Knitting Dragonflies

Yay! This definitely was a slog-a-long! I started it in July of 2010 and finished it in July of 2012. Sound the horns, where is my knitting tiara!! But in my defense it was a long road. I had many gauge issues, due to using a yarn that was thick and thin ( Colinette Point Five in the colorway Cardinal,) bought, of course for another pattern, then frogged, ( see this post ).  Now this yarn is a beautiful, hand painted yarn, which is why I bought it, but I detested knitting with it. It seemed to suck all of the moisture out of my hands, (this may just be me). So I had to knit in small increments of time. The skeins are only 55 yds in 100 gms, so I had a crazy strategy of using multiple circular needles to knit it with. I had one circular at the collar, and bottom, and one circular on each sleeve. ( gauge issue post here )   I had the body done, kept the live stitches on all of my circular needles and figured, due to my limited number of balls of yarn, I would knit the esse...

I am in love with top down and bottom up in the round construction for sweaters. Consequently I’m always on the look out for books that use this technique. Wendy’s Custom Knits came out around 2008. I purchased this book off of Amazon without being able to look through it. (I will buy in the round sweater books sight unseen, *grin*). I very much liked the style of the sweater shown on the front cover. I expected this book to be a bit more user friendly for beginning knitters. (like Elizabeth Zimmerman books, she takes you by the hand and leads you through the process if needed, otherwise knit on), I do like her advice of finding styles that work for you, look at the bought sweaters that you own, and flatter you. My favorite is her “reality checklist” for picking a pattern out. I am especially guilty of seeing a photo of a women in a field of flowers, who looks nothing like me, wearing a lovely sweater and have to buy this pattern and yarn. If you follow her checklist, it will elimina...

Here are some things too good not to pass along. Love all of these links… From Jo So and Sew a tutorial on how to cover a plastic bangle with knitting. Check out How to Be Domestic , she shows you how to etch a set of bar glasses, this would be a nice personal present or wedding gift. I got one of these one Christmas and used it to death, here is the pattern, a crochet dish scrubby, yes you really need that scratchy acrylic yarn to make it work well. Wee Folk Art , teaches us how to make a mini braided rug You know I’ve been crazy about top down sweaters, here is a pattern for a raglan cardi from CosmicPlutoKnits Along the same lines Knitting Pure and Simple has a fab tutorial on top down sweaters. Indie Fix show us how to make a mini drawstring bag. This is great to carry those socks we are knitting. For us Knitters that need some crochet flowers to put on, oh whatever, here is a video from Little Birdie Secrets. From CraftNouveau a primer on photography for...