Why I Don't Love this Blanket Pattern

I am working on the throw blanket pattern from Lion's Brand found here: Knit Sampler Throw.  Now, I endeavor to finish everything that I start while knitting, so I will finish this.  However, I have some complaints about the pattern.  I'm guessing that what I'm complaining about was partially done to make it an easier knit.

•  The seaming takes a long time and isn't all that enjoyable.
• The blocks are different patterns and different stitches and the only thing they have in common is they are 9 inches tall, so I find the seaming to be more difficult and therefore less enjoyable.  Matching the stitches for seaming adds additional work.

Okay, I guess that's two complaints.  Now, I could just forget it, but when I buy yarn for a project, I generally work to finish it, even if it's not my favorite.  I have to be honest that I probably would have enjoyed something for my first blanket that you just kept knitting or crocheting straight through.  I'm about thirty percent done at this point and part of my lack of enthusiasm might be the distance I have to the finish.  I will see how I feel when I'm closer to 90%!

August Mystery #2 Solved

I finished my mystery knit (the second one, still have not delved into #1) for August.  I did not guess at all what it was until I saw the pattern pictures at the end and then it all made sense.  I've placed my picture here after the cut, in case someone is working on it from the 220 Mystery Group or if you want to give it a try and don't want to know.  Otherwise, enjoy this knitting.

Mystery Knit Along

I joined the mystery knit along group on Ravelry that does mystery projects within 220 yards of yarn.  I wasn't sure about it, because it's a lot harder without a picture.  However, it's great practice for paying attention, counting rows, and most of all learning to read patterns.  Unfortunately, I tried to work on it right before bed while dead tired and ended up messing up to the point of confusion, so I frogged it to try again.  Knitting with DPNs is still a skill I'm practicing with, and I feel like it takes me time to get the flow.  No spoilers on what it is, though to be honest, I can't quite tell yet what it is.  I had some left over Knitpicks Swish in a blue color, Whirlpool, to work with so it's a nice stash buster, as I didn't need this entire skein for my lace hat that I made last year.

I plan to give this another go tomorrow when I'm well rested.

Throwing Blankets

I've moved on in projects and now I'm working on a throw blanket for my dad.  This is a fairly simple piece, as far as stitches go.  It is 20 blocks of sampler stitches that are sewn together after knitting.  There are only 6 different stitches and several of the blocks repeat themselves.  The stitches I'm working with are the seed stitch, ridge stitch, diagonal rib stitch, blackberry stitch, berry stitch, and basket weave.  So far, I am three blocks out of ten finished.  It says to sew them together when they are all done, but because I can't wait, I am sewing them together as I get them finished.  Right now it is a really thin blanket!

I'm excited because tomorrow my yarn swift and ball winder arrives from Knitpicks.  Actually, scratch that, I forgot the baby has me up at 4 am.  It actually comes today.  I tend to be lazy about winding yarn into nice center pull balls, so I'm thrilled to be able to organize my yarn, especially my small amounts of scraps, into nice regular looking balls of yarn.

My First Crochet Project

When I was younger, my grandmother patiently tried to teach me to crochet.  I did not understand it at all.  Knitting and crochet were the activities that my aunts and grandmother participated in and I just never figured it out.  I would say I was impatient, but I learned how to cross stitch and counted cross stitch, which requires equal numbers of patience.  For whatever reason, when my grandmother was alive, I never learned how to crochet.  As an adult, I started into yarn crafts with knitting.  It just seemed to click.  And still, I never learned how to crochet.  My grandmother passed away two years after I graduated high school.  The missing skill always bugged me as I came down our steps and landed on the rug that my grandmother crocheted for her own home.  After days of reading and researching and re-reading, I finally can say I learned how to crochet and I finished my first crochet project after numerous failed attempts over the years.  And with that skill, I feel like I can continue the tradition that my grandmother started.

Back in the Saddle

It has been a while since I posted here and since I even knitted.  When I got pregnant, I got tired.  But worse than that, I got carpal tunnel in my hands, which made knitting very hard.  I got back into it and my current project is to learn crocheting.  It's not going bad, but to say it is going well is another thing entirely.  I'm working on the Garden Scarf from the Happy Hooker book.  It's not really hard.  It's all me making it that way.  Knitting is so linear for me.  Even when working in the round, there's a linear design to knitting.  The Garden Scarf is crocheted flowers and crochet is so multidimensional for me compared to knitting.  And because of that, I try to make it so much harder than it is.  Here is my first, rejected attempt at flowers.  Notice that I did it really wrong.  It's not supposed to be that loopy.  I think I corrected my problem (which was making turning chains I didn't need) but we'll see on this next try.