This Gal's Guide to Gift Shopping for Knitters

It's that time of year, Christmas is right around the corner. If you're anything like me then you struggle when it comes time to buy gifts. Suddenly, I don’t know who the person I’m shopping for is, their likes their dislikes. Have I really known them my entire life? Has my whole life been a lie?!

When I finally calm down, I start to remember their hobbies and the things they enjoy to do. Then I hit another roadblock, I know very little about their hobbies, and what would or wouldn’t be useful to them. I know they say, 'it's the thought that counts' but when I buy gifts I want the recipient to actually enjoy it and find it useful. That's why I decided to create this list, for anyone stuck on what to get that special knitter in their life.

I just want to mention quickly, that along with links to Amazon and Etsy shops, I suggest local yarn stores or craft shows. If you’re unsure of where a yarn store is near you, you can look it up on knit map. The staff will be very helpful if you’re not quite sure about what you’re looking for. They'll probably have even more suggestions than what I have here.

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links when you make a purchase through those links I make a small commission. I would never link to something I haven't or don't plan to buy and try myself.

Stitch Markers

Most if not all knitters use some form of stitch marker. They’re easy to use and even easier to lose, so we’re always in need of new ones, even though somewhere in the house we have dozens upon dozens of them. They come in so many shapes, colors and styles.

1. Soft rings
2. Locking markers
3. Novelty/charms - Just add a jump ring to any charm and you have an instant stitch marker. I personally love the charms from Sucre Sucre Miniatures or The Nome Knitter.
4. Local yarn stores carry commercial markers and may also carry locally made novelty ones.
5. If you're DIY minded go ahead and make you're own beaded charms.

Project/Notion Bags

Project and notion bags are great for those on the go knitters who always, no matter where they are, seem to be knitting. Notion bags help us stay organized when we have a whole bunch of WIPs going at once. They’re also great at keeping our small projects protected in our purses or bags when we’re out and about. Notions bags are great for, theoretically, keeping all our notions in one place and preventing them from getting lost at the bottom of our knitting bags.

1. Too Daughters
2. Ewe Sew An Sew
3. Lavender Hill Knits
4. Mama Made Waffles
5. Local yarn store or craft shows
6. If you know your way around a sewing machine, making a small zipper bag is a great option.

Yarn bowls

Many knitters love yarn bowls. When yarn is traditionally wound the ball will bounce and dance all over the place. Yarn bowls prevent that and keep yarn in one place and free of any dust, hair or dirt that may be on the ground where ever we're knitting.

1. New Moon Studio
2. Heidi's Shoppe
3. Local yarn store or craft shows

Ravelry Patterns

If you’re willing to sign up for a free Ravelry account, you’ll be able to buy and send patterns to other users. You can search for your knitter by name and then filter by location. Then you can go through their favorites and find a paid for pattern that they like and send it as a gift to them. It’s something nice, that will make them feel like you went the extra mile. My best friend since high school did this for me recently, and it was a really nice surprise.

Gift Cards

It may seem impersonal to buy someone gift cards, but they're great for those of you who want to gift yarn, but don’t know where to even start. Yarn buying can be a very personal thing for a knitter and while we always enjoy getting yarn, we all have our preferences and sometimes would rather buy our own yarn. So, a gift card is sometimes the best option. You could even go to the store with the gift card recipient and make a day of it to add a more personal touch to this gift.

KnitPicks, Webs, Jimmy Beans Wool and Etsy are all great places to get gift cards for knitters. I’d also check out your local yarn store to see what they offer in terms of gift cards as well. Maybe I'm a control freak, but I love getting gift cards. They help expand my knitting budget and get something I might not be able to afford on my own. 

Entertainment

A lot of us knitters, like having some sort of entertainment while we’re knitting. I, for one, like to either watch TV or listen to podcasts or music. Others might like to listen to an audiobook, or even read a book.

1. Netflix and Hulu gift cards (Can be found at most retail stores)
2. Favorite movies
3. iTunes gift card (Can be found at most retail stores)
4. Audiobooks
5. Spotify gift card (Can be found at most retail stores)
6. Favorite books
7. A book or tablet stand for reading while knitting

I hope this takes away some of the stress of holiday and gift shopping. Now if anyone wants to make a list of gift ideas for carpenters, I’m all ears. And if any of my fellow knitters have any more suggestions, let us all know in the comments.

One last thing. Follow my shiny new Instagram account where I'll be highlighting some of these gift ideas with pretty pictures. And if you're a knitter, join in on #KnittersGiftList on both Instagram and Twitter and tell me what's on your list this year.

WIPs and Worries

I'm not really one to worry about much of anything... Unless it's driving, or a job I hate, or life in general... Okay, fine, lets just say, I'm not one to worry about my knitting too much. Sure, I'll have a little apprehension when trying something new, but nothing that I'll lose sleep over. But some of my current WIPs have me all kinds of frazzled.

The project bugging me the most is my first shawl, Uphill by Cailtin ffrench. The whole time I've been knitting on it, I've been worried about my yarn choice. It's a really fuzzy, single ply yarn, it's Knit Picks Preciosa and I'm afraid it won't wear well and just get fuzzier through time. On top of that, the pattern calls for DK weight yarn, but I'm using a worsted and knitting the pattern as written. So, I'm worried the whole shawl is going to turn out too big.

My annual Christmas sweater is another project that has me all worried. I know there's still A LOT of time until Christmas, but I don't feel like I'm really where I want to be right now. I know once I get into the color work it'll be a breeze. But I was at least hoping I'd have the waist shaping done by now. I just can't seem to stay focused through the boring all white stockinette section.

The last really worrisome project is my Gummy Bear socks. I've been having trouble with the fit of my hand knit socks. And after finishing the first of this pair of socks, I'm still concerned about the fit. I thought my problem was that I wasn't allowing enough negative ease in the length of the foot, and figured shortening the foot would solve my problem. That was a no go, I feel like I'm either going to have to either go down a needle size, or decrease my stitch count. The thing is, I'm not sure what to do now though. Should I keep re-knitting the same sock until I get the right fit, or should I keep knitting new socks, making changes until I know what works for me?

All these projects have me a bit frazzled, and to be honest, I am losing sleep over them... That's not all that weird for me though. I tend to stay up too many nights thinking about my knitting projects even when things are going along fine... That's normal for a knitter right?

How do you guys battle your knitting worries? Do you find yourself losing sleep over your knitting? Let me know in the comment section.

As always, if you want to keep tabs on all these WIPs follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

Fresh off the Needles: Walden on a Boat Socks

I'm not even sure why it happened, who can ever know why anything happens with me. But when I saw the picture below of Bobby Darin I decided I NEEDED a pair of socks loosely based off of that picture. And since his given name is Walden, I decided to call them Walden On a Boat Socks. Honestly, not even I can ever be sure where I'll draw inspiration from.

For awhile now, I've wanted to knit something using a color scheme based off of a picture, but I was hung up on knitting a stranded sweater and just haven't had it in me to design one. And then it finally occurred to me that a pair of socks with contrast heels would work just fine. I even have some more ideas floating around in my little head for more socks.

I'll be honest though, I was expecting to be more inspired by a beautiful photo of a landscape like the ones my mom is always taking. Not a picture of a guy, who reminds me of a cartoon bird, wearing a tiny yellow swimsuit, denim jacket and some ridiculous hat. But again, I'm unpredictable.

As for everything else about the socks they're pretty standard. Just a plain ole toe-up vanilla sock using German Short Row toes and heels, and a simple 3x1 rib for the legs. I used the same pattern I used for my Sick Socks as a base. I was also constantly rewatching the videos from Very Pink. I'll get all of these techniques down and not have to refer back to those videos one of these days, I swear. Until then, I'm sure Staci from Very Pink won't mind the page views I'm giving her.

With these socks, I did decide that I wanted to do a few more short rows so that I had a narrower toe. In the original pattern you knit the toe the same as the heel. Due to my child sized feet, the toe was just too big and loose for me. So, a few more short rows and that fixed the problem. Although, I'm not crazy with the way the toes look. If you want more details about my construction, you can check out my Ravelry project page.

They were knit with some Cascade Heritage solid in the Marine (haha fitting right?) colorway for the blue and the Lemon colorway for the yellow. I enjoyed working with the yarn, and I love it because it's really hard, at least for me, to find a sock yarn in a variety of solid colors.

Originally, I had wanted to have some sort of nautical stitch pattern, like a lace stitch that looked like a lifesaver, but couldn't find anything quick enough. I wanted them ASAP!! But I do have enough yarn leftover for another pair. So, if I find an appropriate stitch pattern I'll definitely be making another pair.

German Short Rows close up. Plus you can see how much too big they are!

I truly love these socks. Since they did turn our too big I'd either cast on less stitches, right now I'm at 56 stitches. Or use a smaller needle size, I used a US1 (2.25mm). Possibly both. I'm also curious if this would fix my wide toe problem. Hmm... There will be plenty more themed socks in my future, so I'll have plenty of opportunity to experiment. If you want to follow along with my sock knitting adventure follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

Now, my question for you guys is where do you draw your sock knitting inspiration from? Let me know in the comments.

This Gal's Monthly Guitar Progress report: A note on positivity

Quite some time ago, I wrote about my first guitar practice and how well it went and how much I loved it. Not long after that post I realized the guitar I had was unplayable. I eventually got a new one at a very deep discount. So, for the past year I've been practicing off and on. More off than on, if I'm being totally honest with ya'll. I don't think I ever went more than two days in a row of practicing. About two months ago, I decided that I wanted to get serious about learning.

My old guitar that was unplayable because the bridge was coming off!

In my efforts of being more consistent with my practicing, I started a guitar journal. Immediately after practicing, I do a quick free write about how I feel about that particular session.

Honestly, the month of August has been pretty disappointing on the guitar practice front. I just haven't been practicing, and I have no real excuse. It highly contrasts the month of July when I was highly motivated and inspired. Honestly, I think I just became discouraged because I'm not great, I'm not even good at playing. I'm not even to the point that you'd call playing. (It's ridiculous, I know. Just keep reading.)

In hopes of finding that motivation I started rereading some of my old journal entries. I found one that basically just put my ridiculousness into perspective. Hopefully, it will keep me grounded to finish off August strong and keep plugging away through September. Below is the journal entry that helped me.

Disclaimer: I took this directly from my guitar journal. I just wrote out my feelings with very little thought to cohesiveness and structure. So, it'll be repetitive, rambley, unrefined and a grammatical mess. So, you've been warned. 

My guitar journal

July 8, 2015

I didn't feel like I made as much progress today as I did yesterday but they say that's to be expected. I'm guessing my hand just got tired quicker. Which will only get better with time and practice. I'm trying to practice a solid 20 minutes everyday.

Things I worked on: I just worked on changing from D to G and vice versa with a little bit of A to E and vice versa. I'm sure there's a better way to practice this. But this is what's working for me now. I'm going to try to do a little practice schedule. But I'm really not sure what to look for. Everything I find is still super advanced for me at this point.

Things to remember: I'm kind of bummed out about not getting the G chord to ring out clearly. But I just have to remember I've done it before. I mostly just think it's that my hand is getting tired more quickly because I've practiced multiple days in a row. It doesn't seem like that would make sense but it's got to be like exercising/working out. You work out for the first time in a long while one day and it's hard but you can get it done. Then the next day, when you're doing that same work out it's harder to finish because your body and muscles are sore. 

I'm assuming it's the same basic principle with guitar. And this is probably the point where a lot of people give up. Or why I personally give up practicing for weeks, sometimes months on end. This is why I think it's oh-so-important for me to practice tomorrow.

I'm thinking about a reward system for myself somehow. Like, maybe after every 30 days of daily practice I get myself something. A new tuner, 20 or 30 dollars toward a new guitar. I don't know. I'll figure something out. 

A mess, I know, but I'm glad I wrote it. It doesn't explicitly say that I've been being ridiculous in the past, but I think that's what I was getting at.

I've had these idiotic ideas that I'm going to see how to do a certain thing and just magically be able to do it. Like, watch a video on how to play the G chord and then go and play it perfectly the first time I try it. That's ridiculous. Sitting back and thinking critically about this is helping me check my preconceived notions at the door and has allowed me to just figure out what I need to figure out.

The thing I have to remember is that if I can consistently keep this mindset, I WILL see progress. If I were being honest with myself, I'd say that I HAVE seen progress. It's just really easy to forget after 20 minutes of feeling like nothing is going right. So, I'm here today to declare that I won't let myself get discouraged so easily. I'm going to channel the July version of myself and just power through.

My new guitar, Guitarri.

Apart from my journal, I'm going to start posting monthly progress reports here on This Gal Knows. I hope it'll be one more thing to keep me motivated to practice and improve. Until then you can always track my progress on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. I think I might even do daily updates, sort of like proof of practice, on either Tumblr or Twitter. Maybe even both.

What do you guys think? Anyone use a journal to track your progress when learning guitar (or anything else new to you)? Did you find that it's helped? Let me know in the comment section.

https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/_NuuPz16ABzW4qtmbEUog-7E9UxZb_jetnLFHzsTO_U?feat=directlink

This Gal's knitting quick tip: The Usefulness of KALs

As I've been stepping out of my knitting comfort zone over the past year, knit alongs have been an invaluable source of information. A knit along (KAL) is when a group of people, usually on the internet, picks a pattern and knits it at the same time. Usually a KAL has an organizer who sets deadlines for when each section of the pattern should be done. Then people will post their progress usually on a Ravelry board dedicated to the KAL. A lot of times, the organizer will post how-to guides on their blog for each part of the pattern, this is where you'll find a lot of useful information. Sometimes there are even prizes at the end. But the great thing about these KALs is that you don't have to participate in them to get all the great information they hold.

There are KALs for virtually any type of project you want to work on. Socks, sweaters, hats, dishcloths, you name and I can bet there's a KAL for it. Here are a few that I've recently found useful.

Useful KALs

Hands Occupied is always a great resource for knitting. Right now she has a scarf KAL going on. And in the past she's had some really great and informative sweater KAL. Here's a link to all of her KALs.

Veryshannon.com has an entire page filled with links to her annual KALs. And they are all full of great information.

Beginner's KAL is a Ravelry group that has monthly KALs targeted at beginners with a lot of support through each part of the project. I haven't gotten too far into this group, but from what I can tell it's going to be an invaluable resource for me.

I don't know if the Tasha's fitting series over on By Gum By Golly is technically a knit along, but the information in it has been indispensable for me while knitting my first sweaters. It's very much set up like a knit along so I'm going to include it here.

What are some of your favorite KALs that you've either participated in or have found useful in the past? Link them up in the comments and I'll add them to the list.

For daily updates follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

Fresh Off the Needles: Sick Socks

That's it, I throw in the towel. I'm officially obsessed with sock knitting. I finally get what all the fuss is about. Don't ask me what it was about my first pair of hand knit socks, but I wasn't overjoyed about them. Proud, just not overjoyed. They didn't leave me wanting to make more. Now, I already have another pair on the needles and ideas for an entire series of themed socks swirling around my head.

What can I say? I'm so in love with these socks! Sucks I got distracted while knitting the first foot and knit it too long. Oh well. They fit my sister almost perfectly, so they'll be going to a good home. They are however, a bit wide in the toe, something that can easily be fixed by working a couple more short rows on either side.

I really enjoyed knitting this pattern even if they are just a plain old vanilla sock. Maybe next time I'll knit the leg entirely in 2x2 rib just to spice things up. The pattern is very straight forward with row by row instructions at both the toe and the heel. It was perfect for me since, I had never knit socks with short rows. For a matter of fact, I'd never really done much short row knitting prior to this, just the little bit that were used for the heel turn on my first pair of socks. I've also been sold on knitting socks toe-up as well. For me, it's far easier to fit when you're starting at the toe because you can try it on as you go and you know exactly where to start the heel. Also, you can use up every bit of yarn by winding the yarn into two equal balls and then knitting the leg until you don't have any yarn left.

 My favorite part about knitting these socks are the all too simple German short rows used on the toes and heels. I've been on the hunt for a pair of short row heel socks that didn't involve the old wrap and turn. And finally found one from Staci Perry at VeryPink.com. She even included a free how-to video on her website. It seems fitting that I became such a fan of this short row technique since I am mostly German, don'tcha know.

There are still a few tension issues I have to work out while doing the short rows on the wrong side which I still haven't figured out on my second pair. But all I'm hearing is I get to make more socks to practice this technique.

Lets talk about the yarn, shall we? This is some bare Knit Picks Stroll Sport that I dyed myself using Kool Aid. The orange, is first and foremost, nearly impossible to photograph. Look at those babies glow. I dyed it using some left over orange and cherry that I used for practicing some hand painting. For the bluish green I used  a mix of blue raspberry lemonade, lemon lime and McCormick's blue food coloring. Both yarns turned out far more tonal than I had expected, this is because apparently superwash wool sucks up the dye a lot faster than non-superwash wool does. Like really quickly, I could literally watch the water in the pot go clear like magic. I felt like I'd finally lived my dream and was a student at Hogwarts.

I'm pretty sure I've found my favorite way to knit socks that will keep me wanting to knit more and more. When I get more adventurous I plan on giving magic loop a try and then maybe even two at a time. What are some of your favorite ways to knit socks?

Special Skills Needed:

I included three different reference links for each technique. I didn't want to assume everyone learns the way I learn. Click on the numbers to see the different links.
Provisional cast on: 1|2|3
German Short Rows: 1|2|3
Extra stretchy bind off: 1|2|3

Want to see some of the other sock ideas I have swirling around my head? Be sure to follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Ravelry and Pinterest to be the first to see progress photos and the like before they're up on the blog. Also, don't forget to follow me on Bloglovin' so you never miss a post.

Thrifty Finds: Textile Center Garage Sale

Every year for the past 15 years, the Textile Center asks people and companies to donate their unwanted craft supplies. People bring in everything from unwanted sewing machines, fabric, yarn, sewing, knitting and crochet patterns, crochet hooks, knitting needles and needlework supplies. You name it, someone brings it. Two days later these things are sold in a giant garage sale held in a large warehouse. There's a dollar admission fee and all proceeds go to keeping the center up and running.

This past weekend my mom and I went for the second time. Neither one of us had any real idea what we were looking for. We were sort of just hoping we'd come away with as much great stuff as we did last time. While we did find a few great things, we didn't come away with as many treasures as we did last year. Something like this is pretty hit or miss. There's really no way of knowing what people are going to decide to donate. Regardless, we did pick up a few great things.

When I said people donate anything to the Textile Center, I wasn't lying. Something that surprised me most was the amount of people that donated unfinished objects, or UFOs for short. There were several cafeteria style tables full of UFOs. That's where I found this great 1960s sewing pattern (Simplicity 5835), wool (I think) fabric and a zipper. All for just two dollars. As far as UFOs go this is about as unfinished as you can get. The only thing that's been done for the whole project is that the pattern has been cut.

I'm so stupidly excited about this find everything about this screams 60s. I can't wait to get started on even just the muslin. According to a few handwritten notes on the pattern, the original owner was planning on making the blouse and jacket. But personally, I think the fabric (which is as bright in real life) would be much better suited for the skirt.

Mom also nabbed this adorable pink and white synthetic, possibly polyester, fabric. She plans on making a little dress for my baby niece using the Kwik Sew 3035 pattern. Of course, if she doesn't really want to, I'm sure I can find a cute 60s skirt pattern to that would go perfect with this fabric.

Another great find is an old book on pattern drafting and grading, Modern Method of Women's & Children's Garment Design. It was originally published in 1955 by The Master Designer and this is the 1981 edition. It has everything from slacks, to skirts, to shirts to dresses. I've thumbed through it and all of it is going WAY over my head. But I can already tell this is going to be an invaluable resource as I continue to improve my sewing skills. Since I much prefer using vintage patterns over modern patterns, mostly for their simplicity (ha!), I really have no choice but to learn how to resize patterns.

As always if you want to see my progress on these future projects follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Also, if you don't want to miss another blog post, make sure to pop over to Bloglovin' and follow me there as well.

What's on the needles: A whole bunch of projects

Remember when a few weeks ago I said it felt like all I was doing was planning projects and not getting a whole lot done. Well, I finally said to myself to, "Mandi, you need to shut up and put up." If that is indeed how the saying goes. If it's not, then I didn't say that at all.

Since I finished knitting my first pair of socks about a year and a half ago, I've wanted to knit another pair. But I wasn't thrilled with the heel flap and gusset. And I didn't like how the toe decreases were. So, I looked for some toe up socks and found Very Pink's German short rows pattern. I love this pattern because I've been looking for a way to do short rows without the standard wrap&turn and finally found an easy way to do it. Plus, the pattern includes tutorial videos at each part of the sock (ie. the toe, heel and cuff) to help you along the way. I really recommend it.

I finally got to casting on for my purple Rosalie. There's not much to say about it at the moment. Or much to look at for that matter. It's just been some plain old stockinette stitch round after round. Which has been really good to knit while I play the Sims. But it's becoming a bit redundant and I'm getting a tad bit bored with it already. Hopefully, I'll feel differently when I get to the ribbing at the neck line. But I hate to knit ribbing, so I don't know why I would assume that. Maybe this time it'll be different.

This is the fabric I plan to use. Floral of course.

I've also been working on a muslin for a button up shirt I plan to sew sometime in the future. But that one has stalled out. When tracing the pattern I got confused about what certain dots meant,  so I just ignored them all. Turns out those dots were important, who knew. I was noticing this all as I was getting sick the the thousandth time this year. And I didn't really have it in me to figure out where everything lined up. Either way, I'm really excited about this project even if it is only in the muslin stage because it's something that I've done entirely by myself. I'm not saying I haven't asked for help, but there hasn't been anything on it that my mom has done. I'm just going to go ahead and pat myself on the back for that one.

There are few more projects that I've been working on that aren't worth photographing. One of them is another sweater that I've been wanting to be done with for sometime but kind of have run out of steam on it. That's actually happened to me quite a bit. Sometimes I go through a phase where I just want the finished product, but I don't want to go through sewing or knitting it. I just want it to magically appear. Does this happen to you guys? How do you muscle through it?

As always if you want to see my progress follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

Open letter to self about gauge

"I don't need to check gauge. It's never been a problem for me." I know you've read that countless times. The almighty knitter who has never had one problem with gauge. I myself have said that many a times. But up until recently I'd only knit things that the gauge wasn't all too important. Then I started knitting sweaters and it became apparent that gauge is in fact important. Below is a letter to myself that I will refer to anytime I knit a new sweater.

Dear this gal,

Honestly, what's one of the first things you learn when you're starting out garment knitting? It's important to knit a gauge swatch before you start knitting your garment. I know you've read this, I was there. But since I also know you need a refresher, I'm going to give it to you, all while debunking the reasons why you have in the past chosen not to do a gauge swatch.

What is gauge and why is it important?

Gauge is the number of stitches and rows a knitter makes per inch using a certain yarn and needles. Most yarn labels have the gauge and a suggested needle size, but it doesn't always mean that you'll get gauge with the same needles they suggest. You might have to go up or down needle sizes to get it. Gauge is important because it determines how your garment is going to fit. If you're just half a stitch off, your sweater won't fit.

Here's an example, remember when you started your Magical Mystery Tour vest? Remember how you guesstimated your gauge to be 6.5 stitches per inch? So, you cast on 216 stitches to get you roughly a 33 inch bust. But then it turned out your gauge was actually 6 stitches per inch, so you actually ended up with a sweater that had a 36 inch bust. Do you remember that? If you had just taken your gauge in the first place you would have known to either cast on fewer stitches, or you could have switched needle sizes to get the gauge you wanted.

But what if I run out of yarn?

I know how concerned you were when you started that vest, but let me remind you how much leftover yarn you had when you finished. Enough to knit a whole new vest at the correct gauge, resulting in a well fitting garment. I'd also like to remind you how much yarn you had left over after knitting your Christmas sweater. You had four skeins of red, one skein of white and one skein of green. Plus, in all honesty, if you think you're going to run out of yarn, buy an extra skein.

But it just takes too much time

Admittedly, it does take some time to knit a gauge swatch. But you have to think of the time it takes to knit an entire vest in the wrong size. Then how long it takes to knit an entire vest in the correct size. You could have knit two really great vests in that time had you taken the time to check to make sure everything was going to work out the way you had calculated. Take the time to save the time.

It's a concept literally as old as time, knitting time anyway. I doubt there's ever been a knitting book written that didn't include at least a small section on gauge/tension.

From Patons 665 from the 1960s

Required reading

Now, for my sake, and my sake alone, please read the following articles on the proper ways to swatch for gauge. I will not allow you to even consider knitting another sweater until you've done so.

Gauge Overview - earthguild.com
How to measure gauge - craftsy.com
Everything you need to know about gauge - knitty.com
How to check gauge - video from verypink.com

Sincerely,

Yourself

PS.
That measly thing above, it does not count as knitting a gauge swatch, nice try though. Why is your ribbing longer than the stitch pattern?



If you want to help me keep myself in check follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

Planning a 1960s sweater

It feels like all I've been doing is planning my next projects without doing actual work on any of said projects. Maybe I should make a promise that the next thing I post will be a finished project... Hahahahaha! But honestly, sometimes I think the funnest thing about knitting or sewing is the planning rather than the actually sewing or knitting. Call me crazy.

I've been wanting to knit a sweater from a vintage pattern for awhile. I even made a post awhile back of my top 5 vintage patterns to knit. Of course the pattern I'm going to knit didn't make that list.

The pattern I plan to use is called 'Rosalie' from the Patons Knitting Book No. 665. My plan is to eliminate the color work and knit it in a dark purple using Knit Picks Stroll. I know, I know, me opting to not do color work? Crazy, right? The color pattern just doesn't really impress me. What drew me to it was the ribbing at the yoke and neckline. I'm not sure how it will look in a single color. But we'll see.

Over half a year ago, my sister and I scored a few vintage dresses at WildWoman's Vintage Clothing, a cute little vintage shop in Sparta, WI. One of the dresses I absolutely fell in love with is a cute little, sleeveless, wool, tweed, purple dress. For months now, I've been talking about knitting some kind of sweater to go under it. My first thoughts were to follow the series on Fitting a 40s pullover that Tasha at By Gum By Golly put together a few years back. But I decided that a mock turtle neck would be the best way to go. To be honest, I'll probably still be referring to those posts quite a bit while planning this.

I know a couple weeks ago I mentioned a sweater I was working on that I hoped would be done by now. Well, surprise, surprise I'm still working on. But I hope to be able to show it off next week or the week after that... Or some week at some point in time, because lets be honest, with this project under way, I might not have the desire to knit on anything else.

If you want to see my progress on my vintage sweater or even possibly my other WIP sweater follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest for latest updates.

This gal dyes... yarn with Kool Aid

Late last year I talked about my fall goals, and one of them was that I wanted to try a bit of yarn dyeing using Kool-Aid. Around that time, I had made up my mind that the first sweater I attempted wasn't working out. So, I frogged it and had all this extra white yarn leftover. It's like the stars had aligned.

Kool Aid dyeing is super, super easy. And there are plenty of resources all over the Internet. Video tutorials, written tutorials, picture tutorials, just about any kind of tutorial you can think of. I've even started a Pinterest board specifically for Kool Aid dyeing and all the different techniques.

My first attempt was a major success. I went with a pretty straight forward lime green using six packets of Lemon Lime Kool-Aid and an entire 50g skein of Knit Picks worsted Wool of the Andes. Being the green lover that I am, I quite like the results.

For my second attempt, I decided to be a bit more adventurous. I wanted to try my hand at purple. Turns out purple isn't an easy color to dye. My weird results are proof of that. It also doesn't help that I went into it with no game plan what-so-ever. I figured, "hey, red and blue make purple. Right?" So, I tossed in three packets of cherry Kool Aid and about 30-something drops of blue food coloring and hoped for the best. I'm not even sure what color I'd call that. Maroon? It doesn't look quite that bright in person. I actually really like the results, it's just not exactly what I was going for.

Since then I've done a bit of reading and it turns out the red dye used in Kool Aid (Red40) tends to produce a muddy color. And the ideal red to use is Red3 which is what's used in food coloring. But apparently that also has its draw backs. I'll have to look into it more. But right now, my thoughts for the next time I attempt purple is to try blue Kool Aid with red food coloring. We'll see what happens.

Needless to say, there's still a lot I can learn about dyeing yarn. But I'm glad I made these mistakes. Without mistakes we wouldn't learn anything. I'm excited to make a few more as the dyeing adventures go on.

Want to follow along and see my mistakes as they happen? Go ahead and follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

1960s Wiggle Dress Planning

I was hoping to have a finished sweater and a vintage inspired skirt to share with you this week. But seeing as I haven't even started on the front of the sweater, that seems like an unrealistic goal. Instead of knitting my sweater I've been going through some fabric I got at a large garage sale last spring. And just like that I've been bitten by the sewing bug, and want to sew all the things.

The first thing that I want to sew with some great floral fabric I got is a halter wiggle dress. I've been on the hunt for some patterns but am turning up empty. It doesn't help that I can't even find a decent picture of what I'm looking for. To be honest, I'm not even sure if this is inspired by something I saw or something I think I saw. That happens to me a lot. But I'm pretty sure this was sparked by something I saw in an Elvis movie since the fabrics are ones that remind me of Blue Hawaii, but I can't be sure. Looks like I have an excuse to watch some Elvis beach movies now.

Any way, the closest that I've been able to find is a vintage pattern from 1964, McCall's 7511. The only thing is, I want a halter top. But the more I've looked at halter tops, the more I'm wondering if that's something I really want. I haven't been the biggest fan of halter tops in the past, so I'm not entirely sure why I have my mind set on a halter dress. After looking at the pattern more I'm starting to think maybe this would be a better fit for my fabric. After a quick search, I can't find it in my usual pattern price range, but I'll be keeping my eyes open.

As for the fabric, I can't decide between the large print floral or the small print floral. The first time I saw both of them I was thinking along the lines of a gathered skirt for both of them. But I don't think that's their true destiny. I'm leaning more toward the large print for the dress, and maybe the other one can become a nice gathered skirt. Honestly, I think there would be enough of the smaller print to make a dress and skirt. We'll see...

I know you don't want to miss what these two fabrics true destinies will ultimately be. And since I tend to spoil everything on social media you should follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest for the latest updates.

Fresh off the needles: (Ugly) Christmas Sweater 2014

Through all the false starts, procrasti-knitting,  and general not wanting to knit the thing anymore, it's finally done and I even made my December 25th deadline! With 5 days to spare even! Not only is it my first annual Christmas sweater, it's my first ever completed sweater. And it's not too bad if I do say so myself.

Sometime during the beginning of my knitting journey I made that post on Tumblr. I can only assume at the time, I thought I'd never have the skills to knit even a plain sweater let alone a stranded sweater. But here I am, with a full blown stranded and steeked Christmas sweater.

My goal was to look like an extra from Wham's Last Christmas video. It took a hybrid of two patterns and a color chart to get what I was looking for. Those patterns are Vintersolverv from Knitty and 11-12 jumper with reindeer pattern from Drops Studio. I used the Knitty pattern as a base and kept some of the original color work, then I substituted the Drops pattern in for the unused Knitty color work. I also used a tree color pattern but I can't place the source. I even added beads to the trees to make them look more festive, just to add to the ugliness. I'll admit, I'm a little too proud of this sweater to truly think it's ugly.

A look inside at the armhole steek

The sweater is knit completely in the round with steeks at the armholes and neckline. I know a lot of people are afraid of steeks, but honestly it's really not that bad. As long as you reinforce them there's nothing to worry about. I used a standard crochet reinforcement but there's a few other alternatives. After I cut the steeks I picked up and knit the sleeves from the top down, which I wasn't crazy about at first, but ended up really liking it, and it may be my way of knitting sleeves.

I'll admit, as I was knitting this I was pretty convinced I wasn't going to finish it. Which is ridiculous since according to Ravelry, I started this on the 10th of August. Ridiculous, yes, but surprising, not so much. As I've talked about before I don't do well with deadlines, so knowing that about myself I decided it'd be best to start early because eventually I was going to put it off. Which I obviously did.

My third pathetic excuse for a swatch 

But my procrasti-knitting wasn't the only thing that held me back. It was mostly my insistence of not doing a decent gauge swatch. I ended up starting over at least three times.

The first time I swatched, I swatched (half-assly) a different color pattern, got gauge and then cast on. I was convinced I had twisted my cast on, so ripped out the ribbing and started again. A couple inches after the ribbing I decided I wasn't crazy about the color pattern and my gauge was off.(Surprise, surprise) So, I ripped it out, went up a needle size and decided that all was going to go well. It didn't and I was forced to rip back again and start over. Then when it came to the armhole then to the neckline I had some issues with row gauge. But it's in the past, lets not dwell on it. Needless to say, I was pretty fed up with the whole thing by September and put it away for two solid months. Lesson learned.

Even with all the hiccups and missteps I'm still really happy with it. And although I was swearing I was never going to knit another sweater ever again, I can already tell there are going to be a lot more sweaters in my near future.

Patterns: Vintersolverv from Knitty and 11-12 jumper with reindeer pattern from Drops Studio
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Sport
Ravelry Project Page

If you want to keep tabs on my sweater knitting follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.

A new year calls for a new look

New year, new look! Ha! So original right?! New year, new creativity! But honestly, I didn't do this on purpose. I was bored the other day and thought it was time for a change. I just happened to make that change around the New Year.

I've wanted a clean, semi-professional look to this blog for awhile. For the longest time I was convinced this wasn't possible with Blogger. I even went so far as to moving all my posts to Wordpress. I fiddled around with it for awhile, decided it was too much of a hassle and went to Google to find some alternatives to make Blogger do what I wanted. After some Googling I found New Blogger Themes and browsed through their many themes and finally found one that I liked. Then with a few minor adjustments I have a layout I'm really, really happy with. It is worth noting that to make even the most minor adjustments you'll need some knowledge in CSS and HTML.

Of course, what's a new year without a few resolutions, right? So, here ya go:

I started this blog with the intent to track both my knitting and sewing progress. And while I have been pretty good about posting my finished knitting projects, I've been less consistent with posting my finished sewing projects, which are adding up. And I'd love to show them off.

© Cheri Engel Chapman

The reason for that is, my sewn garments are a bit harder to photograph on my own than the hats and things I've been knitting. I can't hold the camera out away from myself to show off a dress or a pair of pants like I could with the cabled hat above. My main dilemma is that I don't have anywhere in the house to take quality photos. Yes, I've been doing my research and I know it's best to take photos outside, but when it's winter six months out of the year, that's not always an option. The thing that's really frustrating is that we have a lot of pretty walls in our house that would be fun to use as backdrops. But, the problem is, they're either in parts of the house where there is no natural light or they have large pieces of furniture in front of them. But when the weather warms up I already have a few spots picked out in the yard to test out.

You see? Some of those walls are really pretty and would work great to contrast some of the clothes I've made. After I took these test pictures, I've realized that my main hurdle is the big, heavy furniture in front of the walls. It's nor very practical for me to move a table or a couch every time I want to take an outfit picture. But, maybe there are spots, like in front of the purple wall, where I can just move some things around to permanent new homes. Then all I would have to do is figure out what time of day would be best to take photos so that the light isn't creating those harsh shadows. I don't know, these are just some things I need to think about more. But I hope to figure it out so I can share all my sewing achievements.

As always, I'll be documenting these things on Instagram and Twitter, so you should follow me there for any fun updates.