Hat, scarf, fingerless gloves, purse......whew! Busy!

I have been in a knitting slump lately and rightly so I blame the fact that I bought a surplus of a certain type of yarn: It is jinxed! So I decided I needed to make something fun, cute, and that someone would love: Enter Kirsten's Set! Kirsten is my recently turned 10 year old niece who loves anything handmade by me and always asks me to make her something: ANYTHING! Because I had the "jinx" yarn in surplus I figured I should make something with it...you know...to break the curse! I was at Michaels "idea shopping" (that is where I go to a bookstore or a craft store to be immersed in other people's ideas in hope that my own ideas will be sparked!) and they had a display for Breast Cancer Awareness month (October...support the ta-ta's everyone!) I liked the ideas that they had for scarves and hats which made me realize that Kirsten is ALWAYS cold and would benefit from something knit/warm. (See? Idea shopping works!) I started that night on a hat with the "jinxed" yarn! A day later I was finished and went to buy my monthly copy of "Simply Knitting" magazine (greatest magazine ever--the Brits have great knitting ideas!) and what was inside: the cutest purse and scarf FOR KIDS I have ever seen AND...get this...in almost the EXACT color of the "jinx" yarn!

Kirsten is a HUGE gamer...she loves the Wii and her brand-new Nintendo 3DS so to add to her set I made her some fingerless gloves as well. Problem is: Kirsten is petite. She is 10 years old but can wear a 7-8 and her hands are really tiny. SO any pattern I could find in Ravelry or anywhere else online were tooooo big for her. I MADE UP MY OWN PATTERN!! How exciting is that?? Me! I am not the best at making up patterns and really am afraid of the measuring and the math...but I DID IT! I will be adding my pattern in my next post, if anyone is interested.

Also, if you look closely at the scarf you will see fringe and on the fringe? BEADS! That's right! I ALSO BEADED with KNITTING (ok...so not exactly adding beads onto my knitting but I have to get praise where I can!) I asked Kirsten if she just wanted fringe or should I add buttons, ribbons, beads, etc. and she asked for beads. So I did it!

One other thing that I did for the first time ever: i-cord! The pattern for the purse in "Simply Knitting" only was for the purse and not its handle so I had to learn to do an i-cord. I went on Youtube and found a simple tutorial. What I learned from doing an i-cord for the first time? BORING! Useful. Cute. Stretchy. Easy. BUT tedious and boring!

The entire time I was working on this set my 2 year old great-niece Sadie was enthralled. She loved watching me knit while she held "Cat-Cat's bassetball" (the ball of yarn) and she kept asking me what it was and for who. Today when I was putting on the beads and weaving in ends she was right in the mix. She was in love! All she wanted to do was try everything on. The next pictures are of her, (and a pic of the purse--close-up)trying everything on BEFORE Kirsten came home from school.



As you can obviously tell the "jinx" yarn has rekindled my passion for knitting and I am now thinking of other things that Kirsten (or possible Sadie...maybe I should make Sadie her own set?? Hmmm...) may need/want. Of course, all of this will have to wait until AFTER I knit Xmas cards for everyone....I now cannot wait to get started. Lesson for me: even "jinxed" yarn can be useful and sometimes learning new ways to do something is its own type of "idea shopping."

Oh...one more note: I am honored to be a guest blogger on the blog, "Knit Me" and have made my first official post....you can see my post (and all the great stuff Aly has done!) here:

http://knit-amigurumi.blogspot.com/

Hopefully one day I will have guest bloggers as well....we shall see.....