Monday, June 4, 2007

My first post

Although this is really Beth's site, she was nice enough to invite me to post here as well. Much of my inspiration for knitting has come from her- she seems to sense when I am lacking for ideas and will send me an email full of photos of her beautiful work as well as encouragement to start something new or pick up what I was already working on.

I am still finding uses for a huge stash she bought for me on a wonderful visit to her home. My first time with DPN (double pointed needles) was thanks to her enthusiasm for them and how convincing she was about how easy they were to work with once one got used to them.

Beth started this blog a few months ago and it has been fun for me to "check in" and see what she has been working on- knitting, flowers, items for her doll house, etc. It is a great way to keep in touch. Now that school is done until August, I am finding more time to devote to my knitting and put up a post of my own.

Here is what I am currently working on.



I made a similar blanket for my sister's wedding last July and once my mom saw it, she let me know that she would love to have one like it. I started this blanket a month or two ago and am finally making headway on it.

Like the one I made for my sister, this one is random. Random colors, random patterns, random widths of stripes.

To focus on randomness is a challenge for me. I tend to plan everything in advance- length, different yarns I will incorporate, pattern, etc. With these blankets, I simply go from one yarn to the next without much thought. As long as the color I just finished using looks nice next to the new yarn, I'm happy.

Here is the blanket I made for my sister.

I hope to have my mother's blanket finished by Christmas but as knitters, we all know there is no guarantee there.

Thanks for inviting me to your site Beth.

Ann

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ann, the blankets are gorgeous! I love the colors and combos in your mother's. Isn't it amazing how knitting can fill the spaces we need it to fill, no matter whether it's to calm us or excite us; to give us rhythm and regularity or to allow randomness and risk?

Enjoy your time away from teaching; have fun and learn things you want to learn, for yourself! And keep the great pics of your work coming! B

Ann said...

Thanks for the compliments and encouragement. I started reading the Mason Dixon Knitting book and have already laughed about 10 times...out loud! I love the humor the ladies offer- I think the funniest thing I read was on their website- "Kay sure is wasting a lot of time on this" - Kay's husband

My point is, I got really excited looking through their patterns and am going to have to find some cotton yarn in the next few days so I can try my hand at my very first "warshcloth!" I'll let you know how it goes.