DIY: Learning to Knit (or crochet)

When it comes to crocheting I learned how to do that on my own a few years ago, and honed in on my skills recently by looking through some videos online so I knew at some point I would want to knit to give myself more diversity when working with yarns. I can't take all the credit for learning to knit though because a friend of mine was really pushing for me to learn for a while. With her moving out of town I thought it was time to bite the bullet. Considering that the holidays were over I felt it was high time that I start getting gifts ready for next year (yes I plan this far ahead because we have that many people to get gifts for each year),so knitting was the plan and resolution for the New Year. I am happy to report that this is the first resolution I ever stuck to! I am not completely done as I plan to give a scarf to every member of my family, but I have 2 3/4 of 12 complete (this includes my entire immediate family as well as Nick's and my grandparents). I got started a couple weeks ago and haven't really stopped since.

And I LOVE it!

I learned via the internet and stalking of certain profiles on youtube. I searched through a lot to make a couple scarves and found a couple REALLY good videos and other not so great ones. My favorite videos were by a video poster called theknitwitch on youtube, she went slow enough that I could see what she was doing, but not so slow that I out stitched her. I would highly recommend that anyone looking to learn how to knit use her videos for guidance.

Also if you want to run to the store and get needles and yarn here are my recommendations:

Size 10 1/2 (6.5mm) Bamboo knitting kneedles (trust me you will LOVE the bamboo, just keep them away from cats who like to nibble the wood.)
1 or 2 skeins of Red Heart Brand medium weight Worsted yarn. (it's cheap and does not fall apart easy)

AVOID: Lion Brand Homespun until you get used to knitting. This yarn aggravated me till I got my rhythm right and learned to knit looser (Not an easy task!)

Take your time and look through tutorials, also play with patterns on your own. I played a bit and found that a knit and perl rotation made for a really neat looking scarf, and once you learn the difference between the stitches you open a world of possibilities!

I also found that making a list of future projects was very helpful. I knew there were plenty of people that I would want to knit for including every member of my family, so prioritizing was imperative in case I didn't finish everyone's in time. I completed the most important one first. My grandmother has been an avid crocheter so I felt I should pay homage to her and give her my first ever completed knit project. It was a burgundy simulated stripe scarf with crocheted rose and leaf detail. (learned how to do those during the process of learning to knit) She loved it so much that I had to dive right into the next project, a cream zig-zag scarf for my sister-in-law to be. She is getting married to my brother this summer so I picked the color in honor of her wedding, and the zig-zag was kind of fun and different so I thought it fit her perfectly. The next one to start was for my fiance who demanded perfection and I had to start over on many times. I have finally gotten into a rhythm with the Lion Brand Homespun yarn and worked out the kinks in the yarn to get it where it is 3/4 of the way completed.

I have worked my butt off for about two weeks straight, through sickness and family visitors, and I am happy to say that I am progressing well through the list of scarves I must complete before Christmas next year. I figured I would give myself a month a piece, but I know I will finish a lot now while it is cold and less and less as it gets warm again. Giving myself this leeway and end goal is making it really easy to enjoy!


The scarf above is the one I made my grandmother



This picture is of the scarf I made for my sister-in-law to be.

DIY: SAD Buster

Many people, like myself have a weird feeling that comes over us on cold day number one and stays throughout the winter till the sun shines for a full week and we start getting pounded with rain instead of snow. It is a black blanket of heavy sadness and dread of the outside world, and can lead to some real hermit-like issues. Experts call is Seasonal Affective Disorder, I call it hatred of winter and absolute boredom.

I don't like the cold, I never have. I think it is pretty, but there is a reason I keep my apartment at a comfortable 70 degrees all winter long. I hardly ever leave the apartment in winter and as a result the blanket comes on December 1st and doesn't leave till Mid-march. This brings with it many emotional issues, and depressive tendencies that I have tried hard to avoid all my life, but after a few days of being cooped up with my crazy cats, you would feel like a basket-case too. I have found that there are few ways of battling this issue that don't make the feelings worse.

The first idea that I had was learning how to knit. Talk about knitting myself the perfect crazy cat lady sweater. I quit that idea fast, and moved on to what I thought were better ideas. Taking a walk was another idea, a really horrible one at that. Taking a walk in the bitter cold leads to one of two things. Frostbite, or slush in your shoes. I don't particularly like either of those, so I had to think of new ideas. Going to visit people! That seemed like a really great idea except that EVERYONE I know and their brother is working from 9-5 during the week, and those are the hours in which I am at my worst emotionally. Baking? Well that led to emotional eating, although it did also produce 36 dozen cookies that I packaged as gifts for Christmas.

In a last ditch effort to improve my mood, I threw on some old jeans, and an over-sized sweatshirt and said "I give up!" http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=503360419195669643I sat on the love-seat located by my window and planned on staying there till the snow melted. I stared out the window and watched the snow continue to fall, and felt myself sinking lower and lower into the plush microfiber, and almost drifting into a daze. I quickly snapped out of it as a massive chunk of snow fell off of my roof and on to a bush on the side of the house. It was beautiful. I ran for my camera, snapped a picture, and completely snapped out of it.

The one thing I like most about winter is how it looks! It is gorgeous, pure white and clean. The cleanest white place I knew was the town park and I knew I could find some beauty there if I just tried, so I took a walk down and snapped a few photos. I would load them, but the uploader doesn't want to work today, so maybe in the near future.(you can see them on my facebook though) If the sun were shining it would have made for a better day of photos, but I still loved some of what I was able to capture, and although it still looks somewhat depressing out, I know that the spring will bring a whole new set of photos for me to capture. I only have a couple more months to go, and I think I can make it that long.