April 02, 2014
Hello all, Sarah here! I’m starting to re-emerge a little online and at work after some time off to have a little one six weeks ago. (Eek, how has it been that long already?!)
Before wee Alana arrived lots of crafting friends with children warned me that time to make things would be non-existent for a while, or extremely scare at least. Obviously, babies take up a lot of time and attention! Rather than give up though, I’ve changed the type of projects I work on, and um, changed my expectations about how much I can get done. I’ve got more organised too, by working on some gifts that I really want to make for family this year, but starting months in advance.
The first thing I reached for was a new crochet project. A kind friend suggested that with crochet being easier to do with one hand, it can be simpler to work on if you have a little person sleeping on your chest. I went for granny squares, because I love them, they’re little and really easy to pick up/put down and are great if you just have little snatches of time. Cal Patch’s awesome creativebug class was a great help in learning how to do them properly, rather than the rough guesswork I’ve used in the past. (And a hint to other mamas-with-babies – Cal has the most soothing, amazing accent ever, and I swear watching her class in the background has actually sent Alana off to sleep!)
It started small with just a few colours from my leftovers stash… Then I got a little obsessed.
The current tally is around 60 squares, to which I’ve now added a further outer round in cream and have started joining to motivate me to finish. The end result should be a blanket for Alana’s room, large enough to cover her bed when she gets a little bigger.
I haven’t forgotten how to knit though! My other main project started just before she was born, when I was very pregnant, overdue, and extremely keen to finally meet my baby. The house was clean and the freezer was full but nothing was tempting her out. Ysolda suggested starting a new project – something big and time-consuming that I wouldn’t want to be interrupted. It worked. I went for a walk with my little dog Penny to think about what to start, felt a little twinge, went home and cast on Stasis by Leila Raabe and ta-da! – half-way through the cast-on round the contractions started. I’m not claiming this approach will work for everyone!
A fingering weight sweater might not seem that sensible a plan, but after getting past the colourwork in the first few days when Alana slept a lot, it was perfect. Just round and round, and really easy to throw to the side whenever my hands were needed elsewhere. Last night I joined the sleeves to the body so after another few rounds it’ll get more time-consuming, but the gift deadline for this isn’t for a while, so there’s no rush.
Crafting with a newborn has one problem though. I seem to have created a person keen to get their hands on my yarn.
March 29, 2023
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February 03, 2022
Learn brioche with the free Daniel's Hat pattern
Tombreck - a free chevron beanie pattern
Working the brioche neck detail on the Polwarth sweater
Decorative Channel Island Cast-on
3 Easy Stretchy Bind-offs (p2tog bind-off; k2togtbl, k1 bind-off; Jeny's surprisingly stretchy bind-off)
Tubular Bind-off for brioche stitch
Paired increase methods compared
Brioche stitch double decreases
How to Knit in the round using Magic Loop
How to Knit in the round using DPNs
Avoiding ears when binding off
Tighter purl stitches for neater cables and ribbing
Cabling without a cable needle
Understanding "continue in pattern"
Joining the body and sleeves on a seamless bottom up sweater
How to pick a garment without a model for you (specifically addresses finding garment patterns when your gender identity isn't represented and the styles you want to knit might not be sized to fit your body)
How does ease affect inclusive size ranges?
Identifying and fixing mistakes in lace knitting
Getting started with stranded colourwork
Understanding colour dominance
Working stranded colourwork over small circumferences
Decreases in stranded colourwork
Holding the yarn for stranded colourwork
Ladderback Jacquard (a neat way to deal with long floats)
Cabling without a cable needle
Cabling without a cable needle on the wrong side
How to knit cabled decreases
Closed ring cable increases and decreases
How to work brioche stitch in the round
How to begin your first large cross stitch project
How to finish a cross stitch project with an embroidery hoop frame
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