About Knitting

Okay, so my first post of 2013 is going to be about one of my biggest hobbies (besides Postcrossing), and that is knitting! (Sometimes I wonder how I manage to make time for both hobbies, but I do make the time for them and I have a lot of fun doing it).

Now, knitting is something I've been doing for at least half a year--I can't really remember when I first really started to get passionate about it. It's also something that takes a lot of practice. I was terrible at first and kept messing up a lot, especially with my first projects. My first projects included a dishcloth (during which I made a lot of mistakes), knitted bookmarks (which are very simple once you get the hang of it), and slippers (the first pair were too small and incorrectly sewed together).

I am going to show a couple of my projects and explain a little bit in how they are done.

One of my favorite and simple projects to do is a pair of slippers! Although my first pair was poorly made, I've improved with each and every pair I make. Given a suggestion by my boyfriend's mother, I even crocheted laces on the slippers so they won't slip off as easily.

This is my personal favorite pair of slippers that I have made so far. They were made as a gift to my twin sister, and they came out fantastic. I don't think I've made a better pair than these, and I have made five pairs so far. For the yarn, I used a kind of yarn that variates--this kind in particular variated between blue, light green, and yellow. From making the first pair and discovering that it's best to use the size needles that come with the pattern, I used size 10 needles as stated in the pattern. Needles come in many different sizes, from very thin needles to very thick ones. The way this works is in this way--the smaller the number, the thinner the needle. So a size 4 needle is going to be extremely thin when compared to a size twelve.

This is one of my newer projects. Yes, it looks like a piece of candy because it is SUPPOSED to look like a piece of candy. There is a contest on deviantArt for the month of January. The theme for the contest (it can be knitted or crocheted) is the board game Candyland. I thought and thought of an appropriate thing to make that I could knit for this contest--it's easy to crochet amigurumi, but I'm not much of a crocheter. So I came up with this. Using double pointed needles, I knitted a small tube to fit a empty toilet paper roll. Once it was long enough on both ends, I wrapped the ends up with hairties and you have something like a larger-than-life tootsie roll. I'm going to make three of these for the contest.

What are double pointed needles, you may ask. Well, they are four or five short needles that are six to seven inches long and have double points. When knitting, you place an even number of stitches on each needle and knit around it, creating an unseamed tube. Double pointed needles are often used when making smaller tubes, such as socks, these things, and gloves and mittens.

My classes start next Monday, so I may be really busy when that starts. But I'll try to keep these posts to once a week or at least once every two weeks.