Finally, own designs!

After lots of knitting and frogging, I successfully knit three baby cardigans, two set-in sleeves and one raglan. Hurray!

That was fun-filled winter. To add to the delight, a lovely friend of mine from Germany brought me sock wool and cotton yarn! I was so excited and began a sock project for her husband. Since his feet was extra large, I had to do a custom design, but when I reached the heel, I got distracted with some other work and put the project down.

(The socks being converted to pullover)

I was reminded of it a month later and I totally forgot how to proceed! I know, disaster right? Since I didn't follow any pattern I had no other option but to frog it all. I wasn't enthusiastic on doing the socks again. I was reminded of the cardigan that I designed months before which I never wrote down. So, I decided to knit a pullover for my nephew for the coming winter with the sock yarn as well as write the pattern down. Though it's horribly hot here, the heat couldn't put off the fire in me. I began on the pullover and this time I am writing down the pattern. I hope to publish the pattern soon - in a few days. This one is for a two-year old. When completed, I'll also try to write the same pattern for other baby sizes too. Wish me luck!

Crazy 2011

Hello everyone,

First of all I apologize for not posting anything for long... As the title says, 2011 has been a crazy year. Many things happened, good or bad.

When it concerns knitting, I learn really lot. The fluorescent colored cardigan and the brown one in the previous post were a failure. The brown one is lying in a corner as a huge ball and the fluorescent one's gonna follow soon.

Anyways, about projects that were effective, I knitted a scarf for my sister's friend in Germany which my nephew was sweet enough to model for.

I knitted a vest for my nephew with acrylic yarn which came out okay. It was the first ever garment that I designed myself.

I love doing cables and had to make something for my nephew for the winter, so I came up with this. I wasn't completely satisfied with the outcome, but it came out okay. I learnt a really lot about designing garments while making this one. Especially, the top down sleeve - it looks so great, instead to knitting sleeve separately and joining it.

Always wanting to try a top down design, I tried this beautiful design from f.pea's blog. It's a clever design but I wasn't satisfied with the overall look when I was done with it.

It got me really hooked up and I started learning about top down designs and I made another sweater for my nephew and a smaller version for a friend of mine who gave birth to a lovely baby girl last month and am also working on a ribbed bonnet (not my own design - it's from Garnstudio). Will post the pictures of both once I'm done with the bonnet.

I'll also post the pattern for the sweater soon. Hope I start posting regularly. Wish me luck.

WIPs

Finally I have something solid to talk about. I’ve been working on a cardigan that I picked off he garnstudio’s website. It was really cool and the moment I saw the photo, I decided that I gotta knit it. It’s a pretty simple design, nothing complex, but the huge cables make it look fantabulous.
(http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/en/visoppskrift.php?d_nr=109&d_id=54&lang=us)
I started this cardigan way back in December when I finally dared to knit a garment and I screwed up the pattern many times. Had to rip off the back and knit again twice and my knitting speed didn’t help either. It’s like 80 or so stitches in three minutes and I don’t get time to knit a lot. I hardly send half-hour or sometimes an hour per day. I’d drop this project and start knitting something else just to improve my knitting skills (I learnt a lot – like intarsia, fair isle/stranded knitting, lace knitting, etc.) and return back to knit a few more rows. Then came the huge hit – I was out of yarn!!!!

I know, I know, I was stupid enough not to calculate the amount of yarn required. I had to wait almost a month to continue with it as the shopkeeper had no stock of the color. If you look at the photo closely, you’d see that the color of the yarn would be different in between, but I hope it looks okay.

I hope to finish it by next week.

(Couldn't resist :D)

I also have this cardigan that I designed, in progress. I really like the pattern that I made at the bottom and I had to have a dragon in it, so I charted his baby dragon’s face.

If all goes well, I should have it ready by two weeks. Let’s see… I hope to start several other projects like crocheted hats, scarves, socks, etc., and also start putting them in ravelry. I have no idea how I’d do it. I gotta learn – go google…

 

My past work and ideas for giveaway

As I mentioned in my first post, my passion for yarn started with crochet. I crocheted gloves and hats for my sister and brother-in-law and I really like the texture that crocheted garment had. Moreover it’s thick and gives you more warmth! Of course, it consumes lots of yarn, but it’s worth the price.

With the cute addition to my family, I wanted to crochet something really cool. My sister brought some acrylic + wool blend yarn from Germany and I wasn’t sure of the colors at first. She told me that they’d look great once I was done. I was doubtful but god, was she right! It turned out to be great and my cue nephew looked really cute in it.

I also crocheted a lousy vest with an acrylic yarn, which seemed to fit him really well and the shoes that I crocheted last year fit him well too.

Here’s my favorite scarf that I intended to gift a friend of mine in Germany for Christmas, but it’s already 2011.

 (I know I am a lousy modeler, but I could find no one else to do it for me, so... :D)

(Ah! The Christmas colors! Do you like the combination?)

 (I love crochet for this look)

Hope I mail it this month. This is for her too.

(This scarf was crocheted with a chunky yarn)

By the ways, to celebrate my comeback after long to my garden blog and the starting of a new Knitting and Crochet blog, I decided to do something special. I want to host a giveaway of patterns/final products. I need your suggestions. What would you like me to make? You may send links to photos that you’d like me to crochet or knit or just describe them to me.

It would take a while before I give them away as I gotta design them and knit/crochet. It’s gonna be fun!  

Cables n Posts

Hello Knitters, Crocheters, and other who admire our work!

I finally decided to dedicate a separate blog for showcasing my knitting and crochet skills. Not that I am a great knitter or crocheter but I consider myself okay, at least. I occasionally would also post other crafts like sewing and others but I mainly intend to talk about my passion for yarn here in this blog. I also have a garden blog, so if you are interested you might want to check that out too.

My love for this wonderful arts descended from my grandmother who used to knit and crochet, but she never taught me to make ‘em. My mom knew little crochet and so I started with her help and google was my teacher. I learnt crochet from many websites and was always fascinated by the cables in knitting. I’d give it a try and give up, because I could never knit one row completely, but few months ago after two long years, I wanted to give knitting another try and did so – thanks to youtube and all those who posted wonderful videos, I finally learnt knitting too. Now I am a big fan of it.

As my blog title suggests, I love works that have cables (knitting) and posts (crochet) which give the fabric a classy look. So, you’d see that most (not all) of my work would have cables or posts – at least a bit.

As someone said, “you can knit away your worries” and it’s so true. When I knit or crochet, I feel my mind relaxing and it’s a great therapy! So join me in this wonderful journey into the world of yarns that twists and turns itself in and around hooks and needles to materialize themselves into wonderful fabric. See you all soon with a post on my WIPs and my past projects.