When we put our house up for sale last fall, I had to make a decision on which craft I would keep out to do during the selling process. I decided to keep out my knitting supplies. I felt it was the most portable and took up the lease amount of space.
I’ll take a step back to share that for the last five years or so my crafting time have consisted of scrapbooking for six months of the year and then a mixture of sewing and knitting for the remaining 6 months (sometime sprinkling in rubber stamp making, polymer clay experimenting, etc.). Obviously when you share your time with different crafts, you’re not going to get as much done on one craft but spread yourself out among many.
Jumping back to the present, I’ve been knitting constantly for the past six months and loving it! I’d say I’ve really fallen back in love with knitting. I love how portable it is, that you can take it anywhere with you. I love how well it mixes to do while connecting with friends or while watching a movie. I love how you can personalize gifts through knitting.
If you don’t know how to knit, you should check out ravelry.com. It’s an awesome resource for free patterns and ideas. I’d definitely say that my joining ravelry in 2008 has really refreshed my passion for knitting.
I learned a tip through yarn craft’s podcast with Lily Chin that it helps when making a garment to hang up your gauge swatch to measure it. I am working on my first garment, a knitted tunic, and tried a hung gauge swatch as shown here.
I’ve been wanting to do something with my recent gauge swatches.
I started labeling the number of rows and stitches per 2″ with little white price tags so I can keep the gauges in mind for the future. I’m trying to think of ways to display or use my knitting swatches. I was thinking about stringing them together and hanging them up on my wall.
Do you have any tips on ways you’ve repurposed or decorated with your gauge swatches? Have you been thinking of learning how to knit but haven’t yet jumped in?