More knitting talk - new projects that are not scarves!

[castalia]

I have been knitting a LOT lately. It's a nice way to pass the time when I'm subbing, and very relaxing. I spent much of the day on Monday knitting with shanola22's mother while my car was being fixed, and have met fellow knitter firiel44 through another friend, so now I have others to sit and learn with.

Not surprisingly, the first new thing-not-a-scarf project I chose was a tea cozy. Specifially, the Lily Sugar'n Cream Tea Cozy for a small teapot, as posted at Michaels.com.

Lesson learned right off the bat: use the right yarn. I had a cheap ball of Hobby Lobby brand yarn I wanted to use (one of the Icelandic Jewels yarns), b/c I really loved the colors, but it was all wrong for this project. It's not horrible, and it does fit one of my mother's teapots, but it doesn't show off the cables very well and doesn't close properly at the top. Plus the knitting got really tight towards the end and I was fighting with the tension the entire time. I also made a newbie mistake and didn't count the number of alternating rows I knitted to get the three inches you need before the decreases start. Thus, even though I measured it, one piece ended up being a little longer than the other, and when seamed together it was a bit wonky.

The much better second try:



Yarn used: Lily Sugar'n Cream in the country sage ombre, little less than one 2 ounce ball.
Needles: US size 7
New skills learned: Purl stitch. Crochet for the little loop at the top. Also, cables! I googled to find out how to Tw2R, which was a bit confusing at first but easy once I got the hang of it. It wasn't too difficult, but very time consuming, as it was hard juggling that extra needle. I didn't have any cable needles, so I just used a duplicate size 7 straight needle.

I thought this was a fun little project and a way to learn new things without overwhelming myself. Once I used the right yarn it went very smoothly and this time I made sure to keep notes about how many rows I was doing in the alternating pattern. I doubt this will be an ultra-warm tea cozy, unless I go back and line it or something, but it's cute and will serve its purpose for such a small two-cup teapot.

Right now I'm working on some dishcloths to give to my mother and grandmother, mostly to give them something useful and also to practice knitting in patterns. Now that I'm used to working with cotton, I really like using it, and the Sugar'n Cream and Peaches'n Cream brands are nice and cheap with some pretty colors. I'm all about cheap thanks to the student loan.

Pattern: Free pattern from Lion Brand website
Yarn: Lily Sugar'n Cream, country sage ombre
Needles: US size 7



Very basic but I was pleased with the end result. Such a useful way to practice new stitches and patterns.

Next/current projects: My so-called scarf and the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf. Both of these have been lessons in Choosing the Right Yarn. Oy.

Comments

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

I know! Everything I keep seeing says just to trust the pattern, but to be fair, the pattern didn't specify not to do wraps - it assumes you've already done entrelac and would know there are no wraps. But it took me ages to find a tutorial on entrelac that didn't say to wrap when you turn. I've got it now, but next is picking up, and I really hope I do it right. I'm going to keep practicing on the cotton until I do it right, b/c my pretty soy wool is going to suffer otherwise.

I've seen a lot of people adding a backing to the Danica so the wrong side won't show. B/c yeah, it's kinda ugly. I'll bet some soft felt or something would do nicely and take away from that distracting wrong side.

A dishcloth for this technique is a good idea! I should have done that first, but I got cocky and wanted to jump right in. Whoops. :)

[firiel44.livejournal.com]

When we have these things figured out, we should write a book for beginners of things They don't tell you. Between us, we've probably already spent about a week's worth of time Googling for answers on really simple stuff that books and tutorials don't mention, but noobs don't have a clue about.

This Plymouth Encore is nice to work with when you're just knitting, but if you have to back up and re-do, it starts to get splitty. Next time I need a wool blend I think I'll try Patons or Lion to see if they are any better. If not, it's the same stuff with the same problem but it costs less.

[castalianspring.livejournal.com]

Surely a book like this exists somewhere? I don't have any books yet, so I'm not actually sure what they might or might not explain, but I do wonder if Knitting For Dummies or something like that might have better explanations of common mistakes or overlooked instructions. If not, someone certainly should write one.

Sadly, the Patons does indeed split a bit in places, or just get loose and not as pretty to knit with. I don't think it will spoil the overall effect of the yarn, but it makes it harder to handle than I'm used to.