My Very First Knit-Along ... Part 3

Finally done with working on Week 4's square! :)  It's called Checkerboard Cable Square:

Amazing ... I never thought I'd be doing a Checkerboard pattern; it looked so hard.  My hubby received a beautiful lap blanket when he was really ill from my knitting friend, Dawn and she did an amazing checkerboard pattern I could only dream of doing!  And now, not only did I manage to do a checkerboard pattern but incorporate a cable (both left and right) into it!  

This knit-along has been amazing so far as well as become wonderful opportunity for me to grow (and yet do it in small squares)! :)   I've learned so much about reading patterns (both in written and chart format) and about actually seeing how my work will actually come together. :)

I'm going to move to a bigger needle (the 8" squares are really quite small) so, I'll be doing Week 1's square again to get gauge then move onto Week 5 (although we're really in Week 7 now).  I hope to catch up soon! :P

More squares! :D

My Very First Knit-Along ... Part 2

Finally done working on Week 3's square! :)  It's called a Snake Cabled Square:

It was amazing to see what happens when you knit your stitches in a specific order (either to bring the stitches to the front (left slanting cables) or back (right slanting cables)).  If you were to ask me to knit cables (much less 3D cables like this one), I would've told you: Seriously?  Isn't that hard or at the very least, for a more advanced knitter?  And yet, with this Knit-Along, cabling doesn't seem so hard! :)  It's almost inspired me to think that when I'm ready to work on my sweater, I can actually make myself a cable sweater! ;) (No, I'm not crazy enough to really do that as my first sweater ... after working on Hubby's right sock (and struggling to get myself motivated to start the left one), I'm not ready to test my gauge beyond regular stockinette stitch for my very first sweater! :P  I'd like to be able to actually wear my sweater - if at all possible! :P  Call me chicken ... I am! :P)

Now, I'm onto working on Week 4's square (and finally ready to cast on for Hubby's left sock)! :)

The knitting marathon is on! :D

Tabi no Monogatari Part 5 (and Starting My Very First Stash)

Upon lots of hemming and hawing, I finally started my top-down sock - well, sort of.

First, I re-measured Hubby's feet:
                                                    Left                      Right
Widest at the toe:                   25 cm (  9")        25 cm ( 9")
Widest instep:                        27 cm (10")        26 cm (10")
Circumference of the ankle: 24 cm (  9")        25 cm ( 9")
Circumference at the cuff:    22 cm (  8")        22 cm ( 8")
Length of sock:                      25 cm (  9")        25.25 - 25.5 cm (10")
Height of sock:                      12 cm (4.5")       12 cm (4.5") 

Then, I did some math:
My gauge is 9 stitches per 1", where 1" = 25.4mm, where 25.4 mm = 2.54 cm
                                                                                            Left                                                    Right
Widest at the toe:                   (9" - 1") = 8" * 9 sts/in = 72 sts        (9" - 1") = 8" * 9 sts/in = 72 sts
Widest instep:                        (10" - 1") = 9" * 9 sts/in = 81sts       (10"- 1") = 9" * 9 sts/in = 81 sts
Circumference of the ankle: (9" - 1") = 8" * 9 sts/in = 72 sts        (9" - 1") = 8"  * 9 sts/in = 72 sts
Circumference at the cuff:    (8" - 1") = 7" * 9 sts/in = 63 sts        (8" - 1") = 7" * 9 sts/in = 63 sts
Length of sock:                       9" for the Left side & 10" for the Right side (~88 - X rows)
Height of sock:                       4.5" (10 rows of ribbing & 32 rows)

Then, I started to get all confused about the math and started doubting myself.  So, I decided to ask the ultimate sock (& mathematician) goddess, Kate Atherley of WiseHilda.blogspot.com. :)  She was very, very helpful and provided me: 1) confirmation that I wasn't going nuts and that I actually calculated something correctly (widest part at the toe) and 2) a worksheet to help me do the math.  Now, all I need is LOTS of sleep and a very sound mind to start (again). :P

Looks like my top-down sock will take a lot more Parts ... 8(

More to come! :D

On that note, while hemming and hawing (and with A LOT of debate), I finally broke down and started my first stash.  I realized that while practicing on the acrylic cream yarn was fine (because it gave me an idea of how to actually knit a sock, the parts of the sock, and how it's suppose to go), I realized that there was no way I was actually going to get a really good idea on fit until I used real sock yarn.  So, thanks to Ariana, she introduced me to Linnie's Darling who happened to have an awesome sale on Tofutsies & OnLine SuperSocke sock  yarn.  This is what I bought:

Now, I'm still going to work my top-down sock in that junky acrylic yarn (just to get an idea on how it works using this method and to use it up ... it's amazing how much yarn I still have in it! :( ).  Once I finish my "practice" sock, I'll get started on using my stash. :)

My Very First Knit-Along

I've been following along my very first Knit-Along and I must say, I'm not a good follower. :P

We're at Week 6 and I finally finished Week 2's square - today.

So, what's a Knit-Along you ask?  It's usually a project that you do virtually with a whole bunch of other knitters (normally) to learn a new technique, stitch pattern, or pattern type (i.e. sweater, scarf, mittens, etc.).  My Knit-A-Long is about making a cable afghan.  It's from CreativeBug and is called Cabled Afghan Knit-Along with Edie Eckman.

Here's Week 1's Bias Garter Stitch Square:

This was a fun starter square to begin with.  I haven't done anything on a bias and it was fast, easy and fun to see my square growing bigger and bigger and shrinking back to the corner.  In short, it was pretty cool. :)  Unfortunately, I'm not using the recommended yarn nor needle size (remember all that "gifted" cream colored yarn I had ... well, I doubled it in hopes that it would be about the same thickness as the recommended yarn. :D  But, it didn't look so thick so, I'm using my US 5 Chiagoo Twist Interchangeable needles and my gauge is a bit smaller than the recommended size.  It's suppose to be a finished 10" square ... mine is coming out to 8".  Oh well ... I'll either need to make more squares or make some kind of border ... :P

Here's Week 2's Basic Cable Square:

Working on my very first cable was ... interesting. :)  Actually, I cheated ... I watched how all the other cable squares were done (well, except for Week 6 - hey! I've been busy prepping for Hurricane Iselle and Julio) before attempting to do this square.  Cabling is actually pretty easy (so says the woman who's only done a basic cable so far). :P  It's really just knitting your stitches in a certain order.  For instance, in the basic cable, you bring the first two (2) stitches (1 & 2) to the front of your work and move it after the next two (2) stitches (3 & 4) (I know ... it sounds confusing but if you YouTube it, it's really not that bad) then just knit them in that arranged order (3, 4, 1, 2). :)

I actually started out using a stitch holder as my cable needle but found that there is a reason why a cable needle exists ... it wasn't that easy to use. :(  Then I found a super short 4.25" wooden DPN that must've been gifted to me and tried to use that.  Because I'm using metal needles, it was digging into my poor DPN.  Then, I decided to ask my knitting buddies what kind(s) of cable needles they liked to use.  Ariana likes the short wooden ones with groves on it.  Dawn likes bamboo ones or her metal one with a dip in the middle.  Dawn was super gracious and actually lent me all her cable needles to give it a try. :)  (Isn't she sooooo awesome?! :D)  I found that the bamboo one was too long for me to maneuver.   She also lent me a metal J-hook ... that was too cumbersome to use.  And the (lovely) metal one with a dip ... just right! :)  It made cabling easier to do. :)  I even gave a go at trying to cable without a cable needle (yes, it's possible) but, found that it was too cumbersome for me.  It was simply much easier to just use a cable needle.  Thanks to Dawn, I ordered a set of Clover plastic cable needles with a dip in them and hope to receive them shortly. :)

Thanks, Dawn for lending me your needles!! :)  You're the best!! :)

Ok ... now, I gotta start working on Week 3's square. :P  More to come as I work on all my squares. :)

How to Keep Track of It All???

Lately, I've been wondering how to keep track of all of my knitting paraphernalia and my stash ... So, I've been searching on-line and through Google Play for apps that I can use. :)

I tried using Knitting Buddy but I found the needle & crochet hook inventory section too cumbersome to enter and maintain.  And, there weren't enough editable fields for me to input additional information that I wanted to keep.  Eventually, I simply abandoned it.

Then I tried seeing what I had in my Raverly.com account.  It was better because it was easier to enter in all my information,  but it could not be customized to include additional information I wanted about my needles (in addition to all the other things I had as well (accessories, my interchangeable needle set, etc.).

In the end, I built my own spreadsheet.  What does it have?  It has the following categories:

• Needle type (DPN, Straight, Fixed Circular, Interchangeable)
• Accessories (of various types like darning needles, cable needles, gauges, point protectors, stitch holders, stitch markers, etc.)
• Crochet Hooks (yes, I've inherited a whole bunch of those as well as having a few of my own)
• Other Knitting paraphernalia (like my Lucet)

I even added a Pivot Table to see if it would give me a better view of what I have (rather than just having filters to sort everything). :D

I also have another spreadsheet (in the same workbook) that shows all the US needle sizes and all the Japanese needle sizes (I want to eventually have a set of these too. :D And, yes, they're actually different sizes!) and marked which size (and what type of needle) I had in 'em (simply because I'm not anal enough, right? :P). :)  I think I'm just going to up-load this to my phone and/or to Google Drive and up-date as I go from there.  If anyone's interested in seeing my (crazy) spreadsheet, shoot me an e-mail; I'll be happy to send it to you. :)

So what about my stash, you ask?  Well, there's no such thing as the perfect app (especially if I want it on my phone) and I figured that if I built my own thing (like with the inventory), it would simply take too much time (and also be too cumbersome).  I found that my Raverly notebook, stash section was good enough for what I needed.  It allows you to enter in the yarn name, brand, weight, how much you have, notes you want to add about it (like what my gauge is for this particular yarn using  a particular size) and I can even up-load a picture of it.  That's all I need and as long as I have internet access, I can see what I got (or at the very least, make sure I pull up that page before I got somewhere that I don't have internet access (like when I'm in Japan). :)

Well, I think that's enough anal-ness for today! :P