Out With the Old...

It's cold and snowy where I live which puts me in a great mood to sit on the couch and knit.  I did make it out for a brisk walk after work and was thinking about what I could contribute to the blog before I have another project to publish.  While I want to share with you things I am working on or plan to work on, that would leave out all the cool stuff I've already made!  I do hope to build off many of these in the future, but here's a taste of where I've been so far in my knitting career...

A hat and scarf for one of my little friends!  The yarn was selected by the mother and I searched out a pattern for the scarf.  I made the hat with the leftover yarn.  It was a little too small on the crown, but the set is super cute!

A friend got me a book with several mitten patterns.  I tried out a few as it was also my first time using double pointed needles.  These ones were knitted in the round.  With some more practice and the right yarn, I could probably make some sweet hand warmers.  Actually, I also have some patterns for hand/arm warmers I'd like to try out...

I made this shrug with intentions of wearing it over a spaghetti strapped dress.  Although it looks pretty good in the picture, I wasn't actually comfortable wearing it.  Part of the problem was the yarn I selected and part was that it was a bit small across my back.  I've since given it to my sister though we are considering adding a button so it closes in the front and potentially a flower on the side.  Stay tuned, we might not be done with this one yet!

Last year I discovered "blocking".  It was frustrating to continually have scarves that curled on the edges taking away from the beautiful patterns I had picked out.  After some research I found how to prevent this from happening, for the most part.  I purchased some pins, used some old cardboard, and pinned the scarf on some towels.  From there I used my iron to steam the scarf and slightly dampen it.  Once dry, remove the pins and bam - flat!

Last year a group of us took St. Patrick's Day off work to go out bar hopping.  I purchased a pattern online for the above scarf.  I made some alterations to narrow the scarf and have since worked on a few others with the same concept (I am working on one know and will post the details when completed).  Let's just say there were a few people jealous of this awesome scarf while we were out celebrating!

I made this vest for my sister and just finished it a couple weeks ago.  I used the smallest sizes on the pattern but it was still a little bulky for her.  Things like this are hard because I'm not able to see where improvements need to be made until it's complete and then it's too late.  Hopefully over time I will develop experience and be able to spot these alterations early on before it's too late.

The tail of this hat hangs just below my shoulder.  I made it a couple days before going to the Lions/Packers game on Thanksgiving Day.  So cute and really didn't take me very long to make!  Next time I'll take more time to make the tail longer so it can wrap around my neck more like a scarf.

Finally, a friend asked me to make an ear band for him.  I made this pattern/project literally from scratch.  I had a shape to go off of, but did stitches, increases, decreases, etc all on my own...and better yet, it was a perfect fit!

I regret not taking pictures of everything I've made over the years.  Like I said, I've been much more into my knitting over the past three years and only started taking pictures last year.  Looking back over these makes me even more excited about what I'm currently working on and what other projects I can find to keep my hands off the snacks!

Dress-up Your Wine Bottle

I started knitting about 10 years ago.  To be honest, I don't remember exactly why, but I asked my grandmother to show me.  She willingly gave me her supplies...needles in an old Pringles can, a handful of crochet hooks, a how-to book and some basic lessons about casting on, knitting and purling.  From there I use Google and YouTube to teach me anything I don't know or can't figure out on my own.

The past three years my creativity has grown and the scope of things I am able to create has developed.  Moving forward I hope to share with you my projects, techniques and ideas to hopefully inspire you and share my love of knitting.

Over the weekend I was out doing some shopping with my sister.  At one of the stores were wine bottles "dressed up" for winter in little knitted hats and scarves.  Immediately I was drawn to these cute accessories as they combined two things I absolutely love - wine and knitting!  While they were fairly small, I thought I would be able to recreate them on my own.

When I got home I hustled upstairs to my yarn cave to see what I had available and fortunately I found a bright red, snow white and forest green for my project.  I did a quick Google search to determine where to start.  Here's what I've come up with so far...

The one on the top right is the first one I created.  I prefer the hats on the left and bottom as they are a bit smaller and a cuter.  The scarves are each a little different - in all I cast on 8 stitches.  The one on the top left is garter stitch (knit every row) and the one on the right is knit 1, purl 1 for a ribbed look and the one on the bottom is a stockinette stitch (knit a row, purl a row).  With the hats I cast on 24 and evenly divided them across 3 double pointed needles.  The white one on the right has a couple rows of ribbing and is then knitted to the top.  The other two, the ones I prefer, are knit 2, purl 2 all the way to the top.  Once the hat is as big as you want, k2together, purl2together to reduce the stitches to 12 and then k2together for the final round to reduce to 6 stitches.  From there loop the reminding stitches together with a knitting needle to complete the hat.

For the fringes I simply wrapped thread around my fingers and then cut on one side (see images below).  From there I used a crochet hook to pull the fringe through the pieces where I wanted them and then trimmed them to the length desired.  With the hats I pulled the fringe through the top of the hat and tied it together on the inside.  On the scarves I simple pulled the two loose ends through the halved part and tightened.

I'm hoping to come up with some ideas on how to dress up the wine bottles with non-wintery looks as well because I can't get over how fun and simple this project is.  I don't know for sure how many scarves and hats can be made out of a single ball of yarn, but it has to be quite a few.  Together each set probably took me about an hour to put together.  Super fun for a day full of football watching and sure to keep my hands out of the snacks!