Day 6 - Improving your skillset

How far down the road to learning your craft do you believe yourself to be? Are you comfortable with what you know or are you always striving to learn new skills and add to your knowledge base? Take a look at a few knitting or crochet books and have a look at some of the skills mentioned in the patterns. Can you start your amigurumi pieces with a magic circle, have you ever tried double knitting, how's your intarsia? If you are feeling brave, make a list of some of the skills which you have not yet tried but would like to have a go at, and perhaps even set yourself a deadline of when you'd like to have tried them by.

First a confession - I realised I don't own any knitting books other than a fairly basic one which I was given years ago.  I have lots of pattern books, some Harmony Stitch Guides, but not anything really helpful.  I tend to rely on the internet or Ravelry if I need to know something.  Maybe I should put a good book on my Christmas/Birthday list - suggestions would be welcomed.

I'm more than happy with my general knitting thus far.  I cable, fairisle, simple lace, some intarsia, though I prefer stranding if I can get away with it. I think my work is acceptable, others might not.

When checking out double knitting - I assumed we were talking ply!! I realised I had actually done some of this in the head construction of this little fellow, nothing to onerous there, so may give something else a try.

Steeking - Oh my goodness, NO, I could not bring myself to take the scissors to something I'd just knitted, really can't see the point.

I would like to do some more lacework. I'm sure I set myself this task last year. I did complete a Travelling Woman Shawl, which turned out ok, though maybe should have been blocked better.  I have bought myself some proper blocking wires now, so at least I can do any new project justice.  I have looked through Ravelry, found and added to my library some possibles.

One of my goals last year was to knit socks.  Well I did, just a small pair, they turned out sort of alright

I cast on these back in January but lost interest, so I guess that socks should go back on the agenda

Felting - not tried yet other than to put my daughter's jumper in a too hot wash!!! We did make use of it though

Spinning - plan to try this later in the year when we have a workshop at my knitting group so watch this space.

Loom knitting - I have a set of these and also a rectangular one.  Had a little play but nothing serious, so something else to try out.



Weaving - I have a small weaving frame - again played with it a bit but nothing produced yet.  I bought it in the local charity shop, it came from Ikea originally so imagine it was possibly for children.  Can't be that difficult to master then!

and then there is Crochet - I have a real blind spot with this. I have been shown a few times, I get it, then if I don't keep at it, forget.  Several ladies in my knitting group crochet so when I have nothing better to do I will try and crack it once and for all.

So no deadline for any of this.  What with working, knitting, gardening, blogging, there's hardly any time for housework/shopping/cooking, let alone anything new, though saying that I have just started patchwork....... I need to retire

Day 5 - Something a Bit Different

Just a hint the words are all links

K - Knitting Groups

N - Needles

I - Intarsia

T - Tension

T - Threads

E - Eco-Friendly

R - Rows

S - Stitches

L - Lace-weight

O - Organic

V - Venues

E - Equipment

Y - Yarns

A - Abbreviations

R - Ravelry

N - Notions

S - Stash

Day 3 - Craft Your Perfect Day

Today I am using the wildcard -

My fantasy day would start at a yarn producer, where we would be given a guided tour of all the processes - maybe somewhere like this, with the possibility to try out some of the yarns, maybe some free samples - well a girl can dream, this is a fantasy. 

I would then follow this with a special lunch with likeminded friends, an opportunity to catch up and discuss our latest projects and purchases, whilst enjoying a glass or two of wine

A little retail therapy would be next on the agenda, a trip to a really good yarn shop or somewhere new to me. I would have no restraints on my purse, so the purchases would be endless.

Time for home with the chance to put my feet up with a cup of tea, a comfy chair and of course some knitting, whilst hubby cooks the dinner

Day 2 - The Photography Challenge Day

The Teddy Bears Picnic

Planning the route - there may be a little drinking involved

 Preparing the snacks

 Checking the equipment

 Transportation - well you didn't expect them to walk did you!

Cheers!

The Three Hungry Bears where bought to you by Laura Long - free pattern in Simply Knitting

The Zig and Zag Blanket by Debbie Orr - free pattern on Ravelry

The Five Pub Challenge - Sunday 13th May for info Over Day Care Centre

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Info for Day 3 - Your Knitting or Crochet Hero

Blog about someone in the fibre crafts who truly inspires you. There are not too many guidelines for this, it's really about introducing your readers to someone who they might not know who is an inspiration to you. It might be a family member or friend, a specific designer or writer, indie dyer or another blogger. If you are writing about a knitting designer and you have knitted some of their designs, don't forget to show them off. Remember to get permission from the owner if you wish to use another person's pictures.
 

I don't fancy this one so I plan to use the wildcard - Craft Your Perfect Day

Plan your fantasy day with your craft, It might just take up one hour of your day or be the entire focus of the day, but tell your readers where you'd love to craft, whether you'd craft alone or with friends, knitting or crocheting something simple or spending a day learning new skills.

Knitting & Crochet Blog Week 2012 - Day One - Colour Lovers

Welcome to 2012's Knitting & Crochet Blog week,  I hope that I can keep up with everything that will be going on. There will be 100's of posts to read, it may take a while.

Day 1 - Colour Lovers -

Colour is one of our greatest expressions of ourselves when we choose to knit or crochet, so how do you choose what colours you buy and crochet or knit with. Have a look through your stash and see if there is a predominance of one colour. Do the same with your finished projects - do they match? Do you love a rainbow of bright hues, or more subdued tones. How much attention do you pay to the original colour that a garment is knit in when you see a pattern? Tell readers about your love or confusion over colour.

Well folks here is my stash, as you can see there is a fairly good mix of colours, but the red and blue spectrums seem to be the largest.  I knit alot for babies and children so this seems to be the reason for that.

If knitting for myself I tend to go fairly safe, usually dark or neutral. Rarely do I knit the same colour as the pattern though saying that my last project was fairly close to the pattern.  I wish I could be more adventurous in colours for me.

I like to adapt patterns for children to make them individual, adding a stripe or a bit of colour work just to make them a bit different. 

If you look through my projects My project page, you will see that my knitting goes in colour phases too. 

I hope I have done justice to Day One's topic.  Looking forward to seeing what everyone else does with it.

This is the topic for Day 2 - Photography Challenge Day!


Today challenges you to be creative with your photography, and get yourself in with the chance to win the photography prize. Taking interesting photographs in this instance isn't about flashy cameras or a great deal of technical know-how, it's about setting up a story or scene in a photograph and capturing something imaginative. Your photograph(s) should feature something related to your craft, so that might be either a knitted or crocheted item, yarn, or one of your craft tools. One example of setting a scene would be to photograph a girl in a knitted red cape walking through the woodlands with a basket of goodies, as in the Red Riding Hood tale, or you might photograph a knitted gnome hiding among the flowers in your garden. Photo editing is permitted for competition photos. Here are a few examples of my own photographs to illustrate an imaginative use of photography, but you can do much better than these...