My very first blog!

I wonder how people start these things? You think it will be easy, then you have a brain fart. Well, let's just start off with a little about what I'm interested in what I will be blogging on.

Here goes..... I will be posting my finished knitting projects and the patterns. Since I am a self taught knitter I will also let you in on some misadventures and mistakes that I learned from. I have mastered the art of knitting and purling, and I'm finally able to understand all of the many abbreviations in knitting patterns. If you are a new knitter you will understand how intimidating it can be to try a pattern for the first time. I remember staring at the page thinking "K1,psso, k2t,kfb, yo .......is this even english?!!" Now, thanks to youtube, ravelry, and some helpful knitting books these abbreviations don't seem as scary to try. 

Here was my very first knitting project: Knitted Baby Blanket with Flower motif

I know this isn't the best picture, but hey it was my first project.

Materials: 1 skein Green(A), 1 pink(B), and 1 white(C) Impeccable Worsted weight yarn & some left over yarn for the flowers

Size 10 needles 14"

Tapestry needle(to sew in the ends)

I casted on 130 stitches(you can do more or less depending on how wide you want your blanket)

Abbreviations used in my project are as follows

CO: Cast on

K: Knit

BO: Bind off

CO: 130 stitches

Color C: K 4 rows across

change  to color A- knit all rows until you run out of yarn (make sure you have enough to complete a full row)

change to color B- repeat ^^

change back to color C- knit 4 rows and bind off.

Voila!! You have just knitted an unbelievably easy baby blanket.

 

Side note: the ruffled bottom is the result of me trying a rib stitch of knit two purl two. However , at the time, I was unaware that when you knit the yarn is in the back of your work and when you purl you have to bring the yarn between the two needles to the front of your work. The end result was WAY too many extra stitches that I didn't know what to do with. So, I started knitting 2 and 3 together at a time, all the while thinking" I just ruined this blanket". I wouldn't recommend doing this because it was a very frustrating and long process to try to figure out how to fix that "rookie" mistake. The above pattern is the tweaked version, so you don't have to experience the hassle of the "mistaken ruffled bottom".

For the flowers:

Same size yarn and needles, and a tapestry needle

K

CO

BO

 This is a close up of what the flower will look like.

I cast on in multiples of 8 + 6 for this flower. 

This flower is a total of 46 CO stitches

CO 46

1:Knit 3, leaving the first knitted stitch on the right hand needle, start binding off with the 2nd knitted stitch and continue the bind off until you have bound off 8 stitches. 

Repeat this until you only have 6 live stitches on your needle( with 8 bound off in between each live stitch).

2: With a tapestry needle lace the tail of the yarn through the live stitches and pull until it resemble a flower.

3: tie off and with the tapestry needle sew the flowers onto your project.

How to add color(you don't have to purl, just knitting is required for my pattern)

This one shows you how to cast on

T

This one shows you how to knit(garter stitch)

This is how to bind off

I hope this was a helpful pattern. I know it's not the best seeing as it was my first ever knitting project. Also, if anyone would like to add any helpful tips please feel free to.