Do Good-er

Whilst perusing what fellow knitters are up to on Craftster online community/forum I stumbled across an article about Oxfam recruiting knitters and crocheters for a charity blanket representing the dire situation for mothers in Africa and South East Asia. Not only is this for a good cause, but it makes for an easy, quick project. Right now my main project is a sweater, and making these squares is a welcome break when I get sick of looking at it. Here's the Oxfam article :

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/applications/blogs/campaigners/2008/03/wanted_knitting_activists_to_d_1.html

I don't have money to donate to charity, but I do have lots and lots of yarn. If you enjoy being able to go to the doctor whenever you need to you should contribute, because not everyone has that luxury. OK, political message over.

Ideas

(ORIGINALLY POSTED MONDAY 21 APRIL)

So the thing about a knitting blog is that posts can't be all that frequent because projects take time (unless you're a super knitter, in which case I'm jealous). But I'm currently working hard on a project, and I have some sweet ideas for future ones which I'm pretty excited about. What I'm working on now is pretty much my dream shrug. It's long sleeved with a hood. I'll go into details about what pattern I used, and how I modified it, when it's all done and I can show pictures to illustrate (visual aid is always helpful). When that's done, I want to make some dolls. Oh, but not just any dolls. Nightmare Before Christmas Jack and Sally dolls. I plan to give them to my friend's new baby (the same one I made the badass rocker cardi for). I've already thought about how to make Jack's pinstripe suit and Sally's patchwork dress and skin... It will be a tough new challenge, but I'm up for it. When I'm done hopefully they'll look as sweet as they do in my mind's eye and not like crappy lumps of misshapen yarn. We'll see. But if I'm ever going to finish my shrug I need to go buy more yarn so that's it for now. Happy knitting!

Kid Rock

(Originally posted Thursday 3 April)

So, for my first project that is neither a scarf or a dog sweater for practice, I wanted to make a cardigan for my best friend's new baby. But she's not the kind to gush over pink sweaters with little yellow ducks on them, and I'm not the kind to knit stuff like that. Since she met her husband when she auditioned for his rock band, their baby girl needed a suitably hardcore sweater.

I combined an easy baby sweater pattern, the Five Rectangle Sweater, with a few of my own ideas and came up with this, the Rockin' Baby Cardi:







I'm pretty happy with it. There are a few mistakes, but not too shabby for a first attempt at anything even remotely difficult. I hate when I see something sweet that I'd like to knit online and there's no pattern, so if anyone would like to see the pattern I used for the writing and the stars let me know and I'll email it to you. I'd put it up here, but it's on a grid and in a program that doesn't upload as a picture.

In keeping with the theme, my recommended sountrack for knitting this sweater is the likes of Billy Idol, Alice Cooper, Def Leppard, etc. It just gets you in the right mood. As I was finishing this up last night, Metalocalypse was on Adult Swim. I took that as a sign that this was one brutal little cardi for one hardcore little girl. ROCK!

Cast On

(Originally posted Saturday 29 March)

I love to knit. However, until recently I had been too scared to try anything more than scarves. Lame. Since I am largely a self-taught knitter, I have no one to show me how to progress.

The other obstacle I've found is the relative lack of knitters who are not so much into ugly old lady stuff. That's not ageist, because I've seen plenty of patterns featuring pictures of otherwise perfectly normal people, young and old, in some of the most hideous cardigans, sweaters, dresses, etc. By no means am I opposed to quirky, creative and offbeat knits. That's part of the problem. The vast majority of patterns I've found online look like they belong to my grandma. While that can sometimes be a good thing (I'm all about vintage), let me tell you, the fashions of Doris Ryan leave something to be desired.

But eventually I decided eff this, I'm just going to jump in head first and figure things out as I go. The beauty of knitting is that if what you're working on sucks, you can just take it apart and start over. So here's to a new beginning.