Buttons Galore!

Look I made pretty buttons! My logic was people will pick the button which reflects their fear. I'll be displaying the lace one... and I guess when I face that fear, I'll be putting the blocking one up! Haha. Melanie (LocusKnits) is going to be putting them up in the sidebar later, so please remember to upload them to your own server. Check out "How to Add a Button to your Sidebar" if you don't already know how.

Are You Ready?!?!

Holy crap, tomorrow is the 1st!

Are you ready to conquer some knitting fears? I know I am. I've cast on the Red Light Special hat and it's already an interesting adventure! I'll post pictures and progress tomorrow.

Monica has made us some wonderful buttons, and as soon as my comp stops being a jerk I'll add them to the sidebar for you to snag! Please save them to your own server!

Happy New Year everyone!! Let's get this party started!

**ETA: Yay buttons are up!

Hi : )

I thought I'd get my intro in before the KAL kicks off. My name is Anna (MeowKnits on Ravelry) and I've been knitting since August of this year. Since it's only been a few months, I have several things I'm hoping to accomplish in '08:

• Learn Fair Isle so I can knit these mittens.
• Knit my first sweater/cardigan. I have my eye on the Central Park Hoodie
• Refining my sock knitting skills. I only know how to knit socks on DPNs and the one I finished had terrible ladders. I'd like to fix that and maybe learn Magic Loop
• Knit a blanket of some sort. I'd like to make the Hemlock Ring Blanket as a wedding gift for a dear friend...this would also satisfy my urge to knit something lace-like.

I'm really looking forward to my '08 knitting : )

Howdy everyone!

So as we get closer to the new year, I figured I'd finally introduce myself and share some of the things I hope to work on this year through this KAL. I'm Rachel and currently a PhD student working in wildlife...thus finding time to knit has been a real struggle. I hope with this KAL, and a couple other things I've joined in on, I'll get the motivation to make the time to do more things I enjoy.

I've been knitting on and off for a couple years but there are still quite a few things that scare me to try! My initial goals for this KAL are:
1. Socks. I started my first pair and am about 3/4 done with them but I don't think I am willing to call myself a sock knitter (or even be comfortable with the process) until I get a few pairs under my belt. A specific pair I want to aim for: Chuck's cabled socks...two-color knitting, cables, and socks all in one! Intimidating!

2. Complete a full sweater...that fits! Again, I am one sleeve from finishing a very simple sweater. But thinking about the seaming is scaring me so that's one reason this sleeve has been sitting there for months. I'd like to finish that one and start another, more complicated pattern. Got many in mind, just need to buckle down and pick one. I'll post when that decision is made!

3. Finally, I'd like to make this -- the stag bag. I'm ignorant enough that I don't know if this is fair isle or just color stranded but regardless, I really want this bag (I'm an elk biologist...so you know, even though it's a stag, not an elk, I gotta make it!).

I'm excited to start working on these projects and seeing what everybody else is coming up with!
Happy New Year!

Hey Howdy Hey!

I'm Cass! Thank you so much Melanie, for starting this KAL. I'm ready and willing to tackle Fair Isle. Well, not ready now, actually. But I'll be ready after the holidays when I can devote all my energies to being scared and frustrated and excited. I want to make some Endpaper Mitts.

I blog at Shut Up, I'm Counting. Great to meet you all!

Excited for a challenge!

Hello all, I'm Kala and I blog over at Vegan Craftastic. My first challenge for this KAL will be entrelac. I've always admired the look but cowered away in terror when I actually thought of trying it. I think I'm going to try Quant for my first project, it looks like a good entry level entrelac project. Now to find some nice variegated yarn!

A game plan

Hello everyone!

My name's Christina and I blog over here. Ho boy, do I need this challenge.

The two skills I haven't developed yet that really hinder me are sock knitting (I've got a toe-up sock knitted up to the heel, but the short row heel confused me so it's been sitting for a while) and colorwork (I've had the yarn for Endpaper Mitts for almost a year now).

The sock in question, using the toe-up pattern from IK Summer 2007 and the stitch pattern from Nancy Bush's Gentleman's Fancy Sock, in KnitPicks Risata:



I'm also keen to learn duplicate stitch, knitting in the round with two circulars, and lace. Knitting entrelac and knitting with beads are two things I haven't tried yet and would like to, but they don't make me particularly nervous. Well, maybe a little.

It'll be nice to meet everyone and really fun to see what we all work on. Bon courage to us all!

Conquering my first fear

Thank you for the invitation. I am a neophyte to blogging so I will consider this my first fear challenge. I hope I won’t embarrass myself.

I confess I cheated. I’m aware we have an official start date, but I couldn’t wait. I was intrigued by a sock my daughter was knitting with the Magic Loop technique during her Thanksgiving visit. Mastering Magic Loop was going to my first challenge, but an early snowstorm convinced me that my need for mittens outweighed offending anyone for starting early. With lots of suggestions from Ravelry members, I now have one mitten. It took a few “restarts” but I eventually got the hang of it. I’m doing an empirical test by doing the second mittens on my trusty dpns. It will be interesting if there are any noticeable differences.

Now that I blatantly ignored the guidelines, I’m going to recklessly continue. The Quant pattern on Knitty will not only be my “great introduction to entrelac” but it will be something to help me get through a 10 hour plane trip next weekend. I will try to restrain myself until my return trip after New Year’s, but I won’t make any promises.

As I have firsthand experience of the wealth of knowledge and willingness to give assistance by the Ravelry community, I anticipate we're starting a wonderful adventure.

Glassneedle

First Project Ideas

Well would you look at that? The Winter 2007 Knitty is up just in time for us to start thinking about our first fear-conquering projects!

There's a cute entrelac headband called Quant.

And Three Tams, which is similar to the Fake Isle hat, for those who want to try 2 color stranding. Then there's the slightly more difficult Fair Isle Rapids for those who are up to the challenge.

Halcyon and Ice Queen for those of you who'd like a touch of lace.


So have you thought about what your first challenge will be? I'd like to try Endpaper Mitts, though I might start with something larger. I'm still thinking.

What about you? Also, please feel free to introduce yourselves and say hi!