Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. ~ The Dalai Lama

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

the true EVILness of first-time socks.....



So I have been searching all over the place for Toronto knitting blogs (to find knitting circles) and came upon a few really fabulous sites and even more interestingly (is that a real word?) web rings to a whole lot of amazing Toronto based knitters. Now to those of us who are much less blog savvy like moi, this was perplexing and peaked my feline like curiosity.

Kind of like me and first attempt at socks - see above for a picture. I figured that since I was able to knit my first nordic mitt (see below)- yes mitt not mitten that I could likely knit a sock or socks.


So I tried my first sock with a ball of Austermann Step wool with jojoba :) as you saw above and got realtively happily along until I hit the portion of the pattern ( a lovlely free Patons basic sock pattern)where you have to shape the heel. I think I have eluded that I am a newish knitter, but to be honest I thought I had come along enough to knit a sock. After seeing the beautiful way the sock should look from the Austermann website I realize I have a long way to go. :( So I have frogged this stupid heel numerous times to try and get it right and finally am now on my way to knitting the proper looking sock. I will continue to update as I hopefully get closer to the finish line and even more hopefully get closer to the ideal sock. Wish me luck!



P.s. Thanks to the Stephanie Pearl-McPhee for a)using the term frog/frogged and making me curious enough to figure it out; b) writing such an easy to read and engaging blog and c)after I sent my first ever blog comment she sent a thank you email. :) Knitters are polite.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Yippee! It's done, it's done!!!!!

OK so I don't think I could be much more excited, I finally finished my knitting guru Meredith holiday gift - yes I know very late, but that's what happens when you have to rip apart 90 rows of the body and re-start - ARG!

However, here are some pics from the fruits of my many many many long days of labour. -



And yes, I know I have some colour pooling, but this is a) my first major knitting project and b) my first felting project and to be honest I am rather proud of myself. :) This handbag was done in Canadiana 100% wool and was a blacksheep design - although I did not do it justice.

The fortunate or unfortunate part was that Meredith the sweetheart that she is also knit me something. Not just anything, but the most beautiful and fabulous chocolate brown and pink mohair swirly scarf - see below being modeled by my super cute dog Java. I have been wearing everyday since as the weather has gotten freezing cold and get complements daily. I am not so sure Meredith will be getting complements on my handbag - but hopefully she know it was made with love and many torturous hours of knitting and re-knitting and re-knitting. :)