Skill + 1UP--DAY 2

Here is my 2nd post for the 2nd Annual Knit and Crochet Blog Week 2011!!!


BLOG TOPIC #2
Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?



      Over the past year I would not say that I have really learned anything special, just improved on what I knew. This time last year I was making a baby blanket for my great-niece-to-be, Kylie Rose, but being the over-achiever that I am I also knit booties (3 actually because they came out 2 different sizes), a hat, and my first ever baby cardigan. Since then I have spent a lot of time making toys-they are my newest passion. Because it is Easter time a lot of my items have been bunnies but I have also done 4 Stegosauraus, (Stegosauruses? Is one a Stegosaurai? Hmmm...) a caterpiller, 3 bunnies (ummm I have one on my needles as I post this so 3 and a half???), a bunny nugget, a half of sheep (no I am not a sicko!! I am just having problems deciding whether I like the pattern or not!) a couple of mice, an entire Snowman family and a few I cannot quite remember. I have learned a few things making toys about myself as a knitter.
      I can't make faces. No matter what I try I can't figure out how to make a face on anything. When I do make a face they are twisted or fall off or just look...weird. I have given up! If I can't find a way to find pre-made faces then my toys will be face-less. Oddly, enough it is not a creepy thing. All of them have eyes so that helps (I use beads or buttons! No sewing on of these either!!!) Another thing I have learned is to use really inexpensive yarn to practice the pattern on...sometimes the pattern is off or the gauge or just me (see half a sheep comment above!) but either way I never use expensive (in other words I use RED HEART) yarn to make a test first. Too many twisted up, forgotten, wrong looking patterns to waste good yarn on for my taste!! Cheap yarn first and then the more expensive yarn for the final product!!!
     Future goals for my knitting: to learn to use circs and dpn's, make more toys, and just enjoy knitting more!! It is supposed to be a hobby, right? Not an all-encompassing obsession?? Just a hobby....