Copyright 2008 Karen Gielen
Showing posts with label knifty knitter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label knifty knitter. Show all posts
Friday, December 5, 2008
Monday, November 24, 2008
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
The pattern for the Knifty Knitter version of my half finger gloves is now complete!
It isn't nearly as nice as the extra fine gauge loom, but I really wanted to give those without an extra fine gauge loom the opportunity to make a pair too :D!
Pattern writing is sure a lot of work! It took me close to a week and half to write the simple version of my half finger gloves pattern. Granted, it is only the second pattern I've written of this magnitude. I've written lots of dishcloth patterns but they are a walk in the park compared to my last two patterns. It sure makes me appreciate all of the other pattern designers and writers out there! I have visions of writing a book of patterns someday. I sure hope it gets a little easier.
Now onto the more difficult pattern for the EFG sock loom. SIGH.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Silly Sunday
Meet my daughter Amanda. This little girl is making it very difficult to get my work done lately. She turned two in December and let me tell you, she is totally going through the terrible twos! Plus she is potty training. Great news there, but, she wants to spend the vast majority of the day on the potty. She is obsessed. Trouble is, I can't leave her in the room by herself because she gets into lots of trouble in there by herself.
It's very cold here in Minnesota right now. Makes me realize just why I designed a pair of gloves for the knitting loom and those half finger gloves everyone is so patiently waiting for. To tide you over until I get the more difficult pattern done for the Extra Fine Gauge loom, why don't you hop on over to LoomClass on yahoo. I am on the calendar for mid February to teach the half finger gloves on the Blue Knifty Knitter by Provo Craft. Since it is done on a large gauge loom, it makes it a lot easier for beginners to understand and it doesn't take nearly as long to knit up a pair. Hope to see you there!
~cre8tivkj
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Thankful Thursday...
Today I would like to send out a great big thank you to all of my readers that have given me such positive feedback and have helped me to plan for some wonderful things yet to come on my little blog. Thank you everyone!
Some things I plan on adding soon:
* A tutorial on making pegs using polymer clay
* More minu movies
* More free dishcloth patterns in PDF format
I sincerely hope that when my visitors drop by that they are not dissapointed and they can end there visit with me on a creative note, taking with them lots of ideas and some fun stuff to do too!
I would like you to meet my beautiful daughter Paige. She's a blonde, but the blonde roots don't go so deep. Yesterday I had a parent teacher conference for her Preschool. She is only four and this little girl is one smart coookie! Let me tell you, she counts to well over 100, she is adding and subtracting, and she not only knows all of her alphabet by site, but she is starting to put the sounds of each of these together and is starting to read! According to her teacher, she knows most of what she needs to by the time she is out of Kindergarten! Way to go Paige!
I am busy writing up my half finger gloves pattern. Since so many people requested the gloves be adapted to the Knifty Knitter by Provo Craft, I am doing just that. I know when I started looming, fine gauge looms scared the living daylights out of me and I had a dickens of a time with them. I did lots of practice on the larger gauge looms to help me understand a process before trying it out on a fine gauge loom. I even made a sock with sock weight yarn on my Blue Knifty Knitter using just a single strand (yes, you heard me, a single strand) and then being the interprising person I am, I threw it in the washing machine and shrunk that baby down so the stitches came together. When that sock came out of the wash, it looked like I had knit it on a fine gauge loom! Here is the sock I made on my Knifty Knitter:
Felting isn't anything new, I know. I just wanted to let you know that you can experiment a little with yarn weights on your Knifty Knitters and try out some of those neat projects that call for those wonderful fine gauge looms without having to struggle and/or without having to go out and buy a fine gauge loom. Try it out using sport weight or fingering weight yarn. Explore the idea with your red or green Knifty Knitters too. Make a sock using any loom knit sock pattern just make sure to knit that baby really big! Stuff it with some tube socks (or anything else cotton) so the sides don't get too stuck together. When it comes out of the washing machine you'll need to work with it immediately before it dries to shape. You may need to do some pulling apart and stretching a little. Beware the sock will end up more like a slouch sock, but hey, it's a sock you look like you made on a fine gauge loom! Hee, hee.
Have a great day!
~cre8tivkj
Some things I plan on adding soon:
* A tutorial on making pegs using polymer clay
* More minu movies
* More free dishcloth patterns in PDF format
I sincerely hope that when my visitors drop by that they are not dissapointed and they can end there visit with me on a creative note, taking with them lots of ideas and some fun stuff to do too!
I would like you to meet my beautiful daughter Paige. She's a blonde, but the blonde roots don't go so deep. Yesterday I had a parent teacher conference for her Preschool. She is only four and this little girl is one smart coookie! Let me tell you, she counts to well over 100, she is adding and subtracting, and she not only knows all of her alphabet by site, but she is starting to put the sounds of each of these together and is starting to read! According to her teacher, she knows most of what she needs to by the time she is out of Kindergarten! Way to go Paige!I am busy writing up my half finger gloves pattern. Since so many people requested the gloves be adapted to the Knifty Knitter by Provo Craft, I am doing just that. I know when I started looming, fine gauge looms scared the living daylights out of me and I had a dickens of a time with them. I did lots of practice on the larger gauge looms to help me understand a process before trying it out on a fine gauge loom. I even made a sock with sock weight yarn on my Blue Knifty Knitter using just a single strand (yes, you heard me, a single strand) and then being the interprising person I am, I threw it in the washing machine and shrunk that baby down so the stitches came together. When that sock came out of the wash, it looked like I had knit it on a fine gauge loom! Here is the sock I made on my Knifty Knitter:
Felting isn't anything new, I know. I just wanted to let you know that you can experiment a little with yarn weights on your Knifty Knitters and try out some of those neat projects that call for those wonderful fine gauge looms without having to struggle and/or without having to go out and buy a fine gauge loom. Try it out using sport weight or fingering weight yarn. Explore the idea with your red or green Knifty Knitters too. Make a sock using any loom knit sock pattern just make sure to knit that baby really big! Stuff it with some tube socks (or anything else cotton) so the sides don't get too stuck together. When it comes out of the washing machine you'll need to work with it immediately before it dries to shape. You may need to do some pulling apart and stretching a little. Beware the sock will end up more like a slouch sock, but hey, it's a sock you look like you made on a fine gauge loom! Hee, hee.
Have a great day!
~cre8tivkj
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Who am I and what do I know?
If anyone was wondering why I started this blog I'll explain. I picked up a knitting loom for the first time back in November of 2006 after my sister took me to this quaint little yarn shop in Avon, MN where she purchased some knitting needles and a couple skeins of yarn. She pointed to a loom while we were there and said her friend's daughter was knitting hats with one of them. I picked it up and inspected it and it piqued my curiosity. I learned to knit with knitting needles from my mother when I was a child but hadn't knit anything in many years (simply due to a lack of time due to my large family). Since I am always interested in teaching myself new things, especially anything related to the creative arts, I wanted to teach myself how to loom knit.
I went home that day without buying the loom this little shop had but kept the idea in the back of my mind. A few days later I was in Crafts Direct in Waite Park, MN. I walked down the isle with the yarns and spotted a whole pack of knitting looms from Provo Craft called Knifty Knitting Looms. They were on clearance and I couldn't resist. I bought a couple skeins of yarn and an instructions booklet to jumpstart me on my looms. I decided to make a couple hats for my kids since they are forever losing their hats and mittens. It went very quickly! I had a hat made in a couple hours. I knitted up my couple skeins of yarn and sat there wishing I had more. My family and I were in the middle of a move and we had a shed full of boxes packed up with all of our stuff. In one of those boxes I knew I had some yarn stored away from back when I was working on a crochet project. I ventured out to the shed and began digging. I was elated when I found a skein of bright red and bright green yarn. I snatched them up and went back inside and sat down with my find. Since it was November and Christmas was just around the corner, it was perfect for a cute little Christmas hat for my three year old daughter. I knit her up a hat by the next day. She loved it! Of course, after knitting up a couple hats, everyone else wanted something! Thus began my love of the knitting loom.
I’ve been knitting a little every day on my looms ever since. I have discovered that there are so many wonderful things to knit (I just learned the other day that you can transfer needle knit projects to a loom too). I am just amazed at how quickly the projects go (which is great for me in my busy family of eight). The results from a knitting loom make me look like an expert knitter who has been knitting for years! My sister is enjoying her knitting needles and I am enjoying my knitting looms. I am now here in this blog, typing away with the intent on sharing my ideas and teaching others while I learn and hopefully find some other loom knitters out there who I can connect with and learn from too! Of course, being the creative person I am, I will from time to time discuss my other creative endeavors too! I also can’t leave out mention of the recipients of all of my little loom knitting projects – my six little children.
The first tip I would like to share: if you only have a couple stitches to hold, instead of a piece of yarn or a stitch holder, use a twisty tie. My latest project called for dropping just two stitches and placing them on a stitch holder or a piece of yarn. I found threading a stiff twisty tie into the loops and pulling them right off the pegs was quick and convenient. I just twisted the end of the tie after I snatched up my loops, tucked the tie down into the middle of my loom and carried on with my project slick as a whistle.
I went home that day without buying the loom this little shop had but kept the idea in the back of my mind. A few days later I was in Crafts Direct in Waite Park, MN. I walked down the isle with the yarns and spotted a whole pack of knitting looms from Provo Craft called Knifty Knitting Looms. They were on clearance and I couldn't resist. I bought a couple skeins of yarn and an instructions booklet to jumpstart me on my looms. I decided to make a couple hats for my kids since they are forever losing their hats and mittens. It went very quickly! I had a hat made in a couple hours. I knitted up my couple skeins of yarn and sat there wishing I had more. My family and I were in the middle of a move and we had a shed full of boxes packed up with all of our stuff. In one of those boxes I knew I had some yarn stored away from back when I was working on a crochet project. I ventured out to the shed and began digging. I was elated when I found a skein of bright red and bright green yarn. I snatched them up and went back inside and sat down with my find. Since it was November and Christmas was just around the corner, it was perfect for a cute little Christmas hat for my three year old daughter. I knit her up a hat by the next day. She loved it! Of course, after knitting up a couple hats, everyone else wanted something! Thus began my love of the knitting loom.
I’ve been knitting a little every day on my looms ever since. I have discovered that there are so many wonderful things to knit (I just learned the other day that you can transfer needle knit projects to a loom too). I am just amazed at how quickly the projects go (which is great for me in my busy family of eight). The results from a knitting loom make me look like an expert knitter who has been knitting for years! My sister is enjoying her knitting needles and I am enjoying my knitting looms. I am now here in this blog, typing away with the intent on sharing my ideas and teaching others while I learn and hopefully find some other loom knitters out there who I can connect with and learn from too! Of course, being the creative person I am, I will from time to time discuss my other creative endeavors too! I also can’t leave out mention of the recipients of all of my little loom knitting projects – my six little children.
The first tip I would like to share: if you only have a couple stitches to hold, instead of a piece of yarn or a stitch holder, use a twisty tie. My latest project called for dropping just two stitches and placing them on a stitch holder or a piece of yarn. I found threading a stiff twisty tie into the loops and pulling them right off the pegs was quick and convenient. I just twisted the end of the tie after I snatched up my loops, tucked the tie down into the middle of my loom and carried on with my project slick as a whistle.
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