25% finished

I finished the back piece of the Beachcomber tunic. I am blocking this in pieces in the hopes of making it easier to stitch all of the parts together. The knitted part turned out okay and the crochet part was easy!

I fixed it all by myself!

Pictures go from bottom, up.

Debbie Stoller is the BEST! Her Stitch 'n Bitch Knitter's Handbook gave me the idea for how to fix my knitting. I decided that the only way I could fix it would be to unravel to the row below the errors. Debbie illustrates how to do this by running a very thin needle threw a row below the errors and then unraveling to that point. I don't have any other needles. I do have darning needles and plenty of yarn.

First, I had to take the work off of the circular needles. I did that by running piece of yarn through the stitches that were on the needle. I removed the needle and laid the work flat. At that point the piece became very curled up. So I pinned it to the ironing board and applied steam. That worked great, it still curled but not quite so much.

Then I ran another needle and thread through the stitches in the row below the error. I removed the top thread and unraveled. Voila! I was able to put the piece back on the needles with only one dropped stitch. I can't believe I did it!

Sushi on the Potty

To take my mind off of my miserable knitting abilities, I whipped up a bathroom Sushi Toilet Paper Cozy. It' s cute!

ARGH.

So, I've started making this pullover that is half knitted and half crocheted. Not being much of a knitter, I still thought I could tackle this as the knit part is pretty straight forward. Except that I am an idiot. I don't know how I managed to do it, but I stuck some purl stitches in the middle of a row of knit stitches. I need to find someone who can help me fix it. :(

My first KNITTED wearable

I have knitted a gauge swatch for this Beachcomber Tunic from Interweave Crochet magazine. The top half is knitted and the bottom half is crocheted. I'm using Knitpick's Gloss yarn in the color Sahara. It is a wool and silk blend. Nice! The gauge swatch came out just right, even though I dropped a stitch and did a brute force job of picking the stitch up again. It's obvious on the back but not on the front. I need a REALLY beginner knitting book to help me with these basics. I also realize that I have to keep the stitches nice and loose to stay with the gauge. One more thing I've learned is that cable needles are very weird. I feel like they're trying to pull the work out of my hands half the time. !

I've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to keep up with my blog. I've started the Barbados Tee in elann's Cotolino, a cotton/linen blend. It will be a boxy tee. I'm hoping it will be cool enough for summer. The shell stitch is very small and I'm taking my time. So this could take awhile.

Pink Cloud Cowl

I whipped this up over the weekend from a free pattern available at Interweave Crochet. The yarn is elann.com's Super Kydd. Super easy, cute, and warm!