Knitting Part Two: The Beauty of Creating Stuff

I'm happy to report that over the weekend, I finished my first ever knitting project ::and the crowd goes wild:: Considering I did most of my heavy lifting knitting once a week, I'd say I flew through this project! It was fun to watch my skills progress. Or stressful. Or a little bit a of both. The faster you go, the easier it is to miscount, drop a stitch or have to start all over (luckily I was not in THAT boat). 

I won't keep you in suspense for too long. That's just mean. Without further ado, the hat: 

Who wouldn't model their hat at sunset? 

Amazing isn't it?! It even has a cute pom-pom on top to finish it off. Of course there are things I need to tweak as I continue on this knitting journey, but I would call this a definite success. The nice thing about this pattern is that it didn't require me switching the size of the needles or adding anything tricky (or at least trickier than learning to knit, purl, decrease and increase...easy peasey right?) 

What I've really loved about knitting is the peace that comes with it. Sure, there are stressful times when you are trying to figure out the next set of rules or a new pattern you haven't worked with before, but it's such a gift to be able to create something with your own two hands. And  it's something that can be done on a long commute on a bus, or while you're waiting for your in-laws to stop discussing the last hand in cards (seriously, this is a ten-minute reality for me). And when you've finished, you have a new piece of work than can bring joy to you or others around you. 

What's Next? 

I have 10 two projects that I'm wanting to work on, and I might be biting off more than I can chew. The first project is Christmas Stockings. You must be thinking "aren't we past that season?" but all i'm thinking is that I have basically a whole year to figure these out. Because believe me, I picked a doozy of a pattern. It's no joke. It's a fair isle pattern (which is using colors to create patterns in your knitting, for the non-knitter speak... I just googled it. hah.) so yes. I'm jumping from this simple hat to a patterned stocking with not one, not two, but THREE different colors. And a pom-pom. But that's the fun part. 

Project two will be my break from project one, when I feel like giving up on knitting because patterns and colors are just too too much. I wanted to make a hat for my husband. Something he would really enjoy and use all the time. He even came to pick out the yarn I would use for it! He's very particular about styles and colors and textures, so this worked out perfectly. While he hasn't picked out a pattern yet, we did pick the softest merino wool/alpaca yarn we could find. It's unreal! 

Two projects at once, again, might be a bit much, but i'm excited to take it on. I'm really not holding back on this knitting thing. Let's make knitting great again!! (too soon?)

For the Knitters Out There

In case there are people out there wondering where I found such awesome patterns, let me tell you: Ravelry.com. My friend tells me it's basically Facebook for the knitting world. Well hey, I like me some Facebook, so I'm all about this new site. But truly friends, there are hundreds of projects and patterns and things to work on. They help you sort out what you're looking for by project names, yarn, needle sizes and the list goes on. I highly recommend it. AND a lot of the patterns are either are reasonably priced or completely free! 

If anyone has some of their latest projects to show off, please share! I'm interested to see all the secret knitters out there and the secret projects they work on. It'll probably inspire me to knit even more! This addiction might need it's own room, guess I'll just go buy a house then. ;) 

This is more about the boots and the expression than the hat, but this photo is perfection to me.
And show the hat off nicely.

Love Always, 
A