Can I knit? I mean...I can knit!

I'd have to say my favorite craft is sewing.  I find that as someone who is not too keen on following what's in style at the moment, it is easier if I can make something myself exactly how I want it.  This started out with me being able to let my kids be anything they want for Halloween instead of being limited by the boring selection of craptastic costumes in stores.

One of the main reasons I started sewing more seriously was to lower the cost of costuming for my SASS habit.  After watching my mom whip out a crocheted shawl in two days for me to wear to a match I realized that I could use that skill for quite a few of my shooting outfits.  Also...yarn is CHEAP!! This is always a good thing, as it is actually rare for me to have a stash of fabric waiting to be sewn.

I started out by buying a skein of cheap multi-colored yarn and a set of straight size 10 needles.  I went a-Googling for knitting videos and found Knitting Help the very best, and easiest to understand, source for videos to teach myself.  I have yet to buy a book, I've taught myself so far just with the videos on that site and using free patterns found online.  The internet is a wonderful thing!

I spent the first several days making fingerless gloves to figure out my tension, how to hold the yarn and needles and how to read patterns.  Then jumped into my first big project, a long stocking cap for Aidan in Christmas colors.

Aside from some tension issues in the ribbing portion, I am quite happy with how it turned out.  Lesson learned this time:  do NOT wait until the end to work in the tails of each color change!  That was torture!

I plan on figuring crocheting out in the future as well but since my mom did teach me how to crochet when I was in my teens, I am hoping that it will come back to me quickly when I find something I want to crochet.