Increases and decreases

Oh boy I'm so proud of myself, I've managed to knit increases and have nearly finished the cardigan for Melody. It's not as hard as I thought it would be but I've had to come to terms with something I've learnt along the way. I knit a little oddly... When doing a knit stitch my right needle goes straight behind behind my left needle, like this

but all the videos I've seen they put the right needle in the front first then it goes behind the left like this.

 

One stitch is horizontal when working and the other is vertical I don't think there is any difference in either method when it comes to the final look of the work but I tell you now it took me some time to figure out how I needed to complete the increases, but once I got my brain round it they were rather easy. The decreases however were even worse to try and suss out.  For example I cannot for the life of me fathom out why I would even bother following the SSK directions correctly, why bother slipping two stitches onto the other needle when I can just knit two together... And the K2Tog instructions well that was fun, I'm already knitting two together why are there two different terms for the same thing, and thing I figured out that it was knitting two together in the front.

Well... Why don't they name them K2Tog Front and K2Tog Back so you knit the stitches together in the front or knit them in the back and leave out all this slipping stitches malarky!

Anyhoo I'm nearly done with the cardigan just the rest of a sleeve and the seaming of the hood to finish and now Melody seems to be sleeping again at night I might finish it soon.  This is how it looked a few weeks ago.

Testing

After making my plans official last week I took myself to the shop for supplies as I have begun to get the creating itch again. I managed to get 2m of denim for my jean trousers and also some yarn for my venture into knitting shapes.

I had to wait before starting my new knitting project as the shop didn't have the right size needles in stock so had to order them online, which turned out to be better actually as I was able to buy bamboo needles instead of metal. Metal is just far to cold for my hands to do a lot of knitting with and they arrived last week. I have knitted my test square and I think it's the right size so have started the cardigan. So far so good as the first 7 inches have no change in size think I'm up to about inch 3.  A bonus though I've found out I can knit with Melody asleep on my lap, which mean I might get this finished before Christmas, whoop!

Snood Ahoy!

Remember when I said I was knitting a snood?  Well I finished it and I am totally in love!

I've been wearing it at every opportunity since I finished it and it really didn't take me that long to do either, probably about 5 hours in total (more since I'm not counting stating again...)  It is made from this pattern on Ravelry, I used two balls of Sirdar Escape Chunky and the only adjustment I did to the pattern was to not hold the yarn doubled since I didn't have enough to do that and make it long enough. 

Now I'm contemplating a cardigan, I may have just approached the crazy train!

Getting into...

With season change I've been feeling less and less inclined to get out the sewing machine and make clothes, I've been feeling wintery and with that comes a feeling that I should be knitting something, I've tried using the machine I found in a charity shop but anything other than a set amount of stitches with the standard stitch seems to be beyond me and I had a hankering for something more impressive.  But... I didn't know how to knit, I could crochet but knitting was a whole new world to me.  Out of the blue one day I decided that I will go to the supermarket and get a knitting magazine.  My luck must have been in since to only magazine in the store came with some free knitting needles and a scarf pattern designed for those needles.  Spurred on by inspiration I dashed home and dug out the wool I had been using to machine knit, it wasn't the chunky wool the pattern recommended but I figured I was learning so I could use that to learn the basics and get some chunky wool later on.   Oh the hours that have passed... It took me 2 hours to realise I was knitting the hat instead of the scarf, then another 2 to figure out what the damned instructions were jabbering on about.  Once I'd finally got my head around it and got the blue wool above I think I've spent another 10-15 hours to finish it all off

Can you spot which side I started on?  Despite the tension flaws on one side I'm really proud of myself and have got alot of use out of the scarf already

(I've also brought a tripod and hopefully will start to get better at this picture taking lark!)

 Since finishing I've been itching to make more things and the recent Snood outbreak started by the lovely Karen has got me starting one but in a different design I found on Ravelry posted by Nina.  Here's a sneak peek so far