Lesson learned: Trust your pattern

So, I finally finished that shawl from my last post. Hooray!

As most of my beginning endeavors have turned out to be, however, it was a learning experience. My number-one lesson learned from this is that I need to trust my patterns. I was following it to a T, so there wasn't really any reason to doubt my center stitches' placements, other than the fact that I was eyeballing it and it just seemed off.

However, it looks like they were actually right all along.

See the center stitches there (also, our spare bed, which was the best empty flat thing I had)? Yeah, you can see pretty much every time I decided that it looked wrong. Ha! I don't care, I'll still be wearing the heck out of this. At least you can tell that I made it. :P

Another thing I learned? Yeah, pay attention to which way you're blocking. This was my first adventure in blocking, aaaaand I managed to do it upside-down. The middle of the top there was supposed to be the bottom. Which explains just a little bit of the shaky middle, as well.

Am I pleased with the end result, though? Oh yeah. My stitches, for the most part, are even and pretty. Heck, they look like something I'd buy. The Malabrigo yarn I used is very soft to the touch. But - things to keep in mind next time, of course.

Currently on the menu:

•  Reviewing my circular needles!
• Mom's Christmas presents (I've already started part 1 of this and it shouldn't take me more than a couple days for that, I think - I won't be posting pictures until after Christmas lest I ruin the surprise, however)
• Very possibly another hat (that someone might actually pay me to do - what is this?)
• Baby blanket x 2 (my best friend is having a baby this June, and so is another dear friend! Something has to be in the water)
• Baby booties
• Baby hats

My birthday is Wednesday, so I'm hoping for enough money to buy a few more skeins of yarn for that stuff (especially since I need to get the yarn for the baby blankets all at once - don't need any color variations there). I'm not sure what would be the best yarn option for those, but I know I'm going for a natural cotton color on the first one I make. I've got time to figure it out, at least.

What the heck, shawl?

Okay, so say hello to the shawl I've been working on. (It also says hello.) The color actually looks pretty accurate here, and you also get to meet my bedspread. Not bad for an iPhone photo, I think.

Anyway. It's gone pretty well. I've only had the occasional problem with it. One of those problems? In the middle of class, one of my acrylic needles (or the acrylic needle part of the circulars I've been using, rather) snapped in two! No more of those needles for me. Certainly explains why they only cost, like, $2. So I've had to perform a little bit of knitting surgery, and I've done well, I think.

But, of course, the title of this post implies that something is up. And something is up. And it will be explained. First, here's the pattern I'm using (on Ravelry, natch): Eyelet Shawl. I've done well enough following that. At the beginning, I kept losing count of my rows, but then I downloaded the Vogue Knitting app for my phone, and that's helped out a lot. However, when it comes to those center stitches (the ones that create the eyelets down the middle), they...well, it's like the middle keeps shifting. I'm not moving the stitch marker or anything, but it looks like the center keeps moving to the left! Maybe this picture will help a bit:

 

Wow, the camera likes to shift the color a bit. Trust me when I say it's not this magenta. But see how the marker is to the right of what looks like the center? That's happened a couple of times, so I just move the marker over a few stitches (usually four, to be sure that there's an appropriate number for the yo, k2tog eyelet row) to the one that actually looks like the center. Something tells me that this is probably a bad idea, but it looks like it's working out, for the most part. It's so weird, though, because I can't even GET to the marker until I actually make all of the stitches.

Basically, what I'm wondering is - if I'm following the pattern to a T (which is easy enough now that I'm keeping track of rows), why is this happening? Or is it all in my head and I need to leave the marker alone? I have this (maybe irrational?) fear of blocking this out (which I assume I can do with pins and a towel?) and having the middle be kind of wavy. But, if you look at the picture to the right...it's done some other kind of weird stuff. But it's always made it back to the middle before. It's sort of like it "adopts" stitches from other rows to become the center. (I hadn't moved the marker at this point.) I don't know what's up. But the shift kind of bothers me. Any advice from the much-more-experienced set? 

I've beefed up my speed on this thing, so I might be able to get it finished in the next week, which would be nice. I'm wanting to start a hat and scarf for my mom for Christmas, but I'm using a yarn that isn't very popular (in Amethyst). Luckily, someone's already making the hat I want to make, so it can be done, but that leaves the scarf. I'm wondering - do you all know of any scarves that would match that hat? (It'll be my first cabling endeavor. Which might be a bad idea. But I'm giving it a shot because I can. And my mom will appreciate it either way.)

Until next time!

Hello, knitting world!

So, hi. I am, as they say on the 'net, a newbie. Or, if you're more drawn to the gaming side of things (as I am), a n00b.

Well, not to the Internet, but to knitting.

I just started this summer - in June, I think - and I don't know if I've been the same since.

I've been looking for a relaxing thing for so long, and I've finally found it in knitting. It doesn't help that I've finally accepted my yarn addiction. Let's not talk about how much I have after just a few months. (I've put a moratorium on buying more, by the way. No matter how many 40% off coupons I have for Michael's.)

So, I hope to document the things I'm making, review a few items from time to time, and show the world how I'm using my yarn. If I make a few friends doing it - that's just fine. If you want to contact me on Ravelry (where I'm not too awesome at keeping up with stuff, other than adding it to my faves), you can do so via the button to the right, or just click here.

Since I've started knitting, what have I made?

Well, so far, just a hat. But, to be fair, I've got a lot less time now. I've now just started carrying my latest...well, second project (a shawl using some nice Malabrigo silky merino) in my purse, and I pull it out all the time. A few stitches at a time! I'm now over halfway done, and I need to take pictures of what it looks like. With something more than my phone, I think.

If you can't tell, I've got a tendency to bite off more than I can chew. I probably should have stuck to the most basic of things, but I figure I can learn as I need it a lot better than learning everything and then only using it a little bit at a time. I don't know, maybe that's how everyone does it. But at least I'm having fun my way.

But now, since it's like, 4 a.m.? It's time for sweet slumber. Silly blog customization taking all night to look right!

Sweet dreams!