So close!

I'm very nearly finished the sweater I've been working on. I don't want to post pictures of the finished product here, since I'm planning on keeping the big reveal for my TED Talk. But here's the deconstructed sweater:

From left to right: beginnings of the second sleeve, first sleeve, front of sweater, back of sweater. The reason the edges are wavy is because it was knitted in stockinette, which tends to curl under. To stop it from curling under, you're supposed to "block" it, which means soaking it in water and then pinning it into the shape you want it to stay in. The process sort of scares me a little, since I don't want to ruin all my hard work by just dumping it in the bathtub, so I'm not sure if I'm actually going to do it. The pattern I'm using doesn't say anything about blocking, so I don't think I'll bother. When I sew it up it'll stay in place anyway.

Earlier this week, I took a little break from working on that in order to make this fingerless glove! I'm really proud of it and I love that it turned out the way I wanted it to.

Unfortunately, I only have this one glove done. It wasn't very hard to make, so I might have enough time to finish the second one before the TED Talk. This was mostly a side project, anyway, to practice knitting in the round. Which I love. It seems complicated and overwhelming at first, but once you get the hang of it it's just like knitting on regular needles. I actually prefer this when it comes to gloves, since you don't have to sew it up at the end, and sewing is really hard. I'm getting better at it though!

Making this required quite a bit of sewing in order to close the holes that were at the top and bottom and to get the leaf attached.

This was actually more of a side project than the gloves. It also used double pointed needles, and I learned something called i-cord to make the stem. It was really fun to make and it's so cute! I'm worried that the leaf is going to fall off since I'm not very good at sewing, so I'll probably get some help from my mom to get it more secure. Right now my idea of sewing is taking the thread and just looping it around a lot until it seems like it won't come unraveled too easily. I'll have to look up how sewing actually works. 

Until then, I'll keep knitting!

comments comments comments

I've commented on these blogs!

http://crochetnotcra-che-t.blogspot.com/2013/03/prince-charming.html?showComment=1363734637644#c8024145240302516970

http://aripianoprodigy.blogspot.com/2013/03/back-to-bass-ics.html?showComment=1363734777046#c2101228474849126435

http://aslin7weeks.blogspot.com/2013/03/video-time.html?showComment=1363735435347#c2506657779650745623

Vlog!

This is my vlog, where I talk about why I love knitting!


Genius Project Vlog from Jessica S on Vimeo.

I keep saying I'm really close to finishing things. This time I swear it's true. Probably. Here's a picture for proof:

I know I'm close to being done, it's just a question of when I'll find the time to actually finish it. That picture is of the finished front of the sweater, and the work-in-progress back. I only have a few inches left, which shouldn't take long at all. (I have season 2 of New Girl to catch up on, so by multitasking with that, it'll get done in no time.) Then I need to make the sleeves, which are about one third the size of the front piece.

I'm still working on the fingerless gloves. The trouble is that I keep ripping out what I've got and starting over. It's really tough to work with double pointed needles, especially when you've got four of them in your hands at once. I think what's mainly tripping me up is the ribbing and the fact that I have to switch from knitting to purling and back every two stitches. I'm used to working pretty quickly on regular needles, so probably if I just slow down and take my time with the double-pointed ones I won't make as many mistakes.

I thought I'd take a walk down memory lane and look at the second knitting project I ever did. They were fingerless gloves, except instead of using DPNs, it was knit flat and then sewn together.

Don't ask how I took that picture without the use of my hands. Anyway, Do you see the rows that stick up from the regular knitting? That happened because when I first started, I didn't know which side of the work was the "wrong side" and which was the "right side". Wrong and right refer to which side is supposed to face out when you're wearing it. I knew I was supposed to purl on the wrong side, and knit on the right. The only way to keep track of that without counting each row, though, was to be able to recognize the difference between the sides. Now I can do that! It's ridiculously easy, actually, but at the time it was a concept that went way over my head. Another issue with these gloves is that the one on the right is bigger than the other. Also (although you can't see this in the picture), the garter stitch at the bottom doesn't go all the way around for one of them. 

But I'm glad I can recognize my own mistakes! It means I'm learning, which is great. I'm really excited to get these two projects finished (which will probably happen over spring break), and start practicing for my TED Talk!

Readings:
Knitting Over the Edge, a pattern book filled with cool ideas for making borders on your projects.
This, to figure out how to knit in the round.
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Knitting, whose title doesn't describe me at all and which I used to understanding both knitting in the round and cabling a little more.

Blogs!

I commented on these blogs this week:

http://aripianoprodigy.blogspot.com/2013/03/some-major-progress.html?showComment=1363121301764#c8298738729450887569

http://karaspicture.blogspot.com/2013/03/this-weekend.html?showComment=1362763324984#c1134288879768023364

http://wissahickoncompliments.blogspot.com/2013/03/bumpy-roads.html?showComment=1362762940835#c875690634067045769

I've made lots of progress, although the sweater isn't quite finished. Maybe by this weekend? We'll see.

I've begun knitting in the round with double pointed needles, which lets you knit things that are tubes, like socks or gloves. It's easier than I expected, honestly. It looks really complicated, and although it's a few too many needles to handle sometimes, it's a lot better than knitting everything in pieces and then sewing it up afterwards. I'm planning on making some fingerless gloves as a practical way to test this skill.

I don't really like the patterns I've found for gloves so far, and besides, following a pattern can get tedious sometimes. So I think I'll just try to do it without a pattern, which should be easy enough. It's just  some ribbing for the first few rows and then stockinette or whatever other kind of stitch I want for the rest of it. So far I've stuck pretty strictly to patterns while knitting, so I hope all goes well.

I've been neglecting crochet a little this week. I'm considering dropping that part of my project. I'm having more fun getting deeper into knitting than scraping the surface of crochet. All I've done with crochet so far is a practice swatch with a few different stitches and the beginnings of a little toy octopus. (Similar to Becca H's but smaller.) So unless I get a sudden burst of inspiration towards crochet, I'll be focusing more on knitting.

Sunday, I went to the library to find some books on knitting so I could work on the reading portion of the project. I found a really nice one called "Zen and the Art of Knitting", which is about how knitting is a meditative process. The author talked to lots of different people about their experiences with it. It's an interesting read. A good quote from the beginning was:

"If the finished piece were the sole aim, one would purchase a mass-produced garment at a local mall for a fraction of the cost and time required to make a sweater. The true joy comes from discovering the individual beauty of each segment, the feeling of accomplishment when completing a particularly difficult section, and the sense of challenge that lurks as you plan the next project."

I definitely feel that way while knitting. It's an exciting process, although it may not look that way to an outsider. It's an interesting challenge that's very different from the ones normally encountered in real life, and I enjoy it immensely.

Blogs!

I commented on these blogs this week:
http://aripianoprodigy.blogspot.com/2013/03/my-key-to-success.html?showComment=1362194974871#c3760810625018933494

http://crochetnotcra-che-t.blogspot.com/2013/02/ive-been-working-quite-bit-so-far-this.html?showComment=1361813992795#c7553882781004339504

http://sebastianm-gifted-genius-project.blogspot.com/2013/02/making-headway.html?showComment=1362194542683#c2093791986196929901

When I first learned to knit, I decided immediately that a sweater would be a cool thing to make. (Actually, if I'm honest, that wasn't an immediate decision. First I made some handwarmers.) So I found a nice, simple sweater pattern that basically just told me to make rectangles in stockinette stitch and sew them together when I was finished.

Easy? Yes.
Quick? No.

Somehow I had the patience to finish the front piece of the sweater (about 15 inches long), but when I started on the back piece, I only got about three inches before stopping. It was sort of daunting, the idea that I would have to keep going at a pace of about three minutes per 90 stitch row for about a billion more rows. (More accurately, about _____ rows.) I'd already finished the first half, there was no reason why I should stop. But I did, and every so often my mom would come into my room, pick up the four inches of yarn still on the needle, and ask, "Why'd you stop? This'll be great when it's finished." And I agree, it will be great.

Because I've started it up again. After struggling for an hour to get three rows of the star stitch, it was nice to switch to knitting a couple of inches in stockinette stitch while watching a documentary about Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie (who are possibly my favorite comedy duo of all time.) My friend Joanna has been asking me to make her a sweater for a while now, and I keep telling her it'll be finished soon. I tried to make her a really fancy cabled sweater, but mistakes would come up again and again, and I just gave up. (This happened before the project started, so it's not an "official" setback. I am still technically un-setbacked.) That's part of the reason one of the things I wanted to practice cabling, so I could do it more easily in the future.

So Joanna makes sure to Skype me every few days with just the message "SWEATER" and I have to update her on the progress, which is usually disappointing. I feel bad that it's not getting finished, so I've set out on a mission right now to finish this half a sweater I've already got, and give it to her. Hopefully she'll get it when it's still actually cold out. This is good intrinsic motivation, I think, and she doesn't even realize she's doing it. But still, I promised her I'd make a sweater, and now I feel the need to follow up on that promise.

Now, back to the star stitch which I briefly talked about earlier. I'm making a scarf using it, and I initially cast on thinking "Oh, this seems easy enough." Not quite. The stitches get incredibly tight, and I find myself having to pick the stitches away from the needle and pulling them over, instead of them sliding off on their own. I'm trying to knit as loosely as I can to make it easier, but it somehow tightens back up anyway. The pattern recommends using bigger needles than usual to keep the stitches big and easy to work with, but I'm already using my biggest pair. I really want to make this scarf, though, so I'll keep trying.

We'll see how it goes!