knitting – Kween's Krafts

I have been on a bit of a break from writing lately. My attention has been diverted to learning new things.

I’ve been reading… a lot!

I love to read and usually I read fantasy, historical fiction or sci-fi, but lately I’ve been reading for a purpose. The best way I can describe my recent state is that I was parched, wandering through a scorched desert of the known knowledge, and happened upon a crystal clear oasis of learning, wherein I gorged myself on new information and imbibed more skilled techniques.

Basically, I was roped in by a sale on books on a website that is geared toward crafty people. I splurged on myself and spent $20, but what I received were invaluable teachings for my favorite craft, knitting. I learned how to customize socks, all about different yarn fibers, how to knit lace, and the art of the top-down sweater. But I couldn’t just stop there.

I found an awesome book all about all natural soap-making, that went into details about different soap bases, how and when to use essential oils and fresh additives like herbs, flowers, and fruit.

This explosion of information took me on a natural progression from learning, to gathering. I began gathering the necessary supplies to make my first batch of soap, and gathering more yarn in the proper weights and fibers for new projects. Soon I had a schedule going of how I would spend my days, which days were for soap-making, trying to decide what kind of soap, what scent and/or properties it should have, and which days were for knitting, what types of projects, and which fibers I wanted to start with.

And then I reached a very critical moment, when my brain stopped whirling and my soul felt at peace. It was transformational, a real pivotal, enlightened moment.

And in that moment I realized I had forgotten to allot time for writing.

I know myself and I know that not taking time for writing is the quickest way to lose steam for a project. It’s easy to dream up ideas and plan out actions, but actions themselves are difficult. They take a level of focus that is hard for me to achieve at times.

Simply put, I procrastinate. I am the kween of starting tasks, but the court jester of completion. Without real deadlines, I find myself drifting between half-finished projects, in a daze of “what could be”. Listlessly flitting from one project to another, and never making much progress.

So, in an effort to combat this poor behavior I am holding myself accountable with this blog. I am tasking myself to start and finish 1 project a month. I need not finish the same project I start in that month, as many projects take months to complete, but I must start at least 1 and finish 1 each month.

July has been a wonderful month! I managed to start 3 knitting projects and I finished 2 of them before the end of the month. I made my first ever real pair of socks, that actually fit! Two of the books I bought were about sock knitting so I read up on fit and gauging and found out why all the socks I’ve knitted before never fit my feet. It turns out my feet are long a narrow and no sock pattern will fit me perfectly without some alterations.

Kween's Socks

These socks are knitted using Haute Knit Yarns Jimmy Sock in the colorway Teal Haute Rainbow, if you haven’t heard of them check out their Etsy shop. Super scrumptious yard! I used Lauren Slagle’s pattern Lolo’s Short Row Socks and I absolutely fell in love with short rows while making these socks!

My 2nd completed project has been great on many levels. In my never ending quest to support makers I reached out to another indie dyer who needed a sample made from her yarn to showcase the gorgeous new colorway. She offered a free skein of yarn, so of course I could not resist. I also wanted to see how the colorway would look all knitted up. Let’s just say I was not disappointed!

Sunshine Shawl

This shall measures about 55 inches long and I only used 1 skein of yarn! The colorway is Whatever, I’m a Mermaid and it’s full of lovely shades of blue and purple with just a hint of green and pink throughout to give it depth. Scarlett at Sunshine Dyeworks did a fantastic job and I hope she will be as happy with her shawl as I was when I finally saw it finished.

The other project I started is a custom blanket requested by 2 people I adore. I am hard at work on the pattern as I have to custom make it to get the right look. Here’s a peek at the test knit I am working on for it.

Mermaid Blanket - Progress 100 rows

If that pattern looks familiar then you have read my other blogs and I thank you! 😉

I hope I have inspired you to finish some projects, or perhaps start something new. I wish you all a wonderful end of July, and a very creative August!

As a knitter of many years, there are times when doing the same thing is more detrimental to my goals than I realize. Sometimes the only thing to do is change it up.

Sample Eyelet Baby Blanket I have a favorite baby blanket pattern. I have knit the same pattern in different colors, sizes and with different twists. My recent favorite was for an awesome friend who likes colorful and unique things, so her blanket got a bunch of different colored stripes in variegated sizes! I still love the pattern and find it’s classic beauty just wonderful. I also like that it has eyelets because babies are notoriously warm and no one wants to give a baby heatstroke while they sleep.

So when I found out another friend was pregnant I knew I had to make a baby blanket for her. For this one I wanted the blanket to have more earth tones, but to still be vibrant for their baby girl. I spent a lot of time searching for the perfect yarn for this project. I knew I wanted it to be cotton, so they could easily wash it when it got messy. I also knew that the yarn needed to have lots of greens. I was so focused on the yarn, that I just assumed I would make the blanket, the pattern was never in question.

I was so happy starting the project. I cast on and my needles were flying. About 4 inches into the first blanket, I realized I made a mistake when altering the pattern for the finished size I wanted. I had 2 stitches too few. Oh well, no big deal. I just pulled it all out and started anew with the correct number of stitches cast on this time.

I made it to about 3 inches this time when I realized I messed up again. I took out 2 rows, but still could not find the mistake. I pulled out another row and a half, sure that I could fix it and be back on my happy road to completion. No such luck, I was at a loss. Not only could I not find the mistake, but when I tried to knit the pattern I kept making the same mistakes.

About 2 hours later, I was ready to set the small blanket start on fire. Nothing I did was making a difference and I was wondering if I had completely lost the skill needed to knit anything. The pattern is very easy, a simple yarn over eyelet on a basic stockinette stitch, how could it possibly be this hard?!

I decided to try a different pattern, something still easy, but different from what I as using. I pulled out an old pattern book that I’ve had for over a decade and browsed the patterns, looking for a pattern that had holes for air flow, but wasn’t too crazy. Something that would be timeless and fun. I decided on this Chalice pattern.

Chalice Pattern Start

The new pattern challenged me. It was new and I had to pay attention to my needles and the pattern. And as I worked the blanket I found I liked the subtle texture that it gave the blanket. Working with the yarn I was unsure how the variegation would look in the pattern, but the more of the blanket I knitted, the more I liked everything about it. And the more I liked it, the faster my needles flew through the rows.

I realized 1 very important thing, just because you have done something a certain way with great success for a long time, doesn’t mean that nothing needs to change. Change is not necessarily scary or something you do because you have to. It can also be an opportunity, an opportunity to learn, and to grow. To challenge yourself to be better than you were before.

You never know what you can accomplish if you don’t push yourself outside of your comfort zone every now and then.

Change can be frightening, and the temptation is often to resist it. But change almost always provides opportunities – to learn new things, to rethink tired processes, and to improve the way we work. – Klaus Schwab

This is the blanket at about 75% completion
Chalice Baby Blanket

Category: knitting

New Endeavours

Changing It Up