Saturday, April 24, 2010

WIPs and why I'm not a knitter...

Well, most people visiting this blog will be those who already know me in some way or another.  What you probably know about me is that I have 3 kids, we homeschool and live in Texas.  What you may not know is that I do not finish crafty projects.  I’m a slacker.  I get that satisfaction of seeing that a project WILL turn out correctly and then I’m fine with never making the rest of it.  My kids have 1 mitten, 1 slipper and so on.  If there are 2 to be made, I make 1 and feel okay with it.  I made a stuffed panda for my youngest daughter and when my oldest daughter asked for one, I suggested they just share.  Yes.  Share.  This is no good so I thought that maybe if I started a blog to keep me motivated, I might actually finish the things I start.  In time, I hope to add another blogger or 2 so we can all keep this going.
My crocheting background goes back a long ways.  I started when I was about 12-ish.  I knew how to but I didn’t have a need to make anything until I got pregnant with my first baby.  That’s really when I learned the harder stitches and techniques.  My grandma taught me the basics and I went from there.  I hold my crochet hook like a pencil rather than the other grip that most people use so if I ever have any tutorials, that might be odd for the viewer.  We’ll see.  Anyway, I’ve always loved the look of knit but as I’ve found out recently, I’m no good at it.  I made one hat once and that turned out well.  Since then, I haven’t been able to capture the magic again.  Meh…  I’ll post the proof of that soon.  ;)
I have a couple of friends who knit and they try so hard to help me and it just doesn’t work out.  I start out okay and then something weird happens…  For example, I went to make a pair of slippers and they started out well!  I didn’t know how that rectangle was going to make a slipper but I figured it would all work out in the end.  They didn’t!  I don’t know what went wrong but they’re not pretty (see below).   I can pretty much read a crochet pattern and know how it’ll work out.  Knit patterns are a big, fat question mark to me.  I don’t get them.
Knit/Crochet
Here is a perfect example of my terrible knitting vs. my fabulous crocheting.  On the left is my knitting.  Wow.  That’s really terrible.  It looks like I scooped the inside out of a blue baked potato and put it on my daughter’s foot!  Really bad.  On the right is my super cute little crocheted slipper that I worked with virtually no pattern!  See how well it fits?  She wasn’t even with me when I made it!  The second slipper (not finished, of course) fits just as well and I couldn’t even remember how I made the first one and they totally match each other.  See?  I should just be happy with crochet!
My other WIPs (works-in-progress):
Wee Bootie
More wee booties...
Wool Shorties
I finished a hat for my 9 month old last month that turned out really, really cute!  Did he wear it?  No.  He pitched it and we ended up having to pick it up off the ground a hundred times before we just put it away.
Hammy in his hat!
It turned out a little girlier than I had planned on it but whatever.  He needed a hat to keep his head from burning and he kept it on just long enough.  I also have some washies made out of cotton that I’ll share later on.  No biggie but pretty anyway.
I would love to start something really intricate like lace but my tastes are more modern and I’m afraid they would just go to waste.  We’ll see.  Well, there ya have it.  My first post in my new blog.  TA-DAAAAAA.

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