Adventures in Knitting - Fair Isle Style

Well, it has been a while since my last post and alot has happened since then. Now that we are drawing closer and closer to Christmas I thought it best to start my Christmas Projects. I have taken the hand made pledge very seriously and intend to sew, stitch, knit or crochet ALL of my Christmas gifts this year.

My daughter was not too pleased to hear this......video games and an ipod are on her list........but I think in the end she will get enough of that stuff from the rest of the family and I often find many of those items cast aside a few weeks after Christmas anyway. This year, I hope to make her something that will be well used throughout the winter months and maybe even last into next year.

I found Ravelry not too long ago, signed up, logged my stash and then promptly stopped visiting the site for several months. I have been longing to get back to my knitting so I sat down and took advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday to get started on some projects.

I am the kind of person that likes to work on several things at once, that way when one gets tedius I can move on to something else for a little while, and in the end I get more done. So right now I am working on a pair of Spider Man Mittens
and matching Spider Man Hat set for my nephew, I have yarn and needles ready to to finish some Beanies I am making for a trade, and I am going out to purchase some yarn this afternoon to make Endpaper Mitts for some of the women in my family. I won't say who in case they may read this...it would totally spoil the surprise. I also have planned to make some felted mocassins for my little nephew Eli who is just 1 year old this past SeptemberThis picture is from the book Felted Knits by Beverly Galeskas which you can find here if you want the pattern (or you can check your local library)

And I will finish my neice's (3 year old Serra) Amgurumi Monkey that I started back in April. All he needs is a tail.

So I guess you could say I have my work cut out for me. I better get a move on!

Sadly just before writing this post, I had to completely unravel the SpiderMan Mitten I was working on and start over on larger needles. The pattern is written for size 2 needles for a toddler mitten, and I need an adult size for my nephew. Being a new knitter, I thought a 6 would work since the pattern suggested a 4 or 5 for a larger size. But I either knit really tight or 6 just wasn't big enough. On top of that, I got all the way to the top and could not understand how to do the decreases and still stay in the pattern. (I am trying a 2 color stranded Fair Isle pattern for this mitten. It looked great until I got to the top and needed to start decreasing. And I am working on dpns for the first time too!)

I think I need to phone a friend for assistance:)