A new set of needles

Well, I guess you could be excused for thinking I had disappeared into thin air and I am not promising that this will last but I was thinking the other day about how much I enjoyed blogging even though it is just a venue for me to waffle on about fluff and stuff...so for now I am jumping back on the blogwagon and see if I can keep up with the pace of things.

After a full on start to the year and finishing 5 quilt tops by March, I fell off 'that' bandwagon rather hard....whether it was the colder weather setting in, or the fact that I am STILLwaiting for my house to get built (3 years and counting) or just a general malaise....probably a little of each. Long story short: I haven't had much inclination to sew.

But Knitting.....now that's a whole other ballgame!

I recently found this cute plant pot to keep my evergrowing collection of Knitting Needles

I just got this sudden urge to knit....it was an itch that just had to be scratched....Firstly, I tried my hand at knitting a little cardie jacket for my great-niece who just moved to England with her parents. I really enjoyed the pattern but the sleeves were a little tricky so I decided maybe another two little cardies might help me perfect the underarm fiasco.....

only one colour shown here but I did 3 different colours for each cardie

Since I haven't touched any knitting needles for almost 30 years, I had a few techniques to conquer so I forgot about the countless other Pinterest finds to knit jumpers and concentrated on something a bit more manageable. Scarves and cowls and blankets.

This was my first big project....a big chunky blanket which I knitted out of some rather awful acrylic stuff in my stash box.  The pattern is lovely and I plan to knit it again in a  nicer yarn sometime soon. The pattern is called the Boulevard Blanket. So easy to knit and the pattern is free*. I discovered circular knitting needles for this project as it is necessary to hold all the stitches needed.

This was a big project so I interspersed it with a couple of smaller projects. A triangular scarf which helped me decipher the M1L and M1R technique of increasing the stitiches. The scarf was knitted with some really cheap acrylic yarn that I picked up in a $2 Shop and it is something I will probably never wear....but it was an interesting learning curve.

I'm sure it's obvious but my knitted scarf is the pinky creation

Next up was the Potato Chip Scarf and here I picked up on how to do short rows.  There was so much unraveling of this project and starting over but eventually I got the hang of it and produced something  that looked like the picture....I have seen some wonderful examples of this scarf so would like to give it a go in another type of yarn (I originally used a cotton blend) I have a few free* versions of this pattern on my Pinterest Board called Yarn

My first cowl was this Ridge and Furrow cowl which is a free* pattern.....I struggled with the circular needles at first as I didn't know how the join the circle....a quick search on Pinterest and I had it all sussed out. I love this cowl and am immensely proud of my efforts.  I realised while knitting this project that I really enjoy knitting patterns.

The bug had bitten deep and the next project to meet my needles was this Reversible Rivulet Scarf  a free* pattern from Purl Soho. This project took me several weeks as it was all knitted into the back of the stitch, ie. the reversible part, it took my brain a while to emulate and I also had to polish up on my cable stitch which kept going array forcing me to "unknit" or simply pull the stitches back a few rows.Who knew a scarf could take so long to knit?! That being said, I would do this one again!
 

That brings me to this current week.....Yes, I still want to knit and if I'm not knitting, I am seeking out patterns on Pinterest. Early this week I decided to unleash the Mohair (well, it's 50% Mohair and 50% Acrylic) and knit an easy lacy scarf. Yikes! Fingering Mohair (blend) is tricky. It kept getting snagged on itself and I ended up having to discard quite a bit of it when the pattern went off course and I couldn't unravel the stitches. My second go was more successful although I can see a big hole somewhere half way up the work. I think I can fix that later. I am actually going to seam the two edges to make a cowl.

Please note that free* denotes that patterns are free at time of this post  being published.

If you have read this far, then thank you so much for passing by.....and I look forward to journalling my next project.....the only question is:
Will it be knitted, stitched or sewn!

Linking up with MondayMaking