My husband bikes to school most morning, and even here in it's hardly winter California, it's still cold in the morning.  He asked me to knit him some ear warmers.  We picked out this pattern and some yarn.  I borrowed some small needles from my friend and bought the pattern and got to work.  

Things this project made me realize:
-I LOVE free patterns.  I like knowing what I have gotten myself into before I do it.  
-I don't like yarn that falls apart.  I have a feeling this may be a problem.
-I'm a super tight knitter.
-I hate synthetic yarns

I just finished binding off, and I really disliked the pattern.  The rib pattern doesn't even show up on mine, maybe that has to do with the yarn I used or that I used a bigger pair of needles,  I am not sure.  All I know is it wasn't worth my four bucks :/

It was a different project for me for sure.  I learned how to short row which was interesting and kind of fun but I suck at counting so I know everything was off a bit :/

As predicted school has restarted leaving me with much less time to work on knitting, but it didn't take me too long to finish Noah's ear warmers, though I probably could have done it in about a half of day if I just sat down and put my mind to it.  

I am going to have to wait until Wednesday for my new needles to arrive, which is WAY too long so in the mean time I have been working on a new scarf.  I had a very basic scarf pattern that my mom got me but I didn't like it and so I ripped it out since I really like the yarn and started this lace pattern instead. 

I seem to have lots of problems with my work staying on side when I knit with circular needles.  Luckily only one "line" is backwards.   I need to figure out how to fix that, but I still have no idea. 

 I have been working away on the pattern, which I love.  I feel like this would be a great red color too.  

This is my first more complicated lace, and the girls from my lace board were right, you do need a quiet place and lots of concentration.   Nevertheless, I was determined to learn to do with while talking on the phone.  I mostly have accomplished this.  I have learn to become very comfortable with ripping things out.  For my next project I should probably learn how to use lifelines.  

I'm now almost done.  I ran a bit short on the yarn so I had to stop so one end is shorter than the other, but I think that is ok.  It won't look too bad.  I already tried to graft it together but about half way through I realized I had grafted the wrong sides together!  GAH!  So I ripped it out and I have not attempted it again.  I will soon but I am just frustrated and I don't want to be rushed.  It might be a few days until I get to it.  

You can see at the bottom where it got turned around.  

This side looks ok though.  My 48 inch circular should arrive tomorrow so I can go back to my shawl! Yay!

After I finished the baby blanket, I was at a loss at what to do next.   I started looking around on Ravelry, and I found some amazing Shawls.  
This one is called Leaf Evolution and I want to make it so bad.  This is my goal.  

I talked with one of my other knitting friends and she thought that would be too hard to start with and she is probably right.  I have never knitted lace before so I wanted to try something simpler but just as beautiful.  After searching around and reading forum posts, I found this Lala's Simple Shawl.  This was a great choice because I already had some yarn for it with which I had no idea what to do.  

The pattern is really simple and I really enjoy working on it. 

Aren't they lovely colors?  It reminds me of Scotland with the sky and the heather.  

I have run into a problem though.  I need circular needles to get the right length out of the shawl.  I have ordered them but it might be a week before they come.  I am so sad.  I have worked on the shawl until no more new stitches will go on the needle.  It's very sad.  

Without the flash, the colors look a little more muted.   

I have also run into another problem.  No where in the pattern does it mention decreasing stitches, yet the picture of the finished shawl looks like it has two triangles, therefore it must decrease but it's not in the pattern.  Or maybe I am crazy.  I don't know.  Anyways, I am a ways away from being near the bottom and I hope my new needles arrive soon.  I want to make a million shawls!

My husband is already annoyed about how much my new hobby is costing, but it's just because he is nervous about after we graduate since he doesn't have a job yet.  He will be fine as long as I don't do things like buying yarn for a project I don't have yet because it's going to be discontinued...  Look how beautiful Inkwell and Deep Waters are!  I just had to have them for future shawls.  MAWHWH.  But I did promise I won't do that again and now I have to stop looking at beautiful yarn and be content with beautiful patterns.  

School starts today so I might have less time to knit, since this will be a busy quarter but I'll make it work.  

My brother and sister-in-law had a baby, which I am so excited about because now I am an aunt!  I was thinking about how sad I was that one day when I have a baby no one will be able to knit it baby blankets and cute things on my parent's side since they don't know how to knit.  One of my favorite things as a child was the baby blanket my grandmother knitted me.  She is such a crafter!  I don't know if Renae (my sister-in-law)'s mom knits or not so I decided I wanted to make something for her baby, Finehas (pronounced: fin-long a-as, not fine has like you were thinking).  

My Godmother, who is a fabulous knitter, recommended the yarn Heaven by Plymouth Yarn.  It is so amazing!  It is so soft but washable! It's made for babies.  Plymouth Yarn even has a pattern for a baby blanket called "Fast Baby Blanket."  It really is quite simple and fast, and I zipped through it! 

As a new knitter the yarn was a bit of a pain at first because it's so fluffy but I soon adjusted and had no problems after a while.  

Pictures of the finished project: 

That is the whole thing.  I probably could have got another row or two out the yarn but I misjudged it.  

Look how amazing the yarn texture is!  I really want one as a throw.  It's very tempting.  I might look for a pattern.  

Welcome to my new blog!

I'm terrible at this kind of stuff but I am going to do my best to get it all figured out and done properly.  

I've tried knitting before but I never stuck with it.  However, my husband was bugging me able things to get me for Christmas and I thought, "why not try knitting again?"   And so it began!  

On Christmas morning, I awoke to numerous gifts like an awesome basket, needles, patterns, books, and yarn.  It was a dream come true.  I eagerly began knitting again.

What I had started:
A basic Scarf
A Baby Blanket.

I'll tell you more about the baby blanket in the next post!  Thanks for reading!

P.S.  I might force myself to translate the blog into German, since I am leaning German and need to practice my writing, so be prepared for some terrible German translations!