Am I creative?

in threes: a baby cardigan size 6m, knit with Malabrigo Worsted in Applewood with Buttons for Benji buttons, Ravelry link
Knit with no creativity!

I've recentlty joined a creative Mum's group which I really enjoying attending. However I feel like a bit of a pretender as I don't really consider knitting to a pattern creative. The other Mums are painters, quilters and card makers. They choose what they are going to make, put the bits together in the colours that are pleasing and make it. In knitting I choose the yarn, choose the pattern and follow it. I do a bit of adapting but not in a creative way, just for practicality or to work around problems like gauge.

Whenever I have done psychometrics I end up testing analytical rather than creative. When I think about it something I love about knitting is doing the math for adapting gauge, where to place the decreases and how to use a completely different weight yarn than that intended for a pattern.

But surely doing a craft is creative? It just doesn't feel like it yet. If I was designing new patterns, colour work or stitch patterns I'd feel differently. I don't think I'm a pretender to do attend a creative Mum's group its just that I don't specifically have the creative urge in general. I love to knit but I'm not sure I'm creative in knitting or the other hand based hobbies I do. Analytical Mum, that's more me.

Needlefood Sock club shipment 1 [Spoiler]

Here's the first shipment of Needlefood's second sock club:

I really love the thematic colours of this sock club pack, very clever. Items included are a 100g skein in the club colour 'For the Girls', a semi-solid pink, chocolate fudge, floral Soak, a 2.5mm crochet hook for picking up dropped sts, a floral brooch and four st markers.

Here's the yarn 'For the Girls', 100g of 80% merino, 20% nylon fingering weight yarn with 352m per skein. It's a semi sold with quite a strong contrast between the dark pink and the light pink.

I couldn't decide what to make with this yarn, I considered Monkey, Pomatomus, Love Struck Hearts and Oblique Openwork before deciding on Nanners.

I think Love Struck Hearts looked really nice but I decided I wanted a repeating pattern with distorting angling sts like Monkey.

So here's the Nanners:

I really like the fish scale like look of these, one day I'm hoping to do Pomatomus which is sort of an advanced version of this.

I'm glad to be doing a Wendy Johnson pattern, her blog is great and I'd love to buy her book Socks from the Toe Up. I love toe ups so Wendy patterns are perfect for me.

Rationally knitting socks for the toe up

I've learnt a painful lesson, cutting a 100g skein of yarn in half does not equal two balls of the same yardage. I knitted on yarn over cable sock doing 39 repeats of the 4rw pattern from the heel and cast off. I knit the second to 36 repeats of the 4rw pattern and didn't have enough to cast off. I attempted to spit splice with the small amount of yarn left from the other sock but it didn't work, perhaps because the yarn is superwash. So then I tried a knot and kept knitting and it looked ugly. So I gave up and undid both, ended up with 33 repeats of the 4rw pattern which are still lovely long socks and actually fit better too.

& So I am left with a nub of yarn. Now I used to think that avoiding this was the whole point of knitting from the toe up. However the stress of trying to get equally long right to the last tiny bit of yarn socks is just too much. Next time I should just pick a length, know I'll end up with two nubs of yarn. Pick something from 653 patterns to knit with 1-285 yards and have fun. Long live the nubs.

Judy's Magic Cast On

The only toe-up cast on I can do is Judy's Magic Cast On. The best description with pictures I have found is on Persistent Illusion however Cat Bordhi's Knitty article and videos are also useful.

Family + Knitting = Happiness and a sock

Often muggles (non-knitters) think that knitting is something that old ladies do while waiting for their grandkids to come round. [For a great explanation of the phenomena see Episode 96 of Sticks & String 'I'm busy'] My in-laws joke about this, claiming that Ravelry is one of the few places where people would pretend to be older than they are. They do however happily let me knit while I talk to them. To keep a flow of conversation going I'm still needing to just do stockinette socks, and more than appropriate seeing I am doing a gorgeous pair of man socks for their son in marine yarn. You can easily have a lovely time with your family while knitting and then you end up with an item as well as a lovely time.

Equally I spent a great afternoon with my father knitting my first pair of socks in a friendly cafe which let us spend hours over our coffee post lunch so much that we ordered another pair of coffees. It's wonderful to wear knitted items you remember making with while talking to your loved one. I'd love to get a headset and use Skype to talk to my mum so I can knit while talking to her.

Sock club love!

I'm part of the Vintage Purls Summer Sock Club 2009 and I'm loving it! I received the second package yesterday and the first last month. The first come with a wonderful bag, pattern and yarn, the second with a gift you knit for yourself, pattern and yarn. They both came with some yummy lollies which is such fun. The cost was $95 so with each skein of yarn being usually $23 for Limited Edition and patterns usually being about $5 and the with gifts I think its very good value. Its also the fun of our own ravelry group and the joy of having unique yarn and patterns. I also love communicating with the purveyor Morag who taught me to Magic Loop. She is also the only online yarn shop in New Zealand to stock Knit Pro so I love being able to order more neeldes that Morag pops in my sock club packages for free shipping.

Here's Vintage Purl's picture of the first yarn and pattern called Bluesky Baby which I haven't started - I'm scared of lace but I hope to do it one day, or failing that I'll make lots of blue booties.

Knitting marine man socks

Wow, stockinette socks are still really really fun but going so much faster. I'm speeding along with a lovely hand dyed 100% wool sock yarn that was a gift from maude & me's miss tracee.

This photo was taken two days ago and I'm already 4" into the leg. Still got heaps of yarn to go, these will be quite long. I'm glad I put in the negative ease as its created an almost ribbed look around the instep which looks really cool without all the tedious work of rib knitting. I really love the slight scratchiness of the yarn, feels really appropriate for man socks. I might have to do some calf shaping to fit as they could be quite long from what yarn I have left. I really love the no wrap short row heel, still a few holes as it joins the instep but none along the heel.

Arohaina Socks

Here's the second sock I've made, started in late October last year. I've only got a few inches beyond the heel so I've probably got about 3 or 4 to go. I'm using a Seaweed Sock pattern but I'm finding it really tedious. The beautiful Arohaina sock yarn by NanacindyNZ is quite thin, about 9 sts per inch so with all the changing between K and P means it takes ages.

These socks are toe up, it took me a whole night to find a cast on I could do but ended up with the Double Knitting Cast On from Let's Knit2gether, Thanx Cat! I agree it's cool and easy.

I've taken the sock off my needles to start a completely different simple pair using a different yarn. I think at this stage being new to knitting socks mean I just enjoy stockinette in the round from the top down. I hope to get back to knitting these later but I'm not into it right now.

Finished socks - Balrog Socks

I've been meaning to post this for yonks but for some reason I haven't, here are my first pair of knitted socks - First Socks.

The yarn for these was supplied by unionmaid a lady I meet through Ravelry who taught me how to knit socks by giving me yarn, needles, a pattern and lessons!

These socks taught me a lot about knitting with four dpns, turning a heel and Kitchener. I really enjoyed them because they were quick to knit, 18 days and the alpaca in the wool is so cuddly. I followed the pattern exactly so I've got a golf ball of yarn left over and I wish they were a bit longer. I've thought about cutting the cast on and knitting up to make them longer but I enjoy wearing them too much.

Knittery is pretty

I heart Knittery it's Australian and you can get hand dyed beautiful sock yarn for NZD $28 including shipping, so yummy. Here's my favs, some are merino, some merino cashmere, thin and thick.

3ply: Merino Slim Sock

4ply: Merino Cashmere Sock

5ply: Merino Chubby Sock

If I knitted man socks

2008JuneKnittingBlog202, originally uploaded by chelseaD.

These are completely perfect, I found them by searching for camo socks and found a post on this site by The Running Biology of a Knitter. The yarn is by Sophie's Toes in the Man in Uniform colourway made into a sock using the Nancy Bush pattern Gentleman's Fancy Socks. Now you can buy hand dyed sock yarn in NZD the same as USD, ie $25 New Zealand dollars for similar yarn as $25 US dollars. When you consider that the exchange rate is now around US 60c per NZD I would rather buy from New Zealand and also save on shipping. I am trying to get the lovely misstracee to make me some but the's MIA at the moment. I could either get some handspun handyed for NZD$35 or wait for her to resource some yarn to dye, not sure what I should do.

Gimme this - Grapeful Dead Yarn

Grapeful Dead Colourway on Helios 100g for AUD $21.25

What could be more cool than yarn named after a 60's rock band of awesomeness. Knit On!

MIA due to sock knitting

So I finally found a way to learn how to knit socks, find a local teacher through ravelry, the lovely unionmaid. She got me a wonderfully easy sock pattern which I have created a pattern link for at ravelry, its called Easy Sock Pattern It's top down with a flap and everything I have messed up I have easily fixed, hurrah! I am currently in the knitting the foot length section, I may have to ask her assistance for the toe joining but we'll see.

She amazingly not only gave me 2.5 mm bamboo DPNS but also a ball of Middlearth Yarn in Balrog, 330 yds, 50/50 Merino Alpaca, it is squishy and lovely. Unfortunately the creator Lothlorian who's in her 20's like me has a husband in hospital, so she is far more MIA than me.

I'm loving the sock knitting and am almost finished my first sock after a week and a bit which is great. There still looks like heaps of yarn so I'll definitly have enough left for darning if I need to. I don't have any pics right now sadly, but imagine a orange sock with stripes of park purple and nearly black.

Aqiqa Hat

I went to an aqiqa last night and I didn't have time between hearing about it and going to get a present for the baby. I think a sweater would take too long to make, especially since I'm making one for myself so I thought I would go for a hat. I haven't yet learnt how to knit in the round so I thought a hat knitted flat would be great.

I did lots of searching and I think this looks the easiest and thus the quickist the Liong Brand Baby Hat - Oh Natural! The other bits in the set would be fun to do too but I'm not sure I'd have time.

Here's atesmom's take on the project which I really like as it has no tassle:

Check out her cute matching sweater on her blog

We don't have Lion Brand in New Zeland so I plan to use:

Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky in Teal for $12.95

As the pattern needs 101m, I'll need to buy two of the 65m Cashmerino, I really have to get used to the fact that nice yarn costs $26 just for enough to make one hat, sigh!

In other news my Knit Picks Options are going well on my one-piece sweater Extra Easy, Extra Fabulous Sweater with the arms about 4 inches wide. Unfortunately the wire has got a bit twisted, I'm not sure why this has happened but when I finish the arms and the piece has a lot less stitches I'll get it onto my Swallow Timbergrain Needles and try to untwist it.

I forgot my needle!

Can you believe it, I'm sitting on the bus going to a day at work that is centred around an event at 2pm (i.e. lots of time for knitting before then), I pull out my knitting and I only have one needle! So I've got the hefty ball, the 20" or so of knitted back for my sweater where I'm just beginning to cast on the sleeves and no second needle to work with. Oh the disappointment! I blamed my ever patient and indulgent husband for rushing me, I must remember to apologise when I see him.

However now that I'm knitting 58sts = 18" with one 70sts = 21" each sleeves, I'm finding my knitting feeling really a little tight on the needles and I'm not sure I'd be able to get another 70sts onto their 30cm length. These are the needles I have:

Swallow Timbergrain Needles they are 7mm needles and I paid NZ$12.45 for them although they are available alot cheaper online but it was great to have them straight away rather than wait.


But now I think I need a new pair of needles and circular seems to be the way to go. I can't knit in the round yet but I'm sure I can learn from these advanced knitting technique videos on Knitting Help. I've read that knitting flat can be easier on circular needles because its harder to slip sts off the end however you need to do a bit of pulling to get the sts from the filament cord to the needles.

Lots of people are selling Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needle Kits on New Zealand's local eBay equivalent TradeMe but I don't think I need ten sets of needles yet. My LYS sells Knit Picks Options which received a really good review on Knitter's Review which is a really useful site as there is so much forum discussion on ravelry its really difficult to pick out who to trust. I know that Addi Turbos have countless fans but they are not available from shop in New Zealand and Double-Pointed Needles are also an option but I'm not ready for them and nor would they be useful for my sweater project. So I think I'll walk the 2km return journey to my LYS to buy some Knit Picks Options probably in size 7mm for my sweater with a reasonably long cable, I'll have to ask to find out what the recommend. I love how pointy they look, yum!

My First Sweater

So I've decided I will make the Extra Easy, Extra Fabulous Sweater from Lion Brand Yarn Free Pattern Database but as Lion Brand Wool is not available in New Zealand, I've had to be creative with yarn substitution.

The yarn the sweater is designed around is the Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in Oatmeal which has a gauge of 9 stitches for 12 rows to 4"/10cm on a ginormous 9mm needles. Here's a swatch of the colour:

I went to my local yarn store Knitting World and talked to the clerk about a substitution. There is not equivalent in thickness to the Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick in New Zealand, so she suggested I could either use two strands of a thinner yarn on the 9mm needles or a yarn that is slightly thinner than the super thick Lion Brand and use the stitch count in the pattern for the larger size so it will end up being smaller by using a thinner yarn and needle. I thought using two strands of yarn would lead to disaster so I decided on this:

Patons Inca in Shade 7001 50g/58m using 7mm needles and a gauge of 13 stitches by 18 rows to 4"/10cm

I used this guide to substituting yarns to work out what to use instead of the Lion Brand. I did two swatches of Patons Inca one using the gauge on the ball at 13 stitches by 18 rows which accurately came out at 10cm and another according to the pattern of 8 stitches by 12 rows which came out at 7cm. So taking my measurements I would be a Small if I knitted in Lion Brand so what I need to do was stitch in a bigger size which would give the equivalent of a 36" bust. I've cast on according to the 2X size with the Patons Inca which at a 52" bust x 0.7 = 36" bust, well hopefully. I've knitted my first ball which has got me from the eight rows of garter stitch and an inch and a half up the stockinette stitch which will form the lower back. Looking at my piece spread accross two needles it looks to be about 18" which is right on gauge, hurrah! I only bought one ball as the clerk suggested I knit up one ball and see if I liked it.

Now however I'm happy with the yarn and the gauge so I need some new balls. I used this guide to work out how many yarns I will need to buy. In the original project working in size 2X then 8 balls would be required with each Lion Brand ball being 97m, so 776m in total. EAch Patons Inca ball is 58m as its 50% wool, 30% acrylic and 20% alpaca vs. the Lion Brand being 86% acrylic, 10% wool, 4% rayon so the Inca ball will be heaver per metre so is shorter for the 50g ball. So I need 776m of yarn using 58m balls, equalling a whopping 13.379 balls of yarn which will need to be rounded up as you can't purchase 0.379 balls. Yikes, even at the cheap NZ$6.50 a ball that is NZ$91 but I guess that is pretty similar to the cost of a new sweater if you bought it new. I'm not sure it will be the most attractive sweater but it will be warm, be able to be chucked over everything and with the rising cost of heating, wearing a thick jersey is a good idea. Also using thick yarn makes it easy to pick up mistakes and this is my first sweater so I'm sure I'll love it no matter what it ends up looking like. I'll take the bus down to the yarn shop at lunch time and will try to barter a discount due to the number of balls being purchased.

Sweater Idea

Extra Easy, Extra Fabulous Sweater from Lion Brand Yarn Free Pattern Database

You know I really think I could make this, the pattern makes sense, I know how to do Stockinette stitch, when doing the monkey I had to cast off some stitches, hold working stitches on a spare needle and work on others so I think I have all the skills. I would lengthen the sleeves, 3/4s drive me nuts and I'm not so sure about the buttons but they could look cool. I think that color looks cool but would probably go for a black or brown as I am always terrified about staining white and off-white clothes and it would be soo depressing to stain my first sweater. I like how it looks and I'm sure it would be warm so I think I would be prepared to put in the heaps of time required.

The pattern is by Lion Brand Yarn and I'm not sure if they sell it in New Zealand but I'll see. The yarn used in this pattern is Wool-Ease Thick & Quick which is a super bulky roving yarn. From listening to Cast-On I have heard of various types of yarn - fingering, roving, aran but I had no idea what they meant till I found this:

STANDARDS & GUIDELINES FOR CROCHET AND KNITTING

Standard Yarn Weight System

Categories of yarn, gauge ranges,
and recommended needle and hook sizes

Yarn Weight Symbol & Category Names
Type of Yarns in Category	Fingering 10-count crochet thread	Sock, Fingering, Baby	Sport, Baby	DK, Light Worsted	Worsted, Afghan, Aran	Chunky, Craft, Rug	Bulky, Roving
Knit Gauge Range* in Stockinette Stitch to 4 inches	33–40** sts	27–32 sts	23–26 sts	21–24 st	16–20 sts	12–15 sts	6–11 sts
Recommended Needle in Metric Size Range	1.5–2.25 mm	2.25— 3.25 mm	3.25— 3.75 mm	3.75— 4.5 mm	4.5— 5.5 mm	5.5— 8 mm	8 mm and larger
Recommended Needle U.S. Size Range	000–1	1 to 3	3 to 5	5 to 7	7 to 9	9 to 11	11 and larger

And Yarn Forward - Tension and Wool Works FAQ which explained that roving has no ply (that's how yarn is categorised in NZ & Australia). The yarn used in this pattern is equivalent to 14 ply so now I will know what to look for to substitute for the Lion Brand when I visit a yarn shop to buy yarn for my first sweater.

At the moment however I have given in to making a new monkey in stockinette using my Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran 330014 Royal Purple and I love it because the yarn is so soft and the colour is gorgeous. The yarn falls so much easier off my Art Vivas and I'm knitting a lot faster than last time.

Noodling

If you did this wearing gloves and a longer noodles you could cast off, creating a pixel and use it as a cool garnish for your next diner party (preferably of knitters, they'll think its less weird).

Dem rib bones

There are lots of how to knit videos out there but all the other ones I tried confused me. After watching this one and cutting my number of stitches to rib from 20 to 6 I managed to get a ribbed piece. I'm going to try to make it into a T for my name so I'm looking for a video on adding stitches both at the start and end of my current stitches.

I'm a new knitter!

When I was young our neighbour taught me to knit. I was truly truly awful, I just couldn't get my hands to do it. I'd drop stitches, make tangles and create a lopsided piece. I couldn't get the tension in my hands right so it would always turn out uneven both in the sense that I got a parallelogram that was lumpy! I only learnt 'knit' knitting rather than 'pearl' knitting so I thought that knitting was ugly as it always had those tell-tale horizontal lines. I ended up with a 10 stitch wide long scarf which I sewed up into a sleeping bag with arm holes for my owl toy and a 30 stitch wide scarf with 20 stitch long sections of mutant wool. So frankly I thought I would never knit again.

But now that I've got into cross stitch and other needle crafts it makes sense to make something with my hands that is useful, not just decorative. So I decided to knit again! I went to a Beginners Knit class at Nancy's Embroidery Shop and learnt how to cast-on, knit, pearl, pick up dropped stitches and cast-off in the two hours. I managed everything except picking up the dropped stitches which would have been really useful because I still drop stitches all the time! Amusingly I bought the same wool colour and feel as what I made my little owl sleeping bag out of.

Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran 330014 Royal Purple

It's a Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran Yarn that felt the nicest of the yarn I fondled in Nancy's with the little time I had after the class before they shut the shop. I got it in shade 14, grape. I love purple, I loved it as a child and then it wasn't cool so I didn't wear it. A couple of winters ago it became cool again and now I wear it all the time. I have 3 purple scarves so why not make one more (if I ever get that good at knitting)! I didn't realise that aran is a heavy yarn but it gets so cold here so I don't mind.

I wanted some pretty needles and these just said have me! They are wooden needles made from Tasmanian Oak made by a Tasmanian company called Art Viva. The timber is sourced from environmentally sustainable forest practices and are topped with hand painted spotty beads. Unfortunately I got size 20cm long, 4mm needles when my yarn is for 5mm but I don't think that's too much of a problem. They are slightly uneven which might annoy someone used to straight needles but I love the unevenness as I can think "slightly bending one knit, really bendy one pearl". They are not really bendy its just a comparison, they sort of fit into my hand. They are my friendly needles.