Knitting

I decided I needed a new hobby. Sterling's sister told me about how much she loved knitting and at church, we have an ongoing service project: knitting baby hats. So, I decided that I should try knitting. I went to the library and checked out the book, A to Z of Knitting. (Lionbrand.com is also a great website to use to learn how to knit and they have really good free patterns.) I then taught myself how to knit. My first project was somewhat of a mess. I knitting for about 10 hours and realized had done the whole thing wrong and I had to take it all out and restart. I finally finished a baby blanket. Someday, I might take it all out again and make something else out of the yarn. It still doesn't look great, but it looks pretty good for a first project. That blanket was straight knit stitches.

Then for Christmas, Sterling wanted me to knit him a "turtle" blanket. He picked out all of the colors (a bunch of different greens)and it only took me about a week or two to make that one because I used really big needles. (Size 50) This blanket was made alternating knit stitches on one side and purl stitches on the "wrong" side.

Then I decided it was time to make something patterned. So, I tried cable knitting. This is the lap blanket I made for my mom for Christmas. All of my projects are "Calvin approved." He lays on all of my knitted projects. He also likes to lay on them while I'm knitting. He's getting better at not attacking the yarn while I'm knitting.


Then I tried something different. I made myself fingerless gloves. I did mess up a little bit on the lace pattern, but I thought I did a pretty good job for my first pair of gloves. They are made out of Peru-raised Alapaca. Sterling's sister showed me this great store downtown called KnitPurl. They have some really amazing, premium yarns. I can only afford to make gloves and scarves out of their yarn though. I make blankets out of JoAnn's yarn.

I am currently making Emily a pair of these same gloves for her birthday. Sorry Emily their late. :( And I am intensely working on a baby blanket for Jason and Ashley's new baby girl. She's not due til the beginning of Feb, but I found out the baby shower is next Sunday. I'll post pictures of those when I am done.

I have to say I absolutely love knitting. I can knit for hours. Sterling does like to call me Grandma while I'm knitting, but I'm ok with that. It's fun and it allows me to not feel too guilty when I watch 6 episodes of The Office in a row because I'm actually doing something productive at the same time.