Knitting

Last year in May, I started a shawl for a friend. I finally finished the shawl last month.

The shawl is La La's Simple Shawl. It is a good shawl pattern for a beginner like me. I enjoyed knitting the shawl. But the truth is, learning to knit doll clothes came with a draw back for me, that being, that doll clothes are small and finished quickly. A shawl is a patient work, in my opinion. Sort of like how Rome wasn't built in a day, neither is a shawl knit in a day. I used a soft wool yarn, Malabrigo in the Stonechat colorway. Its hard to see the stitch pattern in my picture but there is a nice pattern to this shawl.
This weekend I cast on for another shawl. I'm hoping to have this shawl finished by Christmas. I've decided to enjoy the patient work of knitting something as big as a shawl. I think the last shawl took me so long because I found it intimidating to knit on something that got so big. It seemed to big to finish. Once I determined to knit one row whenever I could, the shawl was finished in a short amount of time.

This new shawl is Multnomah and is another easier shawl pattern. I'll be stretching my wings a bit with the boarder but thankfully, if I get stuck, I have a friend who I think will help me. I'm knitting this shawl in the wonderful Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage yarn and the colorway is Dried Rose. Lovely stuff to work with.

Livie Knits 2

Last spring Livia started to knit a doll dress. I did a post on her beginning here. Well after working on it off and on she is finally to knitting the sleeves. Double Pointed needles are interesting to knit with. It took me awhile before I started to enjoy knitting with them. They are a bit fiddly but once I figured out how to hold the needles and knit at the same time it got way easier.

This morning Livie brought her knitting to me and asked me to show her how to knit the sleeves on her dolly dress. So now she is knitting on DPN and she learned a bit about picking up stitches and pulling her yarn up tight on the 2nd stitch of a new needle.

I love watching her knit. She has a real aptitude for knitting and learns new stitches and concepts fast.

Livie Knits

Livia has gotten interested in knitting again. Only she doesn't want to knit an easy dish cloth or a scarf. So I set her down with a few written instructions from my own doll sweater/cardigan/dress/vest pattern and off she went. Shes learned how to purl, increasing (kfb) and is now knitting the skirt part of her doll dress in the round. When it comes to the arms I will show her how to use double pointed needles. She picked a good time because now I actually know more about knitting and can show her a few things.



Last year I bought a skein of "nekkid" yarn and Livia and I had our first adventure in dying yarn with Kool Aid. It came out nicely in shades of pink, yellow and aqua. Its been fun to watch her. I've held her back some. I schedule a half hour into the school part of our day for her to work on her knitting. I want her to learn to pace herself (something I lack) and I want her to take her time and make her work look nice. I also don't want her to burn out. She is already picking yarn from my stash to make a matching sweater. Actually we traded. She had a green wool yarn left from a birthday gift last year and I had a pink. :)

More pictures of her doll dress to come later. :)