The February Challenge!

Hello all!

As I mentioned in my last post, I am going to be working on a knitting challenge in the month of February. However, instead of doing a solo challenge as I was originally planning, I have teamed up with my fiancé thebarnet over at vox-tower.com to present a joint challenge.

From my perspective, the challenge is to complete the Die Eerste shawl pattern (on Ravelry here) in one month. This is my first shawl pattern, my first time working on something lacey and my first time using 4 ply yarn, so I’m hoping that it will really stretch me as a knitter and that I will learn a lot. I will talk about the shawl a lot more when I post my first progress update (which will probably be on Sunday) but suffice it to say, it is completely stunning and I am in love with it. For now though, here are the competition rules:

The Rules For the February Challenge

1. These rules must be posted to each participants blog before the challenge commences

2. The Challenge runs From February 1^st 2013 to February 28^th 2013

3. Each person must produce a minimum of two blog posts per week providing progress updates

4. The projects must be worked on at the same time unless by prior arrangement

5. Victory conditions:

• Projects must be completed by midnight GMT on February 28th 2013

• thebarnet must build and paint the new Flames of War starter set (excluding the V1 flying bomb)
• YarnRush must complete the “Die Eerste” shawl such that almost all of the purchased yarn has been used up
• If both projects are not completed by the deadline, the challenge is considered a tie

The Prizes

• A Grande drink and cake of choice from Starbucks
• thebarnet – £10 of World Of Tanks Gold
• YarnRush – A £10 gift voucher for Yarn
• And, of course, eternal bragging rights

Let the challenge commence!

Are you taking part in a challenge this month? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear about it!

Smug

Currently on the needles I have Val Pierce’s gorgeous Romeo bear (Ravelry entry) which appeared in the February 2013 issue of Let’s Knit! My Dad likes teddy bears so when I saw this adorable little guy, I knew I had to make him as a gift for my Dad’s birthday which is next month. I was super organised and started early to make sure I wouldn’t be rushed, the yarn was dreamy to knit with, and the pattern clear and enjoyable. I was starting to feel pretty smug as I was going to be finished way ahead of time. Well, we all know what happens to smug knitters – we are immediately relieved of our smugness by a disaster of some sort, and in my case it was this:

Yep, I ran out of yarn halfway up the second leg, with ears still to make. That’s what you get for being cocky and not checking your tension even though you know that you knit fairly loosely.

“Still”, I thought, “This isn’t so bad, I can just get more from the shop I bought it from!” Yeah, great idea! Except that they were out of stock. By this point I could feel the world falling in on me as I tried to find another shop that stocked this yarn, and this proved to be challenging. I even briefly considered fashioning a pirate style hat, peg leg and eye patch to cover the lack of yarn, thinking I would rename the bear Bluebeard or something like that. Fortunately I managed to find another supplier who had some stock, and hopefully the different dye lots won’t be too evident. I also hope I have time to finish the project as I will be starting a challenge project on February 1st (details to follow soon!) and will need all my knitting time for that.

I have learned my lesson: never be a smug knitter. The knitting knows.

Welcome!

Welcome to my little corner of the internet, please have a seat and come chat for a while! This post is intended to be an introduction post to give you a little background about me, my yarn obsession and my intentions for the blog, so with that in mind, let’s begin!

Me – an brief overview

My name is Izzy, I’m 24 and I live with my fiance (The Northerner) and pet gerbil (Gordon Freeman) in darkest Leicestershire, which is roughly in the middle of England. I’m a bit of a nerd, and my interests include cooking, video games (particularly PC), sci-fi, non fiction books, collecting retro games consoles, Linux, and, of course, yarn which this blog will focus on.

My Knitting Origins

I first tried to learn to knit at my mothers knee when I was small, but it didn’t really take and I could barely manage garter stitch without mysteriously gaining and losing stitches. Being the perfectionist that I am, this displeased me so I more or less gave up. I fared a little better with crochet, managing a square with 5 points and eventually a whole scarf (wonky), but didn’t really take it further. Every now and then I would try to have another go, usually with very disappointing results.

Fast forward to October last year, and I was looking around for Christmas presents. Being strapped for cash (we are currently saving up for out wedding in May) I decided to give some handmade gifts, thinking it might be cheaper. My aforementioned Mum both knits and crochets, so, thinking something along those lines would be perfect for her, I got to it. My first project was a crochet mug cosy which I made as a test to see if I was capable of making something that looked semi-decent. I was pleased with how it came out so I made my Mum one and she loved it, despite it being slightly too small (thank goodness crochet stretches!).

By now, I had been bitten by the Yarn Bug, and was becoming very interested in both knitting and crochet, so I bought Simply Knitting (Issue 101 I think) from the shop downstairs, saw a hat and said “Ooo…” I then dragged The Northerner out to the local yarn shop (Button Boutique) chose some yarn and got cracking. To cut a long story short, I basically haven’t stopped since, and also haven’t shut up about it since, so The Northerner suggested I start a blog to share my experiences with the world, and here we are!

The Blog

I’m hoping to use the blog to share the stories behind my knitted objects, my experiences with new patterns, techniques and yarns, and to basically go ‘squee’ about yarn. My aim is to update at least once a week, hopefully more as time allows (and if I have stuff to talk about!) I hope you enjoy reading it and will join me for the ride!

Thanks for reading!

Izzy