Sandworm!!

We watched Dune and I was like we have to make a sandworm LOLLL

Felt cone teeth, DPN. It's about 2 and a half feet long

 

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Basically everyone I know asked me what exactly the practice sandworm was because they thought it was something....adult.

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I never got around to painting a cotton ball red and stuffing it at the very end.

SWATCH Saddle shoulder sweater

Figuring out the sizing of the body

Is it still a swatch if you did a giant swatch?

Cat Litter and Contents

Tissue box cover is cat with tissues coming out of the butt that was a gift. Then boyfriend now husband immediately asked me to make knitted fake poop and litter so here we go. I kept giving him incredulous side looks and "are you sure you want me to do this" and we found a good variety texture yarn to knit the litter too lol

Entrelac Oversized Scarf/Shawl

Finished shawl. Comcast remote for scale

Progress

Sample

I tried my hand at entrelac. I looked up a variety of things, but the most critical resource I had was from Sapphires-n-Purls.

Tip: Not all needles are equal

It is generally not a good idea to invest in top quality tools at the start of a hobby, but the first bulk set of needles I bought were GARBAGE. Absolute GARBAGE. I figured I didn't need good needles, but I had no concept of how at first, I wasn't the problem. It really was the needles. Trust yourself. There are plenty of good, cheap options in the sea.

Fingerless Mitts For Significant Other

The first thumb I did whatever improv and then the second (and first) gusset I looked up a Suzanne Bryan yt vid on gussets and really learned easily and well. I love you Suzanne Bryan video. 

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Side by side of finished mitts

Proper gussets w/ Suzanne Bryan

Improper cactus looking thumb that I winged

Fawn for Niece

This little deer pattern was the perfect choice this time around. I didn't know how to use safety eyes tho :(

I added pipe cleaners to the legs to give it actual firm structure. It was so, so cute, was my favorite part of making the deer.

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Tip: Don't forget q-tips!

Did you know q-tips were originally designed for detail work and you can do anything and everything from touch up that random off patch of scraped drywall to detailing nooks and crannies in rifles and other guns? Get creative.

Coasters for Professor

These were very small and decorative coasters I made for an old professor of mine. She has the tiniest mugs we used the last time I visited her so I wasn't concerned with the size plus. I am not sure if they were too bumpy to be good for a cup full of liquid but hey not my problem LOL but I do hope she likes them.

 I just have to give a shoutout to this color. The yarn is actually a really nice brown/blue/gold mix from Caron's soft line. It is BEAUTIFUL and I haven't seen such subtle color changes on basically anything else. I think it was a limited run I haven't been able to find it anywhere, just the other versions. I originally thought it was brown but it's brown with extra specialness.

caron simply soft PAINTS series harlequin

Tip: pay attention to purpose when choosing material! 

Acrylic is fairly stable at regular temperatures.

Legwarmers for Mom

I tried a Purl Soho leg warmer. 

Finished Work

Progress

Tip:  Tubes slide!

When doing tubular things, it's best to have some kind of cinching on top. Especially if they are worn vertically.

SWATCH Chevron Lace

When I first started knitting, I used knittingstitchpatterns.com a lot. Quiet, subtitled fast instruction videos. This is a swatch of Chevron Lace 1. 

You can see I got confused and flipped sides halfway through. The left side is proper knit side up and the right side is purl side up. Not sure how I did that LOL.

Tip: There are two chart types

RS (right side) in stockinette have the cute little arrow.

WS (wrong side) in stockinette has the "ugly" purl bumps. 

It is the first thing you must learn to "read" in your knitting. You can see I "misread" my piece, and flipped RS/WS halfway through the swatch. The portion furthest from the needle is WS.

Charts are either written to show RS and WS or assume that all WS are purl to make stockinette and show RS in the chart. For beginners, if the pattern is SIMPLE, written patterns are definitely easier than charts if only for this reason. 

First Post

I've been knitting for a year and a month now. I've gathered bits and pieces of circular and DPNs, done a variety of patterns and objects from coasters to stuffed animals, dabbled with eyelets and entrelac. This week I decided to start a sweater. Drop a line sometime :D