A First Attempt at Yarn Bombing

After almost a year in the making, and with all my housemates helping out, the yarn bomb was finally installed on the bench where I’ve been picturing it. Because I knew that there would be so many helping hands I decided a patchwork design would be the easiest, that way everyone could knit simple squares and rectangles whenever they had time. I measured and remeasured and after sewing most of it together at home we walked to the bench and sewed it on. I had originally planned on finishing it last summer but this project was definitely one that dragged out because of all the other projects I had going on at the same time. It felt amazing to finally put it all together last night and have it fit it’s bench perfectly.

Last Yarn Bomb Post: Planning a Yarn Bomb

Deliberate Practice

I spent my weekend at Embrace UX, a user experience conference, which I went to because it related to my major in Computer Science. Throughout the conference I found myself making connections to knitting (oddly enough), particularly during a talk done by Verne Ho which was a talk I took a lot away from. He talked about deliberate practice, which relates to my studies but also to almost everything in my life: hobbies, relationships, work. I don’t want any aspect of my life to be mediocre, but that’s something I have to work on, I can’t just expect good things to happen by only putting the time in.

I often knit a pattern multiple times because I know I will like the pattern, I can knit the piece well and I know I will like the outcome of the project. I’m taking this safe route because it’s comfortable and I’m not really improving much, even though I’m putting tons of time in. I’m sure you’ve all heard that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something, but this weekend we talked about how this is only true if you’re spending those hours wisely, doing different and challenging projects as often as you can, getting help from mentors, asking questions, doing research, and taking risks.   

“Practicing something for 10,000 hours -or for any amount of time- is only worth a damn if you’re spending the entirety of that practice time completely focused on improvement” -Ryan Hamrick  

None of this is to say that you don’t need to put the time in, it’s a given that you have to. But you get out from your time what you put in, so learning to learn is one of the best things you can do.

Anyways this is something that’s been on my mind so I thought I’d share this  with you. What do you think? Is knitting a time for you to relax, and do you even want to think about learning while you do it? Sometimes that’s the case for me, but knitting something you didn’t think you were capable of making is so rewarding. I want to be able to knit any pattern I come across, and eventually I would like to be able to design anything I can dream of as well, so I will start my 10,000 hours of deliberate practice today.

Valentine's Day and a New Pattern

I usually give Valentines to a couple of my friends each year, and this year I decided I wanted to knit or crochet a little something to go with them. I found these free printable Valentines from the blog on Post Stitch. They all have dorky knitting jokes, and most of my friends knit as well, so I think they will be appreciated. I found a free pattern on Ravelry for a crochet heart which I’ll attach to the front of each Valentine. I don’t crochet much so the heart took a couple tries to get right, but after that I could whip them up really fast.

I also put a new pattern up for sale this month! The pattern is for my Blizzard Cowl, and if you decide to try it out you’ll get to try out doing cables together with stranded colour work. The outcome looks much more complicated than it is to make, so I encourage you to give it a try. You can find the pattern on my Ravelry store!

Printable Valentine's Day Cards: http://www.poststitchbox.com/blogs/news/18721791-valentines-day-cards-for-knitters

Crochet Heart Pattern: http://www.crochetleaf.com/basic-crochet-heart.html

Blizzard Cowl: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/blizzard-cowl

A New Year

A little over a year ago in the midst of my knitting obsession I decided I wanted to start writing my own patterns. I had so many ideas in my head of things I could knit but I couldn’t find a pattern for most of them, so I while I was writing my New Year’s resolutions down I decided I would try to write and publish a pattern every single month of 2014. Now, a year later, I’ve only grown more in love with knitting, in love with figuring out every little detail that will make a pattern exactly how I imagined it. I never published all 12 patterns, some ideas were started and dropped, some are still on my needles right now and some never even got started. Thirty days was not long enough for me to go through every stage of the design process properly, so this year I’ve halved the goal and I’m already working hard to get my 6 patterns finished.

I also want to focus on this blog, saving money, and all the aspects of my well being. 2014 was a beautiful year and I look forward to seeing if 2015 can top it. What goals have you set?

Christmas Knitting

This year is the first that I’ve made knitted Christmas gifts for my family and friends. I actually thought to start early enough this year so I’ve had time to knit for pretty much everyone on my list. I also bought some presents to go along with what I made, but I’m most excited to give the gifts I’ve been putting so much time into. 

For my friends I knit socks. I had a sock phase earlier in the year after I learned to make my first pair during the summer, and even though I haven’t made myself a pair yet I made a pair for each of my close friends. Now that I’m done my Christmas knitting though I’ve finally cast on a pair for myself, so hopefully by the new year I’ll get to put on my first pair of hand-knit socks.

For my immediate family I knit matching hats with our last name sewn into them. This is actually a pattern I’ve been working on the past couple months and it will be released in a couple days. I knit my grandparents a santa ornament for their tree and I’ll be wrapping my partner’s present in a hand-knit stocking this year.

This year I decided to wrap everything in simple kraft paper. I used gold ribbon, pinecones, and bells to accent the presents and I really like how they all turned out. I would love to hear about what you knit your family and friends for Christmas this year!