only sew when absolutely necessary). She taught me to knit and I did a few rows with her and went on my merry way. Then as I was working on my scarf by myself I realized that I screwed something up horribly and my knowledgeable friend was nowhere to be found--leaving me to panic alone. In my desperation, I turned to YouTube, hoping for some comforting how-to videos and boy did I find them! The friendly women on YouTube were there for me day or night to fix my mistakes, teach me all the different methods of casting on and off, to increase and decrease. I was in heaven. I think the easy-to-access (and free, might I add) tutorials fueled my infatuation with knitting and turned me into a crazy monster with birch wood needles (my boyfriend will attest to this). If any of you out there reading this have a yen to knit and just don't know how to get started--YouTube. It's a beautiful thing.

Short story long, a couple weeks later I had already made 2 basic scarves, one for me and one for Christopher. The scarves are identical aside from the color and the simplest of simple. Just plain ol' knit stitch all the way through, but they gave me a lot of good practice. There are plenty of errors in these scarves, but I love them because they're my first attempts! I used Cascade yarn, acrylic (I am ashamed to admit this, but I didn't know any better), and size 8 birch wood needles by Brittany. I got my supplies from Rosie's Yarn Cellar on Locust St. and continue to get most of my yarn and needles from there. They're extremely friendly, helpful, and understanding to those of us with very low budgets.

Here are pics of the scarves. Sorry they're poor quality, but I didn't have my camera with me and had to use my video camera.

So that's all for now. I'm going to get to knitting and then head to Reading Terminal for some veggies to make my mother's stuffed peppers tonight!

What It's All About

Hello blogosphere (is that term even used anymore?).

I am a new knitter and I am new to Philadelphia, PA. I'm a full-time grad student, a part-time kitchenwares salesgirl and now an obsessive knitter. I only learned this crafty little skill this past October and it has consumed most of my free time. It has even taken the place of some homework time, I am afraid to admit.

I guess I'll start with my first seven projects that I finished between October and now. Then I'll just continue to keep anyone who is bored enough to read my insignificant little blog abreast to my current knitting adventures. I'll try to add the patterns I have created meself, simple, though they may be, to the postings as well as advice on the techniques I learn along the way. In an attempt to keep out of trouble, I won't show the patterns for projects I've gotten out of books or had to pay for. Luckily for you, dear readers, since I am a student and have little to no money, I try to find as many free patterns as possible on the worldwide webbernets (beautiful things, those webbernets) and will link you to as many of them I as can.

So that's all for now seeing as I have to get up early to sell cookware tomorrow.

This is Katelyn, signing...er...casting off (cheesy, I know).

Goodnight, blogosphere (I've decided I don't really care if this term is used anymore or not).