My First Baby Blanket

A friend from my high school era is having a baby next month. I made this baby blanket for her baby girl. The material is 50% wool, 50% acrylic in cream color (off-white) and is machine washable. Nice to keep the new born warm, while it's easy to clean!

What I've learned:

• Pay attention to the force you exert to pulling the yarn throughout the knit! Keep the tension as consistent as possible. I made a mistake of letting the yarn fits more loosely on the needles when knitting the last 20 cm, so the width of the piece becomes wider (as seen on the photo above).
  

Material used:

• 300 g of yarn - on the label: tension for 10 x 10 cm is 19 sts x 27 rows; recommended needle size is 4.5 mm

Tools used:

• a pair of circular needles, size 4 mm
• 1 crochet hook, size 3 mm

Link to this pattern: click here

My First Knitting Projects - Piece 3

This is a circular scarf (perhaps neck warmer is more appropriate) I made for my sister-in-law, but it's not done on circular needles. It's knitted as a regular scarf, then one end is sewed to one side of the other end.

I also gave her some matching buttons for her jacket. The personal touch I added is very settle, so I don't think you can see the details on this photo. I used the left-over yarn from the mother-in-law piece, added three strings of threads in baby pink color, and put them through the button holes where threads are supposed to go.

Pattern for the neck warmer:

material used:

• 100 g of yarn - 50% wool, 50% acrylic - on the label: tension for 10 x 10 cm is 20 sts x 24 rows; recommended needle size is 3.5 to 4 mm

tools used:

• a pair of knitting needles, size 3 mm
  
• 1 crochet hook, size 3 mm

instruction:

1. Cast-on 73 sts, so the width is about 16.5 cm.
   
2. Row 1: [K3, P2], repeat to last 3 sts, K3.
3. Row 2: [P3, K2], repeat to last 3 sts, P3.
4. Repeat row 1 and 2 until reaching desired length (this one is 65 cm), it depends on the head size of the recipient. So make sure the inner loop will fit through the head of the recipient.
   
5. Cast-off (bind-off).
6. With the crochet hook and the end of the yarn, weave (sew) one end to one side of the other end (please see photo above for reference).

abbreviations:
sts - stitches
K - knit
P - purl

My First Knitting Projects - Piece 2

This is the neck warmer (poncho) I made for my mother-in-law. It's a circular piece (no open ends) that's done on a pair of circular needles. I didn't pay attention when joining the two ends (which happened on the second row) and made a huge mistake by twisting it three times! I didn't realize until I had already knitted five rolls of yarn! I know, it's not very bright on my part. Normally, it's always advisable to start over. However, I really was running out of time. Well, I finished it, did some heavy duty stitching before I cut it in half, and sewed it back together.

What I've learned:

• When making a circular piece (no open ends) with a pair of circular needles, pay attention when connecting the ends together! Make sure the row(s) are not twisted. Twisted means the piece is in a spiral form.
  
• If time allows, always undo the knit to where the first mistake occurs and start over from there.

Material used:

• 350 g of yarn - 30% wool, 70% acrylic - on the label: tension for 10 x 10 cm is 12 sts x 15 rows; recommended needle size is 7 mm

Link to this pattern: click here

My First Knitting Projects - Piece 1

My mother-in-law complained that my father-in-law wouldn't wear a scarf when it's cold. I thought maybe the scarf was too warm for him, so I made this one with 50% viscose, 50% acrylic yarn. It doesn't feel so warm like the common scarfs. I made a boo-boo with this one. The two sides kept curling up. My mother-in-law thought it's due to the fact that I used only stocking stitch (a pattern consists of alternating knit and purl rows, which the odd-number rows are in stitches and the even-number rows are purl stitches).

What I've learned:

• To prevent a flat piece from curling, incorporate some garter stitch (a pattern consists of repeated rows of knit stitch).

Materials used:

• 100 g of yarn - on the label: tension for 10 x 10 cm is 20 sts x 27 rows; recommended needle size is 3.5 to 4 mm
• some dark brown yarn, machine washable

Tools used:

• a pair of knitting needles, size 3 mm
• 1 crochet hook, size 3 mm

My First Knitting Projects

I knitted a simple scarf for a 5th grade homework. Actually I can't really say I did it, because my grandmother did most of it, and I don't even remember how to knit once I turned it in.

Three months ago, I suddenly got a desire to knit again, and this time as Christmas presents for my in-law family. I really enjoyed the whole process: learning, choosing materials, figuring out the patterns, knitting, and putting the final products on my unexpected recipients!

I finished three pieces of knit for my in-laws. I wouldn't recommend anyone to copy the first piece, but the last two pieces are very "copyable." So I included the two patterns in the posts below.

1. My father-in-law's piece
2. My mother-in-law's piece
3. My sister-in-law's piece