Flowers!

I decided last night that I am going to start using up a lot of my remnants by making little flowers.  They are all patterns I have gotten off of Ravelry but I figured I could go ahead and make them, and then use them whenever the occasion arises.

Oh, so, I should tell you about Ravelry, though some of you may have found me via that website!  Ravelry.com is an internationally used website for knitters and crocheters to exchange ideas and patterns.  It is fabulous.  My name on there is HopesnDreams if you ever care to look me up.  I have found almost all of my patterns on there - a lot of people willing to share their creative abilities with those of us who don't have the skill or talent for that.  I can waste hours and hours there.  

I have nearly completed the first baby hat that I am going to send with my sister.  I was able to work on it during class the other day.  My class is discussion based, like most grad classes, and so, because of the ease of the pattern, I was able to participate in discussion and knit at the same time.  I think I will keep doing that for the rest of the semester.  I didn't get as bored in class, plus I got to knit nearly the entire time.  So it was great.

I have a bunch of school stuff to get done this weekend, so I doubt I will be making much progress on anything.  I will try to get some more pictures up of completed and/or in progress projects.  Just for fun!

Not a yarn snob!

Well, I called Children's Hospital in Denver yesterday to double check and make sure that the website I saw was correct which said they needed hats for kids.  I asked if they took hand knit items, and the lady said no.  All items that go into Children's have to go through their laundry system.  That makes sense, they are sick kiddos.  She said that knitted items, though, don't make it through the wash.  That makes no sense to me.

My only guess as to the reason for that is that people were probably sending in wool items assuming that they would be warmer for the kids.  That is true.  However, wool can't be washed in hot water or in a washing machine except on a very gentle cycle.  Wool is a natural fiber that has little hooks at the end of each fiber.  The fibers of wool get weakened when wet and the hooks grab together when agitated too much.  That causes a process called felting - it is what happens when you put that fabulous sweater in the wash and it shrinks.  It shrinks because it has felted together.  In some cases you want an item to felt together.  For instance, I made a draft stopper for my door that I felted.  It makes it less penetrable and stiffer.  It is not so great for clothing items, unless you create the item specifically for that process.  My guess is that people were sending in wool items and they were shrinking in the wash and, as a result, Children's has decided just not to accept any of them.

In the world of yarnies there are definite yarn snobs.  Some people refuse to knit with acrylic or any other man-made fiber.  I heard one woman argue that because soldiers in the Middle East are given wool because of its flame-resistant properties rather than acrylic that melts at high temperatures that to put a child in acrylic was child abuse.  I didn't say anything because there is no rationalizing with some people.  The melting point of acrylic is very high.  It can be slightly melted at lower temperatures, which is why you don't want to iron acrylic items.  But the fact is is that if the acrylic in a baby's clothing was hot enough to melt onto the skin of the baby, the child is already dead.  Melted plastic yarn would be the least of their worries.

I, on the other hand, think that there is a use for all yarns.  I knit mostly in acrylic, in part because it is significantly cheaper to buy.  It also doesn't need special care - if a baby throws up on it, or soils it, it can be washed without a second thought.  I don't know about mothers of young children that you know, but the ones I know don't have time to be hand washing poop out of all of the items of a baby's wardrobe.  And if the baby's you know are like the ones I know, sometimes they even get it into their hair and hats.  So yes, I typically use acrylic or rayon or other man-made fiber.  Also, I use acrylic for blankets that I don't need to be exceedingly warm.  I like being snug and warm but I don't like my blankets to make me hot, either.

Certainly there are times that wool and cotton and other fibers are very useful.  Both are great for items for adults who are able to pay attention to how items need to be washed.  They are also good for when  you need something to be really warm.  There are what are called "superwash" wool out there that are washable.  Overall I hear that they are really good, though I have read from some people that they have had trouble with it.  But those skeins (the rolled up amount that is purchasable) are generally $8 a piece.  Compare that to a similar amount of acrylic yarn that I can get on sale for $2.  If I need more than one skein for a project it adds up really quickly, and I currently can't afford that.  But I also just don't see the need in the projects that I am making.  I do think there are times and places to use more specialty wool.  Especially in felting projects.  But I don't feel bad for using man-made yarns for most of my items so far.

Cotton has its benefits when you need a more breathable item.  I just made a hat out of cotton for my niece (I will post pictures later).  But cotton doesn't have any stretch to it.  So either it is made the perfect size or it gets out of shape.  I do use this for cleaning items - washcloths, a cover for my swiffer, facial cleaning pads, etc.  I need the absorbency of cotton for those items and the fact that they don't stretch is not a problem.

So, I am no yarn snob.  I think there is a place and a time for each.  When I post items on here I will do my best to include yarn information.  However, I do sometimes get my yarn from the thrift store and so I don't have much information to go on - I will give my best guesses, though.

First projects

My very first projects were fairly small and, I think, pretty simple.  I wanted to knit some baby booties for my niece because her feet were so small that normal ones were not fitting her.  So I started with them.  I showed them off to one of my classes and a classmate of mine asked me to make a pair for her to give to a friend - that was the green pair.

I also couldn't decide if I wanted to knit or crochet - so I did both, and I continue to do so.  I made a cabled crochet headband which really took some figuring out at first.  It isn't a hard pattern now that I know what it says, but when I started I had no idea what it means to "sk next st, bpdc next, fpdc the sk st."  (That is, skip the next stitch, back post double crochet the next, front post double crochet the skipped stitch).  But, I did eventually figure it out.  I gave my first one to my younger sister, and I made a second one for me because I liked it so much:

I also decided that it would be nice to just practice straight knitting without any distractions.  I knitted some fingerless gloves straight garter stitch and I practiced both my knits and my purls.  There are two stitches in knitting - knits and purls.  Everything that is knit is some combination of those, as well as skipping stitches or working some stitches over others.  When you look at most knit items you see little "v" shapes all on one side.  Those are the result of knit stitches.  On the other side you will see little ridges which are the result of purls.  I wont get too in depth as to how that works because there are other places for you to find that information.  But if you knit one side, then turn the work (because it is now on the second needle) and knit that row,  and continue in that pattern you will get what is called a garter stitch.  That is what these gloves are.  Likewise, if you purl every stitch of every row, you will end up with garter stitch.  A purl is what happens on the back side of a knit stitch, or vice versa.

In any case, this was the result - I seamed up the side after I had completed enough rows of a flat piece.  The yarn was multi-colored, I had bough it super cheap when I first started.  I learned a lot from these gloves about casting on and off (beginning and ending a knitted piece) and how loosely to do that.  It was a lot of fun to learn.

Welcome!

So, I suppose I should start off with telling you why you want to stick around for whatever nonsense I have to write!

About 7 months ago I decided that my new baby niece needed some hand knitted items.  So, I taught myself how to knit and to crochet in about the span of a week.  Fairly soon after I started looking for a knitting group - I knew that there had to be some in town.  I accidentally walked in on one (I thought I was just walking in to buy yarn) and I told them how long I had been knitting and crocheting, and what kind of projects I had already completed.  Most of them were stunned.  I wont brag, but once I got the hang of it, it just made sense to me.  They were baffled at some of the things I had tried; prior to that no one had told me that they were hard, so I just assumed that I could do them.  And then I did.  It worked out quite well!

Growing up I thought I would hate something like this - it is so grandmotherly.  But I am smitten with knittin'.  Ok, that was bad, sorry.  But it is true, I absolutely adore making new things.  I love the feeling of accomplishment, I love teaching myself new tricks and stitches, I love how while I knit or crochet my mind can relax from the hectic life I live outside of knitting as a graduate student working, until this last weekend, three jobs.  It is soul soothing and just a very rewarding hobby for me.

So, I plan to share my completed projects on here, as well as talking about new things I am learning, and large projects I am undertaking.  I was down at my family's house this past weekend and it dawned on me that my niece didn't actually need any more hats from me.  But they are so simple to make in the round, I can read for school while I work on the hats and it is forcing me to learn to just feel for the stitches.  My sisters are both in the medical profession - both work in hospitals.  One travels periodically with Doctors Without Borders and the other volunteers with her fiancee and their dog at Children's Hospital.  I started looking around for charities that accepted donated hats and other baby items, but I was not horribly impressed with any right in this area.  So I asked both sisters if they had any use for them.  Both said yes.  So I am beginning to make baby, and perhaps toddler, hats for both Children's Hospital in Denver as well as to send with my older sister for when she gives classes to new mothers when she travels with Doctors Without Borders.  I am really, really excited about this.

I have begun the first hat for that project.  I expect that it will help me get a great deal faster with knitting in general and this way I can personally contribute to larger projects that are close to my heart.  I can't travel with DWB - I have no medical training.  I have always been interested in helping though.  And I think a hand knit or hand crocheted hat given to a new mother both makes me feel happy and hopefully makes that new mother smile.  I wont ever get to meet any of those new mothers, or the sick kids at Children's Hospital, but perhaps I can put a smile in their day.  

I do plan to continue making other things for my personal use as well as gifts for friends and family.  The combination of that, as well as the items I want to donate, should keep me rather busy and quite content.  I am looking forward to letting you know about how things progress, as well as posting pictures of some of the things I have made and those things that I will make.  Hooray!