My warped reality

I just completed another square - the Reverse Stocking Stitch Ridge Square:


I must be living in a whole different world, because when I finished it, it looked great! The square is actually square, and flat and straight and it feels wonderfully stretchy: (this is me stretching it)


...but when I saw the pictures, it looked like a really boring and wonky square. If the camera doesn't lie, then I must be seeing my knitting through rose-coloured...eyes. I don't wear glasses. I could only take three pictures, because my camera batteries died, but I think I will try again, once I have some battery power, and daylight. I'll also block the other squares that I haven't gotten round to, so that they will all look neat and square-like. I'll do my squares proud, I will!

The mustard is growing on me

While I appreciate the beauty in all colours, there are a few that really disagree with me. I don't think anyone should wear orange, and yet they do. I like orange on pumpkins, flowers, sunsets. Just not on clothing. Look, in some instances, it looks good. A fellow knitter on KnittingHelp made some Halloween hats for her children, they were mostly black with some orange accents. She chose a pretty orange and it looked really good. But for the most part, I tend to stay away from that side of the colour spectrum.

I can't wear yellow, although I think it's a lovely colour. It makes me look ill.

The yarn I got with The Art of Knitting for the next square I made, chose to combine a touch of orange with yellow to get MUSTARD. Initially I disliked it a lot, but I have to say, now that I've knitted the square, it's really grown on me. Looking at the yarn that is left over, I would even go as far as saying it's quite pretty. I still couldn't wear that colour though. Probably.

Reverse Stocking Stitch and Star square:

Another Throw Square

Seed Stitch Square:


This was a very quick knit, even though I had to frog three or four rows, because I was paying more attention to the tv. I noticed, even while knitting it, that the pattern isn't very obvious, especially in the light pink colour. I hoped it would be clearer once done, but it's still not very easy to spot. I haven't blocked it yet, I'll do that tomorrow. I just pinned it to a cushion to take a photo. I couldn't find enough pins, so I used needles, including a darning needle. That's why the whole thing looks terribly skew. This square rolls up more than any other square I've done, I hope I can curb that with some steam tomorrow.

The First Square

Here it is, finally:
The square has been done for ages now, but I never finished the embroidered heart on it. I started, but left it after a couple of stitches and it has been bugging me ever since. This is the first square you get to knit in The Art of Knitting, and will join all the others, eventually, to become this throw:


I'm going to go knit the next square now. Thank goodness this one is done! It's really been weighing heavily on my mind. Dear Carlien did hers a long time ago and we agreed that her heart resembled an apple a bit more than a heart, so I was nervous about doing mine. I marked it out with basting stitches first, and then blanket stitched along the lines. It's still not perfect, but heck, it's close enough!

The Industrial Revolution was bound to happen.

I realised, while knitting row after row for the bottom of my cushion, that knitting machines are a good thing. Smart thing. But while allowing a machine to do the work would have had me resting my feet on a cushion a week ago, this slow-moving hand-knitting offers other pleasures.


I enjoy sewing my own clothes and knitting takes this one step further - I am making my own fabric. To see the neat and even fabric I'm creating so tediously by forming intricate loops - well, it's damn satisfying! It's also relaxing, doing something at a slower pace. And I don't feel as though I am wasting time when I watch tv, because I'm doing two things at once. Hand-made looks and feels different. As neat as my work is, it's still obviously not machine-made. And I like it. It looks cosy and feels, to my biased hand, better than machine knitting.

Not many people take the time nowadays to create things from scratch. We buy ready-made pastry and sauces in packets and hobby kits with pre-cut bits that you only have to glue or sew together and decorate. I'm probably going to cause some jaws to drop if I tell people that I made the whole thing by myself. With two pointy sticks. And some blue string.

And then there were two

I completed the second side-panel of the floor cushion. I'm bored with knitting the long bits now, I think I will now attempt the bottom.



My fingers are used to hours of typing or even better, hours of mashing buttons on the PlayStation, but this is a whole new kind of pain. I experienced soreness and stiffness for the first time today and the fact that it is winter and cold doesn't help at all. I feel quite pleased with my dedication, as illustrated by the fact that I knitted through the pain!

Apparently we should expect bucketloads of rain this weekend, starting tomorrow. Guess I'll stay in and knit, then.

One panel done

I finished the first panel of my floor cushion, mostly while watching Heroes. And my friend Carlien, once a mocker of knitters, has purchased chunky needles and is knitting a scarf. I'm so proud! I've recruited someone! We're well on our way to becoming Perfect Grannies. All grannies should knit, or at least be able to, as far as I'm concerned. And bake yummy crunchies with oatmeal!


On the photo it looks like the one end is considerably wider than the other, but I just checked it again and it's fine. Weird. I'll get started on number 2 now.

Harry Potter down, floor cushion to go.

My weekend has gone by in a blur. I finished knitting the square for my blanket this weekend, I just have to embroider a heart on it now. I include a picture of the corner of the square - I have started the embroidery and didn't want to capture a couple of stitches that don't form anything yet.


I started reading the last Harry Potter book early this morning, around 4 or 5 in the morning! It was excellent, although I am sad to see the last of Harry. With that out of the way, I can get back to knitting. I shall start on the floor cushion today and I hope to have it completed within two to three weeks. I have no idea how long it will take to knit nine 50g balls of yarn into something useful, so I hope that is a reasonable goal.

During the knitting of my square, the first thing I have knitted since junior school, I had a question. I searched for the answer online and apparently it was such a stupid question, almost no one had thought to answer it. I did find my answer, though, so I will repeat it here. I wanted to know how to count knitted rows. Not how to keep track, but what actually constituted a row. The answer is to count the ridges on the knitting and multiply that number by two. If you stretch your knitting out a bit, you will see ridges and indented rows (these form ridges on the wrong side of the knitting). Now I know.

Calm down, all is well

Oh thank goodness, my magically tranforming yarn has stopped acting up. Maybe I was too tired last night, or hallucinating, because without changing my technique, my knitting is suddenly fine again. What a relief.

Maybe I really should blame it on the cats - last night I was knitting with two cats on my lap, tonight there was only one. I have to add that these cats aren't mine. I am not a crazy knitting cat lady. But give me a couple of years.

What I've learnt: Avoid pretty plum-coloured yarn

I have two balls of nearly identical yarn. They are small (10g) balls, one is cream and one is plum. Apart from the colour, they are identical.

I knitted a tension swatch with the cream, so as to not handle the plum too much. The cream knitting came out beautifully. When I attempted to knit with the plum, it resulted in an unholy mess. (By the way, my tension was almost perfect, my rows were spot on target, 32 rows in 10cm, and my stitches were just a little too loose - I was quite chuffed with myself.)

Time and time again my plum knitting looks, for lack of a better word, holey. I tried three times and finally gave up. I will try again later tonight, and if it doesn't look better this time, I will use other yarn. It can't be me. My cream swatch was fine, neat and delicate and stretchy and soft. I'm using the same needles. I'm going to knit past any holes and ignore the whole thing if it looks like a lace doily. And blame a cat.

Day One - Got My Supplies

Yesterday I saw a knitted floor cushion in a magazine. The article included the pattern and since it fit on one page, I figured "this must be easy". I decided to knit it.

I don't knit.

Last night I downloaded several how-to video clips and registered on the knittinghelp forum. I introduced myself so that I couldn't back out today and pretend nothing ever happened.

Today I went to the best knitting supplies store in Port Elizabeth - Little Angel. I purchased the ten balls of yarn the pattern requires, two pairs of 5 mm knitting needles in two different lengths, a darning needle, a measuring tape and a small pair of scissors.

I was itching to give it a go, but had to go watch a movie with my sister and a friend. While we were waiting for the movie to start, I decided to go to CNA, a newsagent, to see if the latest Burda was out yet. Burda is a sewing magazine with clothing patterns. The first thing we saw when we entered the store was one of those monthly "learn to" magazines, that always comes with free stuff. You know the kind, they start off being almost free, and in fine print they state the regular price. This series is called 'The Art of Knitting' and the first issue cost R9,95. A milkshake costs more than that. You also get a pair of knitting needles (in a size I didn't have yet!) and two small balls of yarn. Oh, and a DVD with some basic instructions.

I had told my friend, Carlien, about my desire to take up knitting, and so we laughed when we saw this knitting magazine - what a coincidence! I found my Burda, took it to the cash register and saw Carlien moving towards the queue with this massive cardboard square, containing the knitting magazine, needles, DVD and balls of yarn. She's buying it, she said. Now, I'm a cheapskate. I can learn how to knit for free, online. I can get my patterns for free, online. But R9,95 is practically free and I'm nothing if not dedicated, so I bought it too.

Tonight I got home, took out the needles, watched the DVD and started knitting with the practice yarn. I have to make it clear that I am not a complete stranger to knitting. I was taught how to knit at school - I just never took a shine to it. But this is different. I want that pretty floor cushion! I soon had my stitches on and off I went. Easy. I also really like the magazine and the patterns in it, so I've decided to continue buying it.

I will start on the cushion tomorrow. Right now I am not even going to redesign the look of this blog - I have a square to knit! I want to practice keeping an even tension before I start on the large piece. The squares will end up as a knitted blanket made up out of 90 squares.

So far, day one = good.