January 2011
14 posts
Currently teaching myself double knitting.
Which is, like, stupidly simple. It scared the crap out of me before I tried it. But it is THE BUSINESS. For real.
A needling hooker
I’m new to this make-balls-of-yarn-do-what-I-tell-them-to thing, but I vow to get decent at it by the end of this year.
Last year, I pledged to make at least one new thing a week. That was a vague goal, but it was designed to keep me creative and to get me to learn how to do things, and it served me very well.
I played around with painting, glass-etching, metalwork, wood-burning and jewelry-making; but some yarn projects scared me.
I did make some things: a basketweave scarf that took me ages; a catnip toy heart; and a jellyfish. And the more I did, the more I liked it.
I decided I wanted to get to know more of it. I wanted to learn the language, to be able to read patterns, to be able to see someone walking by wearing a hat and knowing what technique they used to make it. So I went to my local craft store, stocked up on knitting needles and crochet hooks and a basket full of yarn, and I vowed to teach myself.
In the year 2011, my goal is to complete at least three new projects every month. They don’t all have to be major undertakings like sweaters or blankets, but some of them will be — and some of them will be tiny things like mug cozies or little toys. Hopefully, many of them will be functional (thereby justifying the cost of the yarn?), and many of them will be giftable, because there is nothing like being proud enough of something you’ve made yourself that you feel good about giving it to someone.
A little more fiber in my diet this year.
—Arielle
