So for this blog I'm going to again discuss my current knitting project. Right now I am working on some color work fingerless gloves. This is my second attempt at color work. My first project was a mini American flag, that I created the design for myself, which turned out to be very simple. I actually chose a flag because I happened to have extra red, white, and blue yarn and it just seemed meant to be.



Moving forward to my current project. This is actually the first time that I've used double pointed needles, or knitted in the round. I really like this way of knitting, the only problem I have is that the area where I carried the yarn is much tighter then the rest of the glove. This I hope to fix in later work by just keeping the yarn loose.

This pattern I actually modified to include the purple and I have changed a couple other little things that aren't visible yet. For some reason I seem to be unable to leave a pattern as it is, which I don't think is that bad of a habit. For example, this pattern involves the bass clef. In the pattern the clef is actually located on the wrong line of the staff and being a music person I feel that it is important to have the clef located in the right spot. Hopefully this will be an easy fix, but you never know!

Well that's all for now,
Happy Knitting!

Rekindling my love of crochet

A handbag my Grannie crochet while in college..

Growing up, I always had short infatuations with some type of artistry. Starting at age two I was mesmerized by construction while my Dad was building the edition on to our house. By age four, I wanted to paint everything in sight.  My parents put up with months of me paint plates, rocks, and furniture. By age six, I would spend countless hours in my Dad’s shop building bookshelves, birdhouses and the sort. I was convinced at age six that I wanted to be an architect. After a few days at my Dad’s office with his fellow engineers and contractors, my architect days were over—I wanted to be a teacher. Then, I set up school with hand held chalkboards and Dr. Seuss. After visiting a staff meeting at my mother’s school, my teaching days ended and I now wanted to be a Chef.  The next three months, my parents were subject to eating my many creations until that infatuation subsided. Finally, by age eight, my Girl Scout leader had suggested that we learn crochet. For about four months, my only hobby was crochet. I crochet scarves and hats and even worked on a blanket project with my Grannie Iris. I remember during this crochet infatuation my Grannie and I bonded as I had come to learn of her crochet days during college. In the 1940s when she attended the University of Arkansas, she took classes on crochet as a part of the curriculum for females. While this phase of my crafting infatuation did not last, I do remember the bonds of crafting that were made between my Grannie and I during those months.

Grannie Iris' matching hat as well!

Fast forward about 10 years, I’m a sophomore in college and suddenly want to learn to knit. For Christmas 2009, I asked my mother for knitting lessons and materials. She wasn’t surprised because every year I ask for a new type of skill to be learned—piano, running, driving, painting, cooking, baking, making homemade noodles, sewing, and so forth. This January 2010 was no different when I met my mother’s secretary, Mrs. Charlotte, an older lady that has been knitting since her youth. I learned the basic stitches and got after it. Within months, I had exhausted my knitting abilities and needed a break. I went through phases, scarves, hot pads, headbands, and leg warmers. By May 2010 I had packed my carry-on bag for the plane ride to Peru with enough knitting to keep me occupied for the 15 hour flight. However, I was burnt out on my knitting, so I decided to sleep instead. From May until August, I didn’t knit. I knew that for my upcoming class, I needed to start my red scarf project and refresh myself on crochet, but I kept putting it off. Finally, motivation came back to me, I resumed knitting and did a little crochet. I was glad to be knitting again and still did not have the desire to crochet.

Last Thursday, I borrowed one of Tamami’s crochet hooks to simply fill time crocheting a square out of boredom. That rainbow square turned into the start of my first crochet project since I was eight! By the end of the weekend I had crochet a hat, without a pattern. It is a combination of my yarn scraps and is rather unique. I call it my angry man hat because if you look closely enough, you see this odd shaped, unhappy face! I was so excited from this hat, that I spurred by re-ignited romance with crochet. Much like any of the other short live infatuations with different artistries, I have rekindled this flame. In the last ten days, I have crochet two hats and am on my third. I’m looking forward to crocheting over the Thanksgiving Break, hopefully with my Grannie Iris, and perhaps making many gifts!

See the original crochet square in rainbow? it is the start of this hat!

My second crochet hat of the week!

The front of my first crochet hat in 10 years!
Can you see the angry man face?

I’m not sure how long this crochet phase will last, but it has curbed my desire to knit. I’m sure I’ll be setting up a system between knitting and crochet in which I can switch back on forth on each until I get burnt out again. I know that some people would find it difficult to keep switching from so many different skill sets, I just get tired of one and decided to go to another. I find it exilerating to be able to do whatever I want when the desire hits me! And, clearly, crochet is my newest infatuation!

and the start of my third crochet hat this week..

Knitting for Others

So earlier in the year, I decided that I would try to knit at least 50%of what I made for other people. So far this is going excellently, considering that I only have two scarves made for myself, and I am actually considering giving one of them away. I have currently finished four other scarves that are Christmas presents, four headbands that are birthday presents, the red scarf project, and four panels of a baby blanket.

This has been a very interesting process because with each new object that I knit for someone else, I try to

push my skill. The first picture on the left is where I learned how to increase and decrease, and the second was my first ribbing. The second picture on the left was a particularly challenging scarf because of the yarn. The pattern is a checkerboard, but the yarn has a foil strand which rubbed my fingers raw. I think this scarf really helped me realize that I was doing something for someone else,because a large part of me constantly wanted to quit, or make it short, but I continued, because I wanted it to be special. I also finished these three male or unisex scarves as Christmas presents. Recently, i have become a fan of the simple garter stitch used with earthy colors. However when I knit it, I found myself becoming very bored with the monotony of knitting the same stitch over and over again.

I think my favorite aspect of making presents for others is that I can match the object with the person. I am knitting with color, texture, and personality in mind, to make a finished object that is deeply personalized for the individual. Learning how to knit has shown me how I can craft in a way that is meaningful and stitched together with love. Therefore, giving away my knitted objects gives me great pleasure and joy.

Special thanks to Hughes residents for modeling my scarves.

The Craft Wisely Podcast, Episode 8: Rage Against The Machine

Each week, a group of students from the Craft Wisely course will invite listeners into the discussions taking place in our classroom. The conversation starts with ideas derived from our texts and our practice, and ranges into the podcasters' interpretations and experience.

Kim, Becca, Christabel and Kat discuss the challenge posed to handcrafting by machines.  Technology threatens the self-conception of the laborer and the relationship between work and product.  One response is solidarity -- of which our efforts for Conway Cradle Care could be seen as an example.  In their second podcast in the series, the Bitches on Stitches connect awareness and activism with a machine-filled twenty-first century lifestyle.

Download the podcast here. To subscribe to the podcast, add the Craft Wisely podcast feed to iTunes or your favorite podcast reader.

What "magic" can one do with a pair of circular knitting needles? I call it whatever can be done "magic" because not everyone can master using circular needles well--I once tried and failed. I think of this as a challenge to me, but my classmates in my Honors Crafting class keep motivating me with the work they are doing.



I opted for making hats for the Conway Cradle Care project that we are doing. This idea sounded crazy to me at first but then our class is going to have a knitting workshop in which I look forward to learning this new craft.
When I started working on the circular needles, I searched on how to use them and one website (http://www.knittingforcharity.org/5_tips_for_knitting_on_circular_knitting_needles.html) impressed me by giving 5 tips for knitting on circular needles:

Tip #1 -- Always read your knitting pattern before starting

Tip #2 -- Educate yourself about circular knitting needles

Tip #3 -- It's all in the details.

Tip #4 -- If at first you don't succeed...keep trying.

Tip #5 -- Choose a beginner level pattern.

I have been trying to work on these tips, but I know the crafting workshop we are going to have will help me a lot in figuring out what exactly to do. Therefore, what I am trying to show in this post is that crafting requires most of all, patience and co-operation because I believe those people who know how to knit in the round faced difficulties as well at first. Co-operation is required in terms of helping each other out in figuring how to do something, through my class's cooperation I am going to learn how to knit in the round.

Crocheting

Dear Crocheting,

You were my mortal enemy. You haunted my nightmares. You stalked me in dark alleys, always whispering “Kimmmm, I have bested you. You will forever be condemned to work with two needles. You can never conquer me!” So, I’d just like you to know...

YOU HAVE BEEN CONQUERED!

Sincerly,

Kim

At the craft-in Ariel taught a group of us how to crochet a hat (Well, we learned how to crochet the first part of a hat.) There was this wonderful epiphany I reached. I finally understood the basic principals of this illusive hand-craft. I give all the credit to Ariel and our little crafting group. There’s something so fantastic about physically knitting (or Crocheting!) together. I had a person there every step of the way to teach me where to put the needle and how to hold the yarn. I think everyone should thrust aside their youtube videos and call an expert to come to your house and craft right next to you.

So, after our craft-in, I went straight to Wal-Mart and bought a size I crochet needle, came home, and then found a crochet scarf pattern. I decided that I wanted to re-make my Red-Scarf for the Orphan Foundation of America. I knitted one scarf during the summer but didn’t really know what I was making it for. Crocheting a scarf for them felt more...right. I encompassed on our class goal of expanding our crafting knowledge and I got the benefit of understanding the cause I was crocheting for WHILE crocheting.

At first I had some difficulties. It was quite cold at the craft-in so my hands were dry and smooth, allowing the yarn to easily move around my fingers. My warm bedroom caused my hands to become a little sticky. It was hard to hold the yarn but after a while I got the hang of it. I was surprised to find that crocheting was both quick and easy! I used the trinity crochet stitch and whipped through that scarf in two days.

I guess this little allegory should warm you up to the idea of learning a new craft. If I can learn crocheting, anybody can.

My First Hat!

For the Conway Cradle Care project I wanted to learn how to knit a hat. So i went onto Ravelry and found this really cute hat called My Blueberry hat here. I thought it would be a really nice and cute hat for one of the mothers. (and i know its not unisex like we were shooting for, but its so cute!)I have heard that crocheting hats are really easy and they go by quickly, but i didn't know how quickly! I made the first one in under three hours. I got about halfway through and I couldn't understand why the seam was so noticeable. There was a vertical line of huge holes running up the side. I had already wondered why thepattern called for a turning chain of three when i was just doing rows of double crochets, but I thought it was different with hats.

So, for the next two rows I just chained two at the beginning of each row. It looked so much better! The seam was starting to blend into the rest of the row. I guess i should have just started over, but i really wanted to see the finished product. The only problem was that the rows weren't as tall anymore, so i had to guess at how many more rows to do to make it the right length. I lost count of how many times I asked my roommates to try on the hat to gauge the length.

Of course, when i finished with this odd looking hat I had to try it again to make it good enough to give to CCC.

My second attempt was a great success! This new hat is so cute! I am actually thinking about ripping up my first hat to make myself one, too. But i need to also work on my red scarf, because I only have about three feet done.