A Look into What I've Been Up to and Learned

An Update on my month of knitting in February 

Hello All, here we are a little halfway through February (already!) and my month of knitting is a great success so far. With that said, I thought it would be a great opportunity to update folks on how things have been going and the scarf's progress.  As the month has gone by much faster than I could have anticipated I've continued to work diligently and patiently on what I've lovingly called my "mulligan scarf". Which looking at the project this way has really helped, I've loosed my grip (figuratively) on trying to frantically knit, been willing to explore some more new techniques and allowed discouragement to stay at bay. Heck! I've even embraced looking at my errors (which have been few since that time) as authenticity marks in my other endeavours- which are baking and now coming up in March doing pastel artwork (which I've started to briefly playing around with).

I don't expect to finish this challenge/project by the end February- that's unrealistic for anyone- but will continue to work on it . It takes a lot of work and patience to finish knitting a simple scarf. So much that I've really come to appreciate the hard work going into similar handmade items. With that said, there is a couple really exciting things I wanted to share on this platform that show how well this challenge is, and that indeed I have been continuing to learn (much) on my own. For starters, here is the progress on my scarf.

PROGRESS!!!! (Below)

Beginning- date: February 9th, 2017 (on left); Halfway through date: February 21,2017 (on right)

This is where keeping at something (even if seems at times like getting no where) pays off. When you can see the progress and the end of yarn appears to be more in sight! YAY! It's actually shaping up to look like a scarf- imagine that-. Aside from that my next mini project- which I still have to purchase yarn and needles for- goes to a small bird. I'm making a featherless love bird, whom you may have heard of, named Rhea a tiny birdie sweater! So let this be a reminder to get on that!

New skills learned and learning along the way:

• The first thing I had to figure was how to pick up a dropped stitch. You can't tell all that much from the pictures above but not that far in I made a couple boo-boos that needed some repair and not wanting to wait for assistance I went on good old fashioned internet and googled "how to repair a dropped stitch". Luckily google came up with a great selection of answers/videos. The one I chose and that worked for me was from the Dummies series. Here's the link (for anyone whose interested). How to Pick Up a Dropped Stitch in Knitting for Dummies. This one did take me quite some time, and a couple rewatches but by the third or fourth attempt I got it! Yay! 

Third or fourth attempt practicing casting on,
Picked up from both a knitting magazine and via Youtube video

• Next on the skill list was beginning a project which involves practicing and learning how to cast on.  Which is how knitters, such as myself, create the first row of stitches in a project. It was most exciting learning this one for myself. I had to experiment a few times, had some fails but eventually I got it. Sometimes the best feeling in the world is learning to do something yourself. 

With that I'm looking forward to learning how to bind off (finishing your project so the stitches don't unravel). And if I'm feeling particularly brave maybe looking into the purl stitch. We'll see. For now it may be buying more supplies and actually getting this little birdie a sweater.

Tis all for now,

The Nifty Knitter (Kylie)

Awesome Resources for this Month: My wonderful Aunt who taught me how to knit the basic stitch, and then my favourite knitting resource (next to Auntie) is Knitting for Beginners, a magazine publication! Seriously check it out if you are planning to start, it has patterns, techniques, how-tos and mentions great online links. This is where I learned how to cast on!