Welcome back everyone! I hope everyone's resolutions are still holding strong! Mine are going ok. Some days I win, some days I lose, but we're still headed in the right direction and I think that's all that can be asked for. I'm not going to lie though, with everyone returned to work after the holidays, and all of the fun of the season over, I'm feeling a little flat.
There's definitely things to look forward to in the next few months: my younger cousin is having a baby girl and Ashley and I are both putting our crafting skills to work. Since both of us are particularly fond of this cousin we decided to split up the crafting duties. I decided to knit a small baby blanket and Ash decided to break into her fabric stash.
The pattern I chose is the Leafy Baby Blanket by Leyla Alieva, which is a pattern I've knit before when I was a newb to the knitting world. It's been a fun experience knitting it again mostly because I'm remembering how timid and inexperienced I was the first time. I was so young then. Less than four years ago.
It's remarkable how fast your confidence grows as a knitter. If you scroll back in my Instagram feed to October of 2014, my favourite post about this project is the one where I took a picture of two purl stitches three rows down that were meant to be knit stitches. I bravely dropped the stitches down to fix it and really felt like I was doing major surgery. Now I think it's amusing that it was such a big deal.
I can be cavalier about it now but the truth is that knitting gave me confidence to try new things and explore my creativity both with yarn and other media. I can honestly say that the last five years have been the my most creative yet.
This time around I decided to modify this pattern a bit. Instead of knitting with two strands held together, I decided to knit just with one and go down a needle size and add a whole bunch of repeats. The first one looked more like a large napkin than a baby blanket, which is partially because the pattern is kind of small and also because I grip my yarn so tight that my gauge is always one or more needle sizes off. I'm definitely pleased with how it's turning out so far but I'll, of course, have more pictures when she's done and blocked out.
I am pleased to announce that Ashley and I have both finished our test knits for Annie Haas. Ashley has woven in all of her ends and blocked it but I'm pacing myself with those ends. after a full day of weaving I had to take a break. Annie said that she is hoping to release the pattern at the end of this month or early so, unfortunately, we can't share with you just as yet but we will as soon as we're allowed. You might even see Ashley kicking around Ottawa in hers before then.
That's it for me for this week. Until we speak again, PEACE to you and yours and as always, happy knitting!