26th May 2004

Knitting log

Knitting Log from a brand new knitter


First Project:  Shopping Bag

the inspiration came from this pattern: http://www.frugalhaus.com/homepage/freepat.htm

I didn’t follow the pattern completely, just used the ideas in it.

This is actually the second bag I started, but the first bag I completed.  The first try I made the yo in the body so tight that I couldn’t get them to slide around the circular needles.  I planned on making it a lot longer, but really wanted to get going on another project so I just closed the bottom of the bag up and called it done.  It is made with Cotton-Ease yarn with two strands at once – one was a blue, and one a green.  It was weird how the blue yarn looks more purple in the bag than it looked like on the skein


Second Project:  LTK Easy Peasy Sweater

Little Turtle knits patterns: http://www.littleturtleknits.com/patterns.htm

This was my first “real” project.  I haven’t gotten around to seaming the edges yet and am still deciding whether or not to rip it and save the yarn since it looks so wonky.  It is made of a machine washable wool and I intended for it to be for a friend who is pregnant and gave away all of her baby clothes for her other two boys and then “whoops!”.  I actually knitted a large part of it while babysitting her boys (ironically, the worst looking area…lol).  The lower picture illustrates this – the bottom part was done after ds went to sleep one night (no interruptions) and the upper part was done while babysitting (lots of interruptions).


Third Project:  LTK Soaker (toddler size)

Little Turtle knits patterns: http://www.littleturtleknits.com/patterns.htm

made with Lion’s Brand Fisherman’s wool

The result of this soaker looks pretty pathetic, but I learned a LOT doing it.

First problem – I kept getting off on the ribbing.  I could not for the life of me understand which was a purl and which was a knit stitch…it all seemed a tangled mess to me.  Somebody in chat suggested that I might be doing yarn overs, which I didn’t really understand at first, until I started doing it correctly and Voila!….the difference between the purl and knit was clear.

Second problem – I was doing the purl stitch incorrectly and didn’t find out until after I had completed this.  I also discovered it was called a twisted stitch.  Basically, I put the needle in to purl, but wrapped the yarn around the needle the wrong direction.  It ended up creating a pattern in all of my short rows and every other row of the crotch.  It did, however, make it a lot easier to count how many rows were I had gone since the last short row so I knew when I needed to start the next one. lol.

Third problem – I failed to pick up the stitches in the next row after the short row and it left little holes.  (see bottom picture)   I had no idea what “picking up the stitches” meant until I did my next soaker and played with the short rows a bit.

Fourth problem – My son has big legs and when I put the soaker on I couldn’t even pull it all the way up his legs because it was too tight.  I had to pull out the crochet edges and the Kitchener stitches and add some more rows.  When I put it back together and tried it on, I could get it on, but the fit was really strange.  You can see in the pictures that the crotch just doesn’t look right.  It was also really loose around the waist which is probably the result of the yarn overs (extra yarn & bulk) in the ribbing.

I also didn’t understand what “tog” meant.  I knew “together” but that just didn’t make sense..after all, aren’t all the stitches knit together.  lol.  oh, the things I have learned.  “together” means that you stick the needle through two stitches instead of one and knit it, thus decreasing.

What a mess.  A true learning experience for me.


Fourth Project:  LTK Soaker (toddler size)

Little Turtle knits patterns:

http://www.littleturtleknits.com/patterns.htm

made with Cannon Simply Soft acrylic yarn (because I didn’t want to waste any more nice yarn until I could figure out the pattern a little better)This one was a little more successful, but I wandered off the pattern a bit.  First, I did a k2 p3 ribbing because I read someplace that it doesn’t curl as much.  I also knitted ribbing quite a bit longer than the pattern called for, but I did get the cord holes this time.  I wanted to make a pattern on the tush and thought that maybe if I just did purl instead of knit following a chart, it would make a nice pattern.  (of course, I had to do knit instead of purl on the short rows).  What it did instead is create a weird ribbing and puckered up around the peace sign area.  Next, I wanted to make the legs bigger and stretchier, so I decided to add ribbing around the legs and make the crotch wider by decreasing slower.  I created the ribbing by going to the ends of the leg rows, and instead of binding off, I put it onto a dpn.  (the same size needle as the ribbing at the waist).  When I finished the kitchner at the crotch, I had a circle of raw edges around each leg.  I just picked up stitches wherever there were spaces until I got a multiple of 5 (since I was doing 2×3 ribbing) and then knitted the ribbing.  I was pretty proud of myself when I was done, but I have a feeling I am just gonna shake my head at this one later on.  lol.


Fifth Project:  LTK Longies modified to shorts (toddler size)

Little Turtle knits patterns: http://www.littleturtleknits.com/patterns.htm

made with Red Heart Kid’s acrylic yarn (again,  I didn’t want to waste any more nice yarn until I could figure out the pattern a little better)

This one I basically followed the pattern, adding the peace sign to the tush again.  Ironically, I used the same chart I did for the last time, but the result was a lot different.  After doing the kitchener stitch at the crotch, I just did 3 more rows, then changed back to the ribbing color and added ribbing at the cuffs.  I really liked how this one turned out.

I struggled with the color changes for the peace sign and had a million little pieces of yarn.  I should have just woven them all in, but I decided to tie them into knots instead.  I found out from somebody that weaving them probably would have held together better…I guess I will see as I wash this thing if it falls apart.


Sixth Project:  LTK Longies modified to shorts (toddler size)

Little Turtle knits patterns: http://www.littleturtleknits.com/patterns.htm

made with Chunky USA acrylic yarn (on clearance…super cheap)

This one reminded me of those complicated story problems from math class.  I couldn’t afford the size needles I needed to get gauge,  so I just used my biggest needles, did a gauge swatch, and then did the math to get it the right size.  I also had to figure out the smallest number of stitches you could use and still tell the picture was of a peace symbol, then had to divide it into the number of cast on stitches to space them right.  Oh, yeah, I also had to make sure the number of cast on was divisible by 12 -> red (3 stitches), white (3 stitches) x 2 legs.  I finally got my Vogue knitting book about 1/2 way through this project and discovered my color changes looked exactly like the “what not to do” picture.  *sigh*  The legs are also double thick due to stranding, so it is a heavy soaker compared to the last one.  At least the heavy part is on the seat and not the waist.

I was originally going to do a stars and stripes design, (July 4th) but decided that I didn’t want the appearance that I supported the war in any way, so I changed it to peace symbols to reflect my “Peace is Patriotic” theme.

The biggest challenge of this one was that the edge of the short rows fell in the middle of a peace symbol on each side (and not precisly at the same place) and I had to eye it to figure out what color to use because the chart I made became pretty useless.  The line of where to start the stripes at the bottom was also skewed because of how the design fell over the short rows, so I had to keep adjusting where the strip started and wasn’t entirely sure what would look right.

Although I am happy with the overall effect, I would do some of the things differently next time…for one, I would be better at not pulling the yarn too tight when stranding and eliminate the sort of bubble stripe look.


Seventh Project:  LTK Easy Peasy Sweater (5T + a few inches for length)

Little Turtle knits patterns: http://www.littleturtleknits.com/patterns.htm

Made with Bernat denim style yarn I found on clearance.

Ok, I can laugh at myself a little here.  I wanted to make him a sweater now since he outgrew all of his jackets, but since it is just getting warm I wanted to make sure it was big enough that it would still be usable this fall so that he can actually get a decent amount of use out of it.  I think I over estimated how much “just a few inches” would be.  lol.  Please ignore the strings…still need to weave them in, but wanted to try it on him before bed.  I *think* I made it big enough.  LMAO!  I did finally have complete success at a color change this time and added buttonholes, which all worked correctly and look good.  I am thinking of doing a blanket stitch in the contrasting red yarn around all of the edges, but I think I have time…lol.  I also joined the edges a few inches up so it would fit for longer (because it stretches around the hips better) and I like the edge it made.  He seemed to like it…didn’t want me to take it off.

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