About twice a year, my crafting gene kicks in and I feel the need to make junk. This usually coincides with my nesting instinct reaching its limit and my uncontrollable urge to be all "woman of the house" sewing crap. This usually happens in the winter. Sewing is just such a cozy indoor activity. Anyway, this weekend I conquered a huge foe: I learned how to knit!
Major kudos to Kittastic for teaching me how to knit! Knitting is one of those things I feel like I should be instantly good at and when I’m not I get very frustrated. I feel I should be good at knitting because my Nana was amazing with knitting and crocheting. When I picture Nana, I can’t do it without seeing yarn in her hands. Never mind the fact that she tried to teach me when I was 10 and got frustrated because I’m left handed and deemed me unteachable. This should be in my blood. Like the thrift store gene. So about a year ago I bought a knitting starter kit complete with how-to DVD and vowed to learn how to knit.
Yeah, learning from a DVD? Not that easy.
I spent a lot of time making knots and tangles that slid right off the needles and since I didn’t have a human sitting next to me to say, "Oh, this is what you’re doing wrong," I got frustrated and gave up and learned how to crochet instead. Which, trust me, crocheting is a lot easier.
On Friday a bunch of us were having dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. My crafting urge was raging so I leaned over and said to Kittastic, "I want you to teach me how to knit."
And Kittastic said, "I would love to teach you how to knit!"
And I said, "I am coming over to your place tomorrow and I’m bringing my knitting needles and yarn and I AM GOING TO LEARN HOW TO KNIT, DAMNIT!"
And Kittastic said, "Yay!"
So that’s what we did. Kittastic is a very good teacher. I learned two different ways to cast on and the garter stitch.
This isn’t going to be anything, it’s just for practice. I still have a lot of practicing to do. Once you get the basic steps down, you just need to find a rhythm and dexterity. Which is where I’m running into problems. Kittastic spent a lot of time harping on me about my tension and the way I flow yarn into the needles. See, I’m having issues of how to hold my yarn. While there’s no one way to hold the extra yarn, I am somehow doing it wrong. I’m having trouble finding a comfortable way to hold it and yet still feel like I have control over it. Right now I’m sort of wrapping it around all of my fingers which leads to a lot of readjusting, which leads to loss of tension, which leads to crappy knitting. I think I just need to practice more and once I get used to it more, I’ll have figured something out. I’m going to practice my garter stitch and in about a week or so Kit will teach me the purl stitch!
I also tore apart my crochet project this weekend and began a new one. See, I was making just a long green rectangle, and I sort of absently thought it would be a scarf or something. But then I thought, I have enough scarves and this green doesn’t match any of my coats or anything. But it does match my comforter. So I tore apart my long rectangle and began making that snakey looking thing, which will eventually be a blanket.
I am getting pretty good at the crocheting, I think. My stitches are pretty tight and even. Ooooh, this is going to be such a warm blanket, I can’t wait. I hate the cold. I hope I don’t run out of yarn.
I also wanted to make something for the Doc. I had been wanting to write a letter to him but also give him something cool to look at — hospital rooms are so drab. So I made him this postcard mosaic:
Please ignore my obviously un-vacuummed carpet. I made 20 4" x 6" postcards and printed this image of the Sacred Heart (he collects Sacred Heart stuff) on them, broke up my message into sections, wrote them out, laminated the cards, and mailed them. I hope he gets them before Thanksgiving. I also hope none of the cards get lost. Oh man, he’ll probably kill me for making him do a puzzle. But I figure this way it’s not just a postcard, it’s religious folk art! Wait, is it considered folk art if you do it intentionally? I never took his Religious Folk Life class, so I don’t know. Oh well, it’s fun to look at, right?
Major kudos to Kittastic for teaching me how to knit! Knitting is one of those things I feel like I should be instantly good at and when I’m not I get very frustrated. I feel I should be good at knitting because my Nana was amazing with knitting and crocheting. When I picture Nana, I can’t do it without seeing yarn in her hands. Never mind the fact that she tried to teach me when I was 10 and got frustrated because I’m left handed and deemed me unteachable. This should be in my blood. Like the thrift store gene. So about a year ago I bought a knitting starter kit complete with how-to DVD and vowed to learn how to knit.
Yeah, learning from a DVD? Not that easy.
I spent a lot of time making knots and tangles that slid right off the needles and since I didn’t have a human sitting next to me to say, "Oh, this is what you’re doing wrong," I got frustrated and gave up and learned how to crochet instead. Which, trust me, crocheting is a lot easier.
On Friday a bunch of us were having dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. My crafting urge was raging so I leaned over and said to Kittastic, "I want you to teach me how to knit."
And Kittastic said, "I would love to teach you how to knit!"
And I said, "I am coming over to your place tomorrow and I’m bringing my knitting needles and yarn and I AM GOING TO LEARN HOW TO KNIT, DAMNIT!"
And Kittastic said, "Yay!"
So that’s what we did. Kittastic is a very good teacher. I learned two different ways to cast on and the garter stitch.
This isn’t going to be anything, it’s just for practice. I still have a lot of practicing to do. Once you get the basic steps down, you just need to find a rhythm and dexterity. Which is where I’m running into problems. Kittastic spent a lot of time harping on me about my tension and the way I flow yarn into the needles. See, I’m having issues of how to hold my yarn. While there’s no one way to hold the extra yarn, I am somehow doing it wrong. I’m having trouble finding a comfortable way to hold it and yet still feel like I have control over it. Right now I’m sort of wrapping it around all of my fingers which leads to a lot of readjusting, which leads to loss of tension, which leads to crappy knitting. I think I just need to practice more and once I get used to it more, I’ll have figured something out. I’m going to practice my garter stitch and in about a week or so Kit will teach me the purl stitch!
I also tore apart my crochet project this weekend and began a new one. See, I was making just a long green rectangle, and I sort of absently thought it would be a scarf or something. But then I thought, I have enough scarves and this green doesn’t match any of my coats or anything. But it does match my comforter. So I tore apart my long rectangle and began making that snakey looking thing, which will eventually be a blanket.
I am getting pretty good at the crocheting, I think. My stitches are pretty tight and even. Ooooh, this is going to be such a warm blanket, I can’t wait. I hate the cold. I hope I don’t run out of yarn.
I also wanted to make something for the Doc. I had been wanting to write a letter to him but also give him something cool to look at — hospital rooms are so drab. So I made him this postcard mosaic:
Please ignore my obviously un-vacuummed carpet. I made 20 4" x 6" postcards and printed this image of the Sacred Heart (he collects Sacred Heart stuff) on them, broke up my message into sections, wrote them out, laminated the cards, and mailed them. I hope he gets them before Thanksgiving. I also hope none of the cards get lost. Oh man, he’ll probably kill me for making him do a puzzle. But I figure this way it’s not just a postcard, it’s religious folk art! Wait, is it considered folk art if you do it intentionally? I never took his Religious Folk Life class, so I don’t know. Oh well, it’s fun to look at, right?
Labels: Craftiness, Creativity
4 Comments:
JEALOUS!
Man, I need to get crafty again. I still need to make my MST 3K beadie patterns, plus now I want to make a Bumble.
And I want to learn to crochet or something. Inspiration!
We should hold a craft day!
So let it be written. So let it be done.
It is religious folk art, because it was created for a religious purpose (to give the Doc a religious icon) and it was hand made. You took a familiar icon and personalized it in such a great way. next time you should send them from different post offices. see if anyone notices the postmarks.
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