How to Celebrate a Knitaversary?

By going yarn bombing, of course!  Let me start by saying, I totally forgot that today was my two year knitaversary (it's not something I pencil in on my calendar, you know?). I kind of remembered it was sometime in September and just happened to check my blog for this time last year and sure enough, it's today. The yarn bombing was just happenstance.

 

My knitting group decided some time ago that we needed a good old-fashioned yarn bombing. There are a lot of details involved with finding a place to do such a thing (especially if you want to get permission first) and it all lead to this weekend. This weekend Akron has an event called Art in the Square and of course, what better time to yarn bomb than when a place will be filled with artisans and those who love handmade goods?

In the wee hours of the morning (7am feels wee on a weekend) we headed to Highland Square to cover some stuff in yarn. There were yarn balls (made from wrapping yarn around balloons then covering with glue and letting them dry), yarn chains, pom-poms(pons?), and lamp post cozies.

My lamp post cozy was made from a strip of crocheted fabric that I sort of re-purposed.  I've been very busy with school starting that my goal of knitting or crocheting a lamp post cozy fell to the wayside. Luckily, I had a huge piece of crocheted fabric from a time when I thought it was a fun idea to crochet a Snuggie out of Red Heart Super Saver (obviously, that was a time long ago). I measured its width (4 feet) and since I needed a strip that would be approximately 7 feet long by 1 foot wide, I measured to about 13" and cut a strip off the bottom. I intended to crochet on another three feet but lost interest somewhere around the additional 6". I think it ended up about 4 1/2 feet long. 

My lamp post cozy is the purple and blue one here in the foreground.

Overall, it was a lot of fun. I'm wondering how the balls held up as it's been sweltering here. I think the whole event turned out much better than I anticipated, although I wasn't really sure what to expect. I think this may become an annual event which means of course next year's will be even better!

Knitaversary

Today is my one year knitaversary! On this day one year ago, I became a knitter. So now, I'd like to share with you my first knit project. 

I joined Ravelry towards the end of the summer last year and decided to join a book swap. In this swap, we all read the same book, then sent our partners a kit to make something reminiscent of the book. I was really excited to participate in the swap, but a little nervous too. I didn't know what "real" knitters liked. I was so overjoyed to open my package and find this:

Two skeins of Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande! How lucky can a new knitter get? Included in this package was a free pattern for the Easy Cabled Scarf by Margaret Schroeder (she's the owner of the yarn shop where my partner bought this yarn). I made a special trip to the craft store that very evening, bought my first pair of size 11 bamboo needles, and got started.

The border around the cable is done in moss stitch and honestly, it took me almost two hours to knit the first six rows of the scarf. I could make the knit stitch ok, but switching between knitting and purling was really annoying. I talked myself through it and a couple days later I had a brand new, hand knit scarf!  This has turned out to be my favorite scarf ever. It is so cozy and soft and despite the fact that it was a bit sheddy while knitting, it is super warm and baby alpacas have turned out to be my favorite kind of alpaca. 

And here I am, one year later trying my hand at stranded knitting and not doing too shabby (although not as perfect as I had hoped). I guess there's always room for improvement!