Another day, another dishcloth

Just finished my second dishcloth yesturday and I'm pleased to say, it has a much better shape. It was much easier knitting with metal needles with the cotton. As mentioned, with wood/bamboo needles, the cotton really 'sticks'. Anyway, here is the final result.....

It's not the best work as you can tell, but I'm still learning.  It will be just fine to wash dishes.

Today, I thought I'd try a different pattern. It's a basket weave motif and am thinking it will be great practice for the scarf I want to make (for my husband).  I am trying a simplified cast on this time; not the knit-cast on.

Will see how it goes. I'm also working with bamboo needles as I have been eager to try them out (just bought them at 40% off).  I hope I don't lose count.  I'm easily distracted and very forgetful. Hopefully the row counter I bought will help!!

Big Finish!

Well, it is the morning of October 2/13 and am just freezing in my house.  It makes me want to start knitting a quilt.  However, baby steps.  YESTERDAY I FINISHED MY FIRST KNITTING PROJECT.  As you know, it was a dishcloth.  As you also know, I had troubles with the tension of the stitches.  At one point I thought I would break one of my needles.  My knitting instructor suggested that when working with 100% cotton, it might go a bit easier with metal knitting needles.   I used wooden, thinking it would give me better control.  What it seemed to do was just hold on tight to the wood and have very little give.  So next dishcloth (which I think I'll start today), I will use metal needles.  Here is the 'square' dishcloth:

A light bulb turned on!

I am knitting away and liking it more and more with each stitch. However, my work is REALLY TIGHT!  I know I might be a tad stressed out but I don't think I need to grunt when trying to migrate the yarn from one needle to the other.

One thing I did notice - I seem to be knitting very close to the ends of the needles:

I may not be pulling the thread too tight, but I'm working on the smallest part of the needle. What was also happening is that since I was working so far down the needle, I had all this extra needle. So I ended up holding the needle in my arm pit. DUH!!!!  Always have something to learn.  What I did for the next row was work further down the needle. Bah bah bah bah (imagine a trumpet)!!!

I completed the row and the stitches were a lot more 'pliable'. Very workable. 

Funny - as I was basking in my glory, I noticed something wrong.  I think I may have dropped a stitch. I went back three stitches and fixed it. I'm on a high!!  Quite happy here.... to my 6 followers. 

Dishcloth Day One

Hello.

A very cloudy day here today so it's a bit hard to knit.  Yes, knit!

I have recently joined Ravelry, a great knitting/crocheting website.  You can do all sorts of things on it like create an inventory of all your stash (needles, yarn, etc.), get patterns, join discussion groups and document your projects.  So, there is a place to add 'notes' to a project but I'm not really sure if that is where you discuss your project(s).  That is why I'm writing my update here (as I think there might be a link between your personal blog an Ravelry).  Perhaps you'll be able to view it on Ravelry as well as here.  Still learning all this stuff!

So, it's the first day of my knitted dishcloth.  I'm so excited that you'd think I was knitting a garment for Pope Francis.  It's just a dishcloth for Pete's Sake (who is Pete? I have no idea)!!  But all is going well.  I have to really watch my tension.  I am very prone to making my stitches very tight.  Thank goodness also for You Tube.  Of course I forgot Corey's method (my teacher at Wolseley Wool) of casting on so I had to search for a video.  Found one very quickly.  And then of course, I couldn't remember how to 'yarn over' as I was only shown that once in class and didn't record it on my iPad.  So, another You Tube search.  It's so great.  I have my MacBook (which I totally LOVE) on my lap and watch the video and stitch at the same time.  It's great!  So away I go......

It has been a long time

You know, it's been a long time since I've visited my own blog.  I just thought I had nothing important to say.  I haven't been stitching - especially the 'Waterlily Pond'.  I'm even thinking of changing the blog a bit or just remove this one and create a brand new one.  Not too good with this blog stuff.  I am currently taking a knitting class.  So I'm all about knitting and purling right now.  Stay tuned.....

In a Dilemma

I have discovered that creating this blog for one specific embroidery project may not have been the best thing to do.  As expected, I seem to be stitching everything BUT my Waterlily Pond.  So, my question (to my 3 followers) is:  should I rename my blog?  I really think I should.  Now the question is, what do I name it?  I want it to be more of a 'general' embroidery blog.  I'm not horribly creative so I need to find an interesting name for it.  Hmmm....  Lisa's Sticherama.... What Lisa Does with Her Time....  All ideas are welcome.


Well, off to stitch (and no, not my Waterlily Pond).

Still here

I'm not even sure why I'm posting this entry today.  I have not stitched on my Waterlily Pond since my last post.  I only have 3 followers and I'm in touch with them regularly.  What have I been doing?  Well, getting over Christmas was tough.  My Mom passed away in August and it was hard without her.  Also, I find the holidays particularly exhausting and I never do a whole lot to celebrate anyway.  Fortunately, the time hasn't been a total loss.  I started a Blackwork project in the interim.  It's called The Needlewoman.  It was a challenge getting the right thread for this pattern.  It had to be a single strand of silk.  The pattern recommended Au Ver a Soie 100/3 silk and it's difficult to find.  After an extensive search I finally found a website that had the colors listed.  My local store can order the silk but they don't have a color chart.  I wanted a dark sage green and I got more of a moss green.  Still nice but not exactly what I wanted.  I certainly wasn't going to keep ordering floss, 1 spool at a time until I found the exact color.  So on November 30, this is what I had accomplished:

Not sure why it's so yellow.  I have never tried Blackwork before.  Years ago I took (through the Embroider's Guild of Canada) an intensive course on Counted Thread Embroidery and Blackwork was one of the lessons.  I didn't learn a thing from it and therefore, was apprehensive in trying it.  But as it turned out, I LOVED it!!!  It stitched up pretty quick.  At least the columns did.  December 9th had the following:

Things were starting to get tricky.  The detail on the gown and the woman's face was particularly painful.  For some areas, I had to draw out the stitches on graph paper.  The quality of the pattern unfortunately was really poor.  A photocopy with very thick lines.  Not easy to understand when stitching such fine detail.  So after things settled down from Christmas, I finished the project in January, and this picture was taken January 10.  You'll notice I have a ruler in every picture.  If you zoom in, you'll probably be able to see that the picture is only about 4.5" wide.  On 32 ct linen, that's pretty detailed.

It's so funny.  I have projects to work on, such as the one this blog is dedicated to, and I see a project that catches my eye and I HAVE to do it, no matter what.  It's always a thrill for me (simple pleasures) gathering the supplies needed for a new project, especially if there are hard to find items.  It's almost more fun that the work itself.

So now, instead of the pond, I'm working on a bell pull in Ukrainian drawn thread embroidery.  This is proving to be a challenge as I'll need to do some sewing.  The sewing machine I got for Christmas will soon be running!