Yarny

It’s been a little over a year now that I first put in some actual effort to understand what those weird abbreviations in my friend’s collection of knitting patterns. Now that I look back, I just wasn’t interested enough.

I remember spending a little over a week mastering knits and purls.

You can’t really tell here, but these are the two basic knitting stitches from when I practiced. I think the one on the left is the knit stitch. They look the same because they are the same, only reversed when we’re working them (of course, you’d know that too if you knit :))

This was the very beginning. These were my baby steps.

After this came this:

:

I got my own knitting needles, (the ones in the previous pictures were borrowed), and a crochet hook (believe it or not, that’s the biggest size you can find in this country), and my first batch of yarn for a project. Yes, that is as big as skeins get over here. I guess it has something to do with our weather. When it gets cold a sweater made out of thinner yarn than this is enough to fend off the chills. There are heavier stuff, but most of our woolens are power-loom knit, and only the granny generation ever care about the art.

At any rate, I grappled for a while over what to make. At first I wanted a scarf.

Seed stitch maybe? I tried that. Casted on, did a few rows, got tired, frogged it. Then I thought, Rib Stitch scarf!

Looks pretty, doesn’t it? I loved how it looked and felt. But again, it stared to get boring. I dropped some stitches, and when I had to re-do rows, it was hard to find the stitches. Anyone who’s had to deal with rib stitches knows the pain. It’s hard to locate which stitch to knit and which to purl. So, I gave up on this as well. Finally, I made a hat.

The crown is a long strip of seed-stitches, and the rest is fisherman’s ribs. Everyone loves the pompom. Here’s the little kiddo I made it for. Looks so happy, doesn’t he?

And then I started crocheting. It took a while to get used to the yarn in my other hand, and holding the hook right. My first crochet project was this:

An amigurumi phone case. It was hard the first time. I kept getting lost in the stitches. The front and back confused me, and I increased stitches more often than not. But I got that hang of it after the first one, and made another.

Then I moved on to these:

Granny squares. The pink one was my first attempt at the regular ones, but I like the look of the solid squares a lot better. I made 6-7 of the solid granny squares as a part of a big WIP. It’ll either end up as a throw or an afghan. I don’t know yet. The spiral square was more on the experimental side. It looks pretty, and could serve as  cool gift for someone, if I can make a set of them.

I’ve had the most fun crocheting amigurumis.I made a heart and a crescent for my aunt and her son for their birthdays.

A heart went to my friend who lives in Malaysia when she came on vacation and we went to visit. People are going berserk over it, and asking me to “make me some!!!” Well, I can’t say I’m complaining. encouragement and enthusiasm are the two best friends of creativity. And the support my family and friends have shown has been enormous.

Last week, I made my aunt’s other son a double colored star.

And that’s how it’s been so far.

I hope someday I can make something bigger and more meaningful. I will certainly finish that throw, and I will share pictures!

What has your creative journey been like so far?