What Are You Working On is a community diary series for all things crafty, in a variety of mediums and techniques.
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Sometime in the last ?year, I took my daughter to my local yarn store for the beginning knitting class. Since the beginning class is free, I thought it would be the easiest option.
She knitted away for a while on her yarn-shop wool and needles. Then one day I came home to find yarn ends and unraveled yarn - she was tired of her project and wanted to use the yarn for something else. She's very creative and crafty.
After that, I thought about a first project. I think it's important to see progress, and get lots of support. So I designed a new project to meet those goals. It's only 15 stitches wide in this Red Heart multi-color. So she can easily count and quickly finish rows. I also made her a deal: every time she knit 4 rows (or more) I would knit the same amount that evening for her.
I took her knitting along to Hawaii, and she didn't touch it the entire time. She was very occupied with many other crafts, and with combining various leftovers from kits with other found objects. So when I unpacked her knitting, I gave her a 15 or 20 row boost. And she is knitting away again this week.
It's around 15 inches long, and I think it might be at a half-way point. This one is for my daughter (who is now 7) and we are going to make a matching one for her new American Girl doll. That one will knit up very fast, as it will probably be 5 or 7 stitches wide ;-)
My daughter had a problem with having not just the 15 original stitches, but inadvertently increasing one or two in every single row. I corrected this on my rows but I wanted her to learn to keep her knitting even. So I taught and rewarded her for counting every row and fixing it sooner. You can see that the work closer to the needles is more even than the earlier work on the beginning end.
I finished the Random Red Scarf and I am waiting for a sunny day to get some decent pictures of it.
I removed the rest of the carpet from my living room and had my kids' godparents help me rearrange furniture.
Son exercised most of his creativity this week by building legos, although he was curious about two-needle knitting.
I am still swatching the new Knitpicks socks yarn, and I am considering a shawl knit in a pretty plain pattern with variegated yarn.
I have two yarns to choose from: Lion Brand Amazing, which is about half wool and half synthetic; and something fancy from South America I picked up in the Honolulu knitting store in the office building.
I think I will swatch both of them on size 13's - I think the Amazing will knit up like a fine mohair probably, but I am not sure what the worsted will do.
I have a very lovely lace shawl started, and I have three projects ready to start that are all smaller.