Lightening Online

For those of you who read Rhonda Jeans Down to Earth blog, you’ll be familiar with the fact that from time to time she organises swaps amongst her readers. I’ve watched these from a distance so far and often it’s gotten to the end of the swap and I’ve wondered *why* I didn’t have more faith in myself and taken the punt and signed up for a swap partner.

In fact, it was her very first swap of knitted dishcloths that got me knitting with needles in the first place. I didn’t sign up (because I didn’t believe I could knit) but watching others share their creations prompted me to give it a go and by the end of the swap I was wishing I had joined in.

The next couple of swaps she did were napkins and aprons which were definitely beyond my sewing abilities (which doesn’t say much for my sewing abilities does it? ).

This time, she has hosted a swap for tea cosies. Not only that but she provided some links to patterns. I decided it was time I bit the bullet and signed up. Once signed up, there was no going back and I HAD to make myself a tea cosy (well, not for me but you know what I mean….don’t you?)

Well…..it seemed like a good idea at the time!!!

In eagerness, I printed off the pattern. It said “size 6 needles”. Hmmm….I have size 4 and size 4 1/2. No size 6 needles. Will that matter? Can I just knit on my 4 1/2’s. What’s 1.5 in the grand scheme of things????

Alrighty, next step. Wool. Oh, I guess I’m going to need some of that. But I don’t live near shops. Doh!!! Why didn’t I think of that before.

Well, I have some wool. But that means I can’t give my partner a choice of colours. Does that make me a bad swap partner????

Alright, let’s just bite the bullet and use the needles I have and the wool I have and start knitting… and unravelling…..and knitting…..and unravelling. We’re not really off to a flying start here.

The swap partners are announced. I feel REALLY bad for the person who has ended up getting me for a swap partner. We’re supposed to get in contact with each other. I can’t contact my partner. I feel too embarrassed. I feel terrible. WHY did I say I could do this? Am I insane?

Oh yeah, and one tiny little other thing. Your tea cosy should be for a 6-8 cup pot. Okay. Quick glance at the pattern suggested. It says for 4-6 cups. So now I have needles that are too small AND a pattern that is too small!!!!

All to knit my first EVER tea cosy!!!! This aint going quite how I was hoping….

DEEP BREATH. Just start knitting. There’s HEAPS of time. Just add in a few stitches here and a few rows there and see how it looks at the end. If it’s no good, you can start again. You have PLENTY of time.

Famous last words thoughts. Thursday 7th February rolls around. Madly start stitching the thing together. It’s supposed to be in the mail by Friday 8th February. What am I going to do if it’s no good? Can’t think about that now. Just stitch it together.

There! Done! Does that look enough like a tea cosy to pass? Dunno….what does a tea cosy look like?

Try it on a pot. What pot? I don’t have a tea pot. Yet. I have a sort of tea pot. Not shaped the same but you do make tea in it. Where is it? Haven’t used it in like 10 years. Do we still have it?

Oh, yeah, here it is. Slip the cosy on. Doesn’t really fit. This teapot has no spout. It’s more like a tea jug. And it holds about 4 cups. Maybe.

Fingers crossed. Doesn’t look *awful* so hoping it’ll be alright.

Final touches. Add the words tea to one side. Make it a little more “fancy”. Kind of. Looks nice. Letters are even. I’m happy.

DISASTER!!!! The Bomb comes out of the office with sparkly purple stuff all over his fingers and a sad look on his face. “I touched your thing”, he wails. Heart in my throat. Don’t want to look.

I think it’s ruined. Trying not to cry. Console the 4 year old who is devastated. He can see that he’s wrecked mummy’s “thing”. Try to tell him it will be alright while inside I’m screaming “it’s ruined”. Now what am I supposed to do? It’s supposed to go in the mail TODAY!!!

Farmboy to the rescue. Scrapes the fabric paint off with a knife. I can touch it up. It doesn’t look as neat and even as it did before. The perfectionist in me wants to cry. Can I still send this to a total stranger? I don’t know if it’s the right shape or size and NOW the lettering is slightly smudged.

I hope she’ll understand. It’s made with love. It should keep the teapot warm. It has the imperfections to prove it was made with loving hands and not some distant machine. Does that count for something?

Anyway…. here it is. Please ooh and ahhh and tell me it looks great. Or not.

I’m really sorry Cate. Hopefully next time you get a REAL swap partner and not just a wannabee. And I REALLY hope you like it and don’t just feel like you should pretend, just to be nice to me and all…

Do you want to learn how to start knitting?   If you are looking for the best how to site on the internet, we can help.  Whether you are looking to learn how to start a business or you want to learn how to paint furniture, the internet has all of your answers!

I have finally finished off a few of the projects I’ve had on the go recently.  AND I have managed, with some help from both Snoskred and Meg (thank you both) to get some pictures into this post that don’t resemble the plant from “Little Shop of Horrors”.  Remember that plant that grew so big it took over the shop?  Wel, that’s what my photo’s were doing to my blog!!!!  Aaaaaarrrrrhhhhhh…..  But I think we’re on the right track now.  Phew!  If you’d like to see a larger version of the photo, simply click on it and it will take you to a page where the photo is a little bit easier to see without the aid of a magnifying glass. 

The first one is the felted bags I made for my nieces with the knifty knitter.  I have now completely finished them including purchasing their contents.  Now to wrap them and send them off in time for Christmas.

Each bag contains:

1.  a new handkerchief
2. foldable brush with mirror
3. notepad
4. barbie gel pen
5. bracelet
6.  lip gloss
7. large packet of lifesavers

Hopefully a good mix of practical and fun things.  I hope my nieces get as much fun from them as I have had making them! 

This one is my first EVER knitting needle project that isn’t a basic square or rectangle!

I’ve done a few dishcloths using the needles and found some wool and a pattern book for dolls clothes in the op shop so I had a go at this project.  I have to admit I’m VERY happy with how it has turned out.  It’s amazing the things we can learn to do when we just have enough faith in ourselves to give it a try. 

Hopefully DD will really enjoy getting this for Christmas, knowing that I made it especially for her.  I had planned to knit a couple of outfits but underestimated how many hours it would take knitting on such thin needles as I did with this project.  There are a LOT of hours in this little dress.  But also a lot of LOVE. 

I was quite excited recently to spot this green, red and white variegated cotton in Spotlight. I hadn’t planned on knitting any dishcloths just yet (as I have plenty) but the idea of washing dishes with a CHRISTMAS dishcloth really appealed to me. LOL. Here’s a photo of my first attempt. I’ve used the same pattern as I used for the facewasher I made although this one is bigger (I cast on 60 stitches instead of 45).

I also thought they would make good gifts that aren’t gifts if you know what I mean. When you want to give someone something without making too much fuss. Being so small and light they should post well too. I’m hoping they’ll have some more the next time I get near a Spotlight (doesn’t happen all that often) as I only bought the 1 ball to experiment with.

Thanks to Rhonda at Down to Earth, I found this website with lots of different dishcloth patterns on it. So now I’m having fun experimenting with various designs. They even have a rating so you can choose patterns that are easier or more difficult depending on your skill level. Naturally I started with a level 1.

This one has knitted up quite a bit smaller, although it seems to have a fair bit of stretch in it. It’s certainly a forgiving pattern for mistakes though. LOL. It’s basically 2 rows of straight knitting, followed by 2 rows of knit 1, purl 1 (except you start and finish each row with knit 2).

So if I disappear from blogland - you’ll know I’ve gotten completely hooked and can’t tear myself away from my knitting. LOL. I still can’t believe I’m even doing it, let alone enjoying it this much.

…unravel it and start knitting again. LOL. Some of you may have guessed from one of my recent posts that I’ve been doing a bit of unravelling when it comes to my knitting attempts. I thought it would be good to at least master 1 dishcloth with my knitting needles. I’m sure you need at least 3 hands to co-ordinate those things. LOL. I will admit that co-ordination did become easier as the project progressed (is this because the knitting helped hold the needles together?).

When I came across this blog post, I decided it was time to do away with perfectionism and just get on with getting it done. Not because of any deadline but because I could see myself reknitting the first few rows 100 times and never finishing.

So here is the finished product. If you’re a knitter I’m sure you’ll spot the mistakes. I had trouble with phantom stitches appearing on my needles. And it took a couple of rows for me to figure out I needed to shift the wool back and forth when switching between normal stitch and purl stitch (hence the hole). However, I was most pleased with myself to be able to drag how to do a purl stitch from the deep dark recesses of my mind.

But anyway, my first knitting project (since I was about 10) is now done. Not that we actually need any dishcloths at the moment. I tend to edge old towels or handtowels for dishcloths. What we do need though is some face washers so I’m going to see how this holds up in the bath. Nothing ventured nothing gained. It’s not knitted with cotton since I didn’t have any. I found some baby wool I bought a very long time ago thinking I might get inspired to knit while I was pregnant (I didn’t). At least it’s nice and soft but not sure how it’ll go under duress in the bath with the kids.

Thanks again to Rhonda Gay for her help. There were times when I wish some of my blogging friends lived just next door so I could pop over with the needles and say “what is going on here?” LOL. Then again, perhaps it’s better that I had to work some of it out for myself.

I’m now back to using my round looms for knitting. Not that I’m abandoning my needles - just taking a break. At the moment I’m attempting to make an afghan throw rug for DS (in crows colours) on the loom. When it’s done I’ll post a pic. If my cloth survives the bathtub, I may even attempt to knit another one - this time without any holes (hopefully).

Oh yeah, before I go tossing it in the bathtub, I probably should weave the ends in. I cheated and just tucked them underneath for the photo. LOL. I’m a classic when it comes to not quite finishing things off!