Past Projects – Knits

I thought I’d start a series of posts where I showcase some of my many past projects that were completed before this blog was born. Today, I’ll take you through the highlights of my adventures in knitting!

But First, How It Started

My grandma Vatter tried to teach me to knit after she taught me the basics of crochet. However, she was very ill at the time and I my pre-teen brain was not catching on. She gave me some needles and a book, but I never made any progress in learning to knit. As an adult, when I began working in a VRS center, a co-worker was teaching themselves how to knit, and I thought I’d give it another shot. Since then, I’ve never looked back. Google, YouTube, and knitting books have taught me everything I’ve needed.

Honoring Grandma

One of the first things I made was this hat/cowl set for grandpa Vatter, using his late wife’s knitting needles, thankful that my mom had held onto them. I reasoned that it would be almost as if she were helping me make the items for him. He used the set often over the years, but it has now made its way back to me now that he’s passed away.

Getting Ambitious

After finishing with several simpler projects, including innumerable scarves and hats not shown here, I felt ready to tackle my first big project – this mitered-square blanket from Mason Dixon knitting. As you’ll see throughout this (and subsequent) posts, this was a request from my mom. It challenged me to learn increases, decreases, and seaming. This was 24 squares that all had to be hand sewn together, a task that I quickly grew to hate.

Crafting for a Kiddo

Shortly after learning to knit, I learned that I would be getting a niece. During her childhood, I made her several stuffed animals with cotton yarn so they could be loved and easily washed. I forget where I found the rabbit pattern, but the rest are from a book called Knit Your Own Zoo. These challenged my skills to seamlessly sew all the body parts together!

Working Without a Pattern

Sometimes, I would come up with gift ideas and would have to create the pattern myself. This is an example of one of those projects. This is a reversible scarf that measures around 6 feet long. I learned a completely new technique called double knitting where both sides are knit at the same time, resulting in a doubly thick fabric! The dragon itself was based on a pixelized image I found online, which thankfully worked out well in yarn.

Special Requests

Two other projects my mom requested as presents were these large-scale stuffed animals. The sheep is how I learned to knit bobbles. Thankfully, the gargoyle pattern didn’t require as much invisible seaming as the smaller animals made for my niece, but still had a ton of small pieces needing to be sewn on after the fact.

Just For Me

While much of my knitting has been given away as gifts, there have been several projects, like these two cowls above, that I made to keep myself comfy cozy in the winter.

At first, when I fell in love with this Hue Shift afghan pattern, I recalled the hassle of sewing all the blocks together for my mom’s blanket and it gave me a lot of pause. However, once I learned that this would be knit up in only four separate pieces, I dove right in! It currently hangs on a blanket ladder in my living room, since I am scared to have any pet claws snag it.

Next Time…

Keep your eyes peeled. Over the next couple weeks I’ll create posts to showcase my crochet projects and then my embroidery projects. Until then, stay warm, safe, and sane!