Personal Project Friday

Hey Everyone!

When I started this blog, My main focus was (and still primarily is) knitting for children in need. While I love working on projects for kids in need, I feel like my blog has gotten a bit stale, bland and repetitive with just hats and sweaters. On Friday’s I am going to be posting about projects that I am working on for myself, or for my friends to help change things up and keep things fresh while still holding to why I started the blog in the first place.

My “personal” projects is where I really get creative and have the most fun/frustrations as I try new patterns, that are more complicated and intricate that I wouldn’t use for hats and sweaters. I really enjoy trying new patterns, and making things for myself that look nice, and that come in useful during the rainy winter months.

This Week I am working on a simple garter stitch triangular shawl using Lion Brand Yarn Fishermen’s Will in Natural Brown. I love working with this yarn, and have more skeins in different colors in a plastic tub or wool I have stashed away for personal projects. I have made triangle shawls in the past out of acrylic yarn, this is my first one out of a natural yarn. When planning this project I just wanted something simple and easy, because the other projects I had made to date using fishermen’s wool were more complex patterned scarves, and I wanted something to work on that would just be simple and warm for winters to come. It has also given me time to think about what I want to do with my other skeins of fishermen’s wool as I still have five full skeins of it. I like fishermen’s wool, I won’t go into a lot about why, as I have talked about it in my Favorite Yarns post from this past Monday.

Project of the Week

Hey Everyone! 

I have been continuing to work on the size 8 sweater I have written the previous two posts about. I have made it into the front sleeves on this sweater, so I am making good progress. Beings that I knit the body of the sweater all at once, using a stitch marker in the middle to show me where the front and the back are, and then knit the sleeves on the front then do the back sleeves it makes it a lot easier. I got tired of getting the front done and then having to knit the whole back of the sweater, this way I only have one side seam on the body to sew up, and without the hassle of having to compare the body pieces to make sure the back body is long enough and will match up length wise with the front. 

I like working on these projects for kids in need, because they are for a good cause, and they are an amazing creative outlet. I enjoy getting to be creative with the patterns and colors I get to use with these sweaters, as well as with the hats that I knit up. Working on projects that help children in need is really important to me.

Beings that I am working, and don’t have as much time as I did when I was not working to devote to knitting sweaters and hats, I feel like some of these posts are repetitive. I keep writing them because maybe they are interesting to someone, but am on the fence about whether to keep writing them, or put the series on hold and just write about each sweater as I complete them. If you read these blogs and enjoy my weekly updates, please leave me a comment below and let me know if you would like to continue seeing them on a weekly basis. 

Project of the Week

Hey Everyone! 

This past week I have really been working on a personal project. I have been making a knit beanie out of partial skeins of baby yarn that I have. I am using what I have left of a skein of Lion Brand Babysoft Yarn in Pastel Blue, and a skein of Lion Brand Babysoft Yarn in Pastel Pink. My Sweater is still in Progress, and I am looking forward to next weekend and having some more time to work on that project. As for this hat, I am trying to get it done so I can still wear it this winter. 

My hand knitting production has decreased because I am working, and do not have as much time to devote to knitting as I once did. I am thankful for the job though. Knitting projects for kids in need is still where my heart is and attention is when possible. I love it so much. 

 

Starting the New Year off Right

Hey Everyone!

I am back with another project of the week! I have started a size 10 sweater, using a skein of Lion Brand Pound of Love yarn in Lavender. I decided to get another sweater going, so that I have something to pick up and work on when I have the time. I love working on projects that go to children in need, and benefit children in need.

This sweater is going to take me a bit since I don’t have the free time like I used to, but I will hopefully be getting it done by the end of January!

Last Sweater of the Year

Hi Everyone!

This afternoon I completed a size 2 sweater using what I had left of a skein of Lion Brand Pound of Love yarn in Turquoise and a little bit of Red Heart Super Saver yarn in Shocking Pink. I had the turquoise yarn left over from making a christmas gift for a friend, and since I had so much left I decided to make a small sweater. In making a small sweater I also knew I could get it done before the end of the year, which I did. This sweater is the 17th sweater I have knit up this year, bringing my total sweater count from the time I started knitting sweaters to 58.

With this sweater, and the hat for my mom’s coworker’s wife now complete, I can focus on getting some projects for myself, completed. I had set them aside so I could focus on these two projects amid work and everything else I have had going on lately. I am planning on starting more projects for children in need sometime in January.

Wintery Project of the Week

Hey Everyone!

This week’s project of the week is a triangle shawl that I am making out of Fishermen’s Wool in Nature’s Brown. I had been thinking about what I was going to do with this wool, for a couple of months, and then I realized that I had wool hats and wool scarves, but I did not have any wool shawls. Especially with the weather we have been having here for the last couple of weeks, a wool shawl would have been coming in very handy, since it has been below freezing. 

I still have my size two sweater going, I am on the sleeves of the back, and I am also still working on a hat for the wife of one of my mom’s coworker’s who is undergoing chemo. 

While I knit, using a knitting machine for work, I prefer hand knitting, and being able to pick up something and work with my hands, and make something to wear, for myself, or for a good cause. Those who can afford to buy the sweaters from where I work certainly don’t need a knit for kids sweater for their child. My heart is in making the projects for the kids in need, who actually need warm clothes, and being able to create and embellish on the basic pattern that World Vision has put out. 

Project of the Week: Cancer Cap

Hi Everyone!

I have so many projects going on right now, because it is getting close to the end of the year, that there is just so much to do, and it is winter.

This week I will talk a bit about the project I started over the weekend. I know, I know, some of you may be thinking “that girl started ANOTHER project, will she get any of them done?”. Yes I started another project, and yes I will get them all done. The project I started is actually for the wife of one of my mom’s co-workers, who is starting chemo soon, so I want to get the hat I am making for her done pretty soon, that is the main priority right now. I am making a cabled hat, using Lion Brand babysoft yarn in Baby White Pompadour and Pastel Blue. Beings that it is three ply yarn I am knitting it double stranded, the blue and white together. I used size 7 needles for the ribbing, and I am using my bamboo size 9 needles for the stockinette portion of the hat.

There is more to life than just knitting for personal gain or for someone else’s personal gain who can afford to buy the basic necessities and isn’t facing a major health crisis, and is in need of support and comfort. I knit to help children who cannot provide for their own needs, and do not have the same access to warm clothes, food and such that I have had, as well as for those who are facing life and death health issues, and are in need of some extra love, support and comfort. I also knit for friends and family who actually appreciate having a hand knit item, and that receiving something handmade is more valuable than anything they could buy at the store. That is what keeps me knitting, and that is where my roots are, in using something I know how to do to help those in need, and actually appreciate what I know how to do.

Started Another Sweater (Project of the Week)

Hey Everyone! 

This week, in addition to the tube scarf and the infinity scarf that I have on the needles, I started a size two sweater, with some yarn I had left over from the Christmas gift I made for a friend of mine. I have plenty to make a little sweater, to help get the yarn used up, without being inundated with hats of that color. 

I started the sweater on Saturday before I went over to a friends house for a couple nights, so I did not work on any knitting from Saturday afternoon, until after I got home today. I am working on getting this little sweater knit up. I am about half way done with the body. 

Learning to Knit in the Round (Project of the Week)

Hey Everyone!

This week I have been teaching myself how to knit in the round. I figure if I can learn the basics of how to use a knitting machine in about a week, I can learn how to knit in the round.

This past Saturday, I went to the craft store and found some yarn for making socks, and some double pointed needles, and since then I have been learning how to knit in the round while working on my first sock. It is has been interestingly easy, until I got to the gusset, and then I caved and am deciding to wait on doing socks until I am better at knitting in the round. I know I can do it, but given more time, especially given my new job.

Right now I am working on a tube scarf so I can practice knitting in the round, and become more comfortable with the process. I keep trying to learn new things and learn new skills to keep improving on my knitting capabilities.

End of October Knitting Projects

Hi Everyone!

I am back with a new Project of the Week, and a new day for the Project of the Week Series. Beings that for the time being anyway, I don’t work on monday’s I will be doing my Project of the Week posts on Monday’s instead of Wednesdays.

This past week I have been working on hats for kids in need, and an infinity scarf for myself. I have not been getting a lot of work done on the projects during the work week because I have been busy, and friday night I went out of town for a baby shower after I got off of work.

For the baby hats I have been using a skein of Bernat Baby Sport yarn in Candy, and for the infinity scarf I am using Lion Brand Jiffy Yarn in True Red. For the infinity scarf I am also using the moss stitch to give it some texture, and I am knitting it with size 11 needles.