Learn to Knit, Make Some Mitts

I’ll be the first to admit it, I’m a novice knitter.  I like the idea of knitting and usually about once a year I get the urge to knit something.  This conveniently happens around Christmas time when I can satisfy my need to give knitting another try by making gifts for people.

Christmas, 2009 is a great example of this.  I borrowed Stitch’n Bitch by Debbie Stoller from the Peace Corps library and was determined to really learn to knit (up until that point I only knew garter stitch and didn’t know how to hold the yarn or needles, so I was extremely clumsy and slow).  With this wonderful resource in hand I learned how to pearl which meant that I can now make stockinette  and ribs!

Now, I started out at as a crocheter and consider myself pretty competent at it.  I love how versatile it is.  But from my point of view, there is one definite advantage (among others I am sure) to knit over crochet; stretchiness.  And ribs is one of the best ways to do that.

For all you hard-core knitters out there (or even semi-competent ones) please don’t laugh at this ridiculously easy knit pattern.  It is because of its simplisity that makes it a good project for the beginning knitter.

Mitt pattern:

Using worsted weight yarn and size 8 needles, cast on 32 stitches.  I LOVE the double strand cast-on that I learned in the above mentioned Stitch’n Bitch book.

Now you’re going to make a 2×2 rib pattern, meaning that you’re going to knit two, pearl two, until you reach the end. When you turn your work you will knit the knit stitches and pearl the pearl stitches.

Stitch’n Bitch does a wonderful job at explaining how to make ribs in case my explanation is a bit confusing.

Just keep knitting (and pearling) until you have the desired length of fabric that you want.  My mitts are 7″ long, but I think really long ones would be great.

Once you have the length you want, cast off but don’t cut your yarn.

wrap the rectangle of fabric around your wrist to decide where you want your thumb hole to be.

Once you’ve done that, take it off and using the already connected yarn, stitch up the seem using single crochet and a size D hook.  Where the thumb hole is, single crochet into one side of the hole and continue seeming up the two sides of the fabric once you have the hole the size you want.  That way you can use one strand of yarn for the whole piece and only have two ends to weave in!  I left a 2 and 1/4″ gap for my thumb hole.

Happy knitting!

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Toot Tuesday: Crochet Blanket + Mary Jane Slippers

Instead of sharing just one tutorial this Tuesday, I’m going to share two. Bonus!

The first is a wonderful tutorial from Lisa over on ohmygoodknits! for her Mary Jane Slippers.  As you can see from the photo above, I had no problem at all whipping these cuties up.  I found her pattern, along with her step-by-step tutorial (including pictures) very easy to follow and the end result to be extremely cute.  I don’t consider myself an exceptionally fast crocheter and they took a grand total of two and a half hours to make.  The only thing that I don’t think Lisa mentions in her pattern is anything about sizing the slippers.  I made the pattern as-is and they fit perfectly on my US size 6 feet.  They will stretch a bit, but it would be very easy to adjust the size by adding or subtracting rows on the back and forth portion of the pattern.

The second tutorial is on how to make a granny square so that you too can have a cozy throw blanket to snuggle up with on these chilly winter evenings (along with your new slippers of course).

The nice thing about granny squares is that they are small and much easier to tote around to a meeting, dentist appointment, or soccer game than a large blanket. Plus, once you’ve memorized how to make them you can crank them out without hardly even thinking about what you’re doing.

So here’s how you make a granny square:

abbreviations:
ch: chain
sl st: slip stitch
dc: double crochet

Start off by making a sliding loop (or, if you’d rather, you can ch 3 and sl st in first st to make a ring which you will then work into like the sliding loop)

Round 1:  ch 3 (counts as 1st dc), 2 dc into loop, ch 3 [ 3 dc into loop, ch 3 ] 3 times, sl st in top of beginning ch 3, pull tail of loop to cinch

Round 2: sl st to next ch 3 space, ch 3, 2 dc in same ch 3 space, ch 3, 3 dc in same ch 3 space {this will make your first corner of this row}, ch 1, [ 3 dc in next ch 3 space, ch 3, 3 dc in same ch 3 space, ch 1 ] 3 times, sl st in top of beginning ch 3

Round 3: sl st to next ch 3 space, ch 3, 2 dc in same ch 3 space, ch 3, 3 dc in same ch 3 space, ch 1, 3 dc in next ch 1 space of previous round, ch 1 { 3 dc in next ch 3 space, ch 3, 3 dc in same space, ch 1, 3 dc in next ch 1 space, ch 1 [ 3 dc in next ch 3 space, ch 3, 3 dc in same space, ch 1, 3 dc in next ch 1 space, ch 1 ] 3 times, sl st in top of beginning ch 3

Rounds 4 and beyond:  continue working rounds as above with [ 3 dc, ch 3, 3 dc ] in corners, 3 dc in each ch 1 space, and ch 1 between each 3 dc (except for corners)

Voila!  You’ve made your first square!  Depending on what you want your blanket to look like, you can make your squares solid colors, as I did, or spice it up and alternate the colors by rows, or as my Grandma Virgie did, you can make each square mostly one color, then unify them with a border like in this throw she made me 3 years ago to use up some of her yarn stash.  I love the color combinations she came up with!

For my blanket, I used size worsted weight Cannon Super Soft yarn with a size H hook.  I don’t know how many skeins I used of each color as I started this blanket in late 2007.  I had it nearly finished (all I needed to do was finish the border and weave in the ends) when it went into storage while we were away in the Peace Corps.  Once we got settled into our new home last month I decided that it was finally time to finish the darn thing.  Below is the pattern configuration that I used.  The finished blanket is 51″ x 44.”

I hope you’ve enjoyed this edition of Toot Tuesday. Join me again next week for some more crafty learning!

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Winter Wonderland + Cozy Fireplace

After some beautiful weather last week (clear, sunny skies and mild temperatures), winter has officially returned.  The following are some photos that I took from my apartment this morning.  Surprisingly, it didn’t feel that cold on the balcony where I took the close-up shots of the frozen branches.

It’s easy to romanticized winter in November and December when holiday decorations and excessive amounts to hot-out-of-the-oven cookies are surrounding us.  It’s a time for shopping, giving, and over-eating that makes us feel so good at the time, yet so bad for the first few months of the following year (i.e. now).  Hence the need for New Years resolutions.

I always think it’s kind of sad to see the Christmas decorations come down around January 1st because they represent so much warmth and coziness, even if we are sick of seeing them by then. It’s as though the house becomes ten degrees colder because their aren’t strands of twinkle lights and Santa Clauses surrounding us. Almost everyone wishes for a “white Christmas,” when in reality the snow is usually at its worst from January through March.

This is why I wanted to do something to add some warmth and coziness to our apartment now, when we really need it. So I directed my attention to the prominent, beautiful, yet unused fireplace in our living room. It seemed like a shame to leave it empty, but we didn’t know what to put there.

Finally, I decided on a small Christmas tree. When I first mentioned this idea to my husband he was skeptical about my interior design taste. “A Christmas tree? It’s January,” he said. I could see his point. After all, the tree did have a red, velvet bow around its base and a strand of blue lights which seemed to choke the poor thing more than provide festive decoration.

After I removed the lights, the bow, and fluffed up the branches it looked nice, and much less Christmas-y. However, it still looked a bit sad and lonely in the fireplace all by itself. It was as if it was waiting for us to come along, light a match, and burn it to ashes at any moment.

That’s when I thought of the crochet snow flake ornament patterns my Grandma Virgie had given to me recently.  Why should snow flakes be reserved strictly for Christmas? Below is the pattern booklet, circa 1983, along with some of the snow flakes that I made.

I like the way that the crisp, white flakes pop against the dark cavity of the fireplace, while being framed by the white mantle and book cases. In the spring I’d like to paint the walls a light, warm gray to make the mantel pop even more.

Old Scool; Crochet Slippers

Today I’m going all the way back to 1977 to bring you a design from a publication called Creative Hands.

Maybe you have some magazines like this lying around your house. If you’re like me, you might have inherited them from someone else. Maybe you think the pictures and projects look dated, frumpy, or just plain ugly.

I have a small stack of these magazines that I’ve acquired recently and I cherish them all. Some of the pictures and projects are absolutely comical. While others really do seem to be timeless.

My mother and grandmother both crochet and I still have the blankets, toys and doll clothes they made for me over the years.  I remember asking once or twice if they could teach me how to crochet, but I never did learn until I went to college and taught myself from a library book.  I don’t remember what book it was.  It was probably at least 30 years old.   I wanted to learn, but I could barely keep myself focused enough to learn how to single crochet in the round and back and forth.  That’s it.  That’s all I learned (and actually, I didn’t even do it correctly.  For the next four years or so I made my single crochet through the front loops only).   I had no desire at all to learn how to read patterns, so everything I made was an original design.  I liked it that way.

But then I went into the Peace Corps and I took up crochet with a new-found energy after borrowing an early 1980s edition of  The Complete Guide to Neddlework.  I was ready to learn every crochet stitch there was, and as it turns out, there really isn’t that many of them.  Then I learned how to read patterns.  Soon I was able to write out patterns myself so that I could remember how I made something.  I even created a simplified way of writing out tapestry crochet designs so that non-English speakers could follow them.

As it turns out, there are a lot of valuable lessons you can learn from making something from a pattern.  So when I moved to my current home a short while ago and didn’t have any original design ideas that I wanted to work out, I turned to my stack of vintage magazines for a lesson in construction.  That’s how I came across the pattern for the slippers above.

And learn I did! Namely, the importance of swatching!

The pattern should have made slippers in an adult size 6, while the booties I made would probably fit a five-year-old.  Yes, I realized fairly early on that my gauge was wrong, but since I wasn’t making these because I desperately needed a pair of slippers, I didn’t care.  I just wanted to see if I could follow the pattern.  I could have stopped after one, but this way I can give them to someone.

Stop by again for some more old school designs as I make my way through my musty pile of vintage relics.  Oh, and my apologies to anyone offended by my calling something from 1977 a “relic.”