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Knittin' Gal
trials & tribulations
of a newbie knitter

Advancing

Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Hehehe... I think I'm improving as a knitter. After successfully completing my Cozy I was eager to start my next project. Unfortunately, the wool / yarn that we ordered from eBay hadn't arrived yet. Yawp. I've joined a knit-a-long with two other gals from the KL Knitting Meetup Group. Against my better judgement, I thought, "why not??". It's going to be a challenge and I'll be learning heaps.

Why is it a challenge I hear you cry? Well, firstly, we'll be knitting in this really fine material called KidSilk Haze (KSH). This sure is fine, FINE material and I'm a little scared of it to be quite honest. One of the other gals from the group, Vanessa of Coloursknits used it to make a cardigan and it turned out beautiful. But the texture of the material is a little overwhelming. She advised us to make sure our nails were trimmed and smooth, to avoid snagging the material. Well, Doreen, Laura and myself got together and made a group purchase for the KSH. Doreen and I chose the KSH in Dewberry, a sort of lavenderish colour and Laura chose Marmalade, a really sweet "apricotish" shade.

Well, the yarn arrived last week and has since been distributed. To be quite honest, I didn't really look forward to starting the project, as I was a little sceptical about this thingy called a provisional cast on. Didn't have a clue on what it was! Then, the pattern said to cast on THREE stitches... only THREE??!! What on earth???!!

After much delay, I whipped out my knitting books yesterday and used some spare acryllic yarn I had and experimented. Hehehe... it isn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. After 2 attempts, I got the hang of it and proceeded a trial run for the shawl. Check it out...



Kiri


Am pretty proud about this one... thankfully, the lessons I learnt when I did my Cozy left me well equipped to handle this project. I whipped out my stitch counter thingies and didn't make too many huge mistakes. But then, I had a looked at Doreen's, attempt and I'm thinking hmmmm... 1. it looks a little different than mine and 2. the lass only used ONE stitch marker thingy and mine is ladened with it!! Oh... no prizes for guessing which one is the professional and the amateur. Doreen's Kiri project:



it looks nothing like mine!

A closeup of my trial shawl:



Kiri :: closeup

Oh dear... now I am hoping that I am on the right track... maybe her's just LOOKS different because it's on circular needles. I don't have my circular needles yet but I'm planning on getting them this weekend. In the mean time, I am pretty confident about casting on for real on my 4.5 straight bamboo ones. Wish me luck... *sigh*. I think I'm going to need it. Had enough problems with thick acrylic...

On another note, whilst waiting for the yarn to arrive and courage to start my KSH project, I started experimenting with knitting in multicolours... did one square for my blankie and it is FRUSTRATING. I think I spent more time unravelling the yarn than I did actually knitting the square. Everything kept getting tangled up!




My heart square.

At the worst moment, I had 7 "balls" of yarn hanging off my needles. There HAS to be an easier way to manage all that yarn. I read somewhere about this tool called "yarn bobbins" and I might just go have a look for it during the weekend. As an alternative, I cut up a few old business cards and tried using those... not a good idea. McGyver I am not. It created more hassle! The back is rather messy I think. My weaving skills aren't up to notch yet but I am working on it.




A close up of the messy back.

Still, this is a good experience. I think I might stay away from multicoloured projects for now... small squares are OK... I shudder to think about large projects! How people do it I have absolutely no idea!

10:42 am :: ::
3 Comments:

  • Your square looks beautiful, not really that messy.

    Good luck your shawl, I'm sure you can do it.

    ~Cheers~

    By Blogger Doreen, at 11:45 am  

  • I think you are on the right track with your shawl Jackie - and you are right, Doreen's looks different because of the circular needles.
    enjoy your KSH!!! it'll feel like a breeze even though it doesn't seem to one to work with.

    By Blogger mona, at 1:37 pm  

  • hi jackie, your trial shawl is looking great. Good job! I still haven't had the chance to cast on yet, must find sometime to cast tonite.

    By Blogger Unknown, at 2:16 pm  
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