Charity Knitting

One of my new year's resolutions is to get into charity knitting.  This morning I was reading from my new favorite knitting book, which I just got for Christmas.

In the book there is a story about a woman who took up knitting in order to donate handmade socks to a local charity.  After knitting the socks for charity, she knits socks for all her friends and family.  Basically, she knits so much for other people that she never gets to knit herself socks.  She is called "The Barefoot Knitter."

I do believe I am this kind of knitter.  I am at the point where I get to start a whole new batch of projects and all I can think of is who to knit for next!  One of the best gifts I've ever received was a hand knitted octopus from my friend Laura.  Every time I look at it I think of her and the care she took in creating it for me.  I encourage you all to start knitting for others, whether it be for friends and family or for charities.

Also, does anyone want to take up charity knitting with me?  I have lots of ideas and options!

Mending

There are two types of knitters: perfectionists and fix-laters.  (There are actually many more types of knitters, but the purpose of mending, there are two).

The perfectionist is the knitter who goes back as soon as there is a mistake.  If there is one extra stitch or one stitch to few, the perfectionist will search through the rows for the missing or rouge stitch until it's found.

The fix-later is what I am.  While I'm knitting I prefer to keep moving forward and come back later.  If I find an extra stitch, I just K2tog.  Missing stitch?  M1.  This method, though it produces a faster result, requires quite a bit of touch ups once the knitting is done.

 That, my dears, is what I'll be doing tonight.  Mending the holes where my lace pattern was off, weaving in endings, and repairing the holes around the thumbs of mittens.  Somehow I never can figure out how to knit a mitten without a hole between the hand and the thumb.  Project!

Another treat!  Jessica at the Ann Arbor fiber expo!  And yes, that is a real camel.

A Holiday Treat for You All

Aww, that's my cute kitty!  I actually have not done much knitting today.  Still working on the kitty toys and blocking the other projects.

Tomorrow I will be working on the finishing touches for my Christmas projects so I will talk about touch ups and mending!

Blocking

Today I am going to block all of my Christmas presents so I thought I'd talk about it.

Blocking is when you hand wash your finish piece with either a wool wash or a gentle shampoo in some warm water.  This helps the fibers relax after being knitting for so long.

After washing, lay the piece out on a flat surface.  It works best if you have some sort of foam sheet or board down first because next you pin the piece into place.  This allows your knitting to dry in the shape you want it to.

You may be asking, which projects do I need to block?  Well the best thing to do is block everything you knit.  Lace projects in particular need to be blocked otherwise they are lumpy and strange looking.  Get into the habit of blocking everything.  Then your gifts will be clean and smell wonderful.

My knitting:
I realized I need to knit some sort of present for my dear kitty Sorcha.  I have decided on some mice.  I'm going to make the tails really long so she can't bite me when we play together.  Should look something like these:

Only they will not be filled with catnip.  Sorcha HATES catnip.

Welcome

Hello fellow knitters!

I have created this blog primarily as a way to connect to my knitting community in Hen House.  It will be part inspiration, part tutorial, part knitting stories, part tips and techniques, and probably A LOT of cat pictures.

If you have any questions, ideas, thoughts, jokes, or general statements about knitting, spinning, croqueting, etc., please share!

Celia's knitting update:
My mother is thinking of branching out to socks.  The only problem is that she can hardly keep up with her baby hat knitting (she knits a hat for each baby she delivers)!  I have stepped in to help.  Now I am furiously knitting baby hats in some fabulous hand dyed, merino wool yarns.

Christmas knitting update:  Believe it or not, I only have ONE more project to finish knitting for my family Christmas gifts!  Of course, all the projects have to be blocked, sewn, and touched up but this is still a huge accomplishment.  I mean, I started knitting these projects in August.  Now Christmas is less than a week away!

Seasons Greetings Everyone!