Little Milo Green

Another one of these. I skipped the cable again, but did stripes.  I was trying to use up some old yarn that's been in my stash since I learned to knit 4 years ago, but I wound up going out and buying a whole 'nother ball of the green anyway.  Sigh. That's usually how it works, right? It's really a nice pattern, but something about it doesn't quite seem to fit her properly. They've both come out a little big in the shoulders, even though this one is a a size smaller than the the blue one. Project details on Ravelry are here.

She loves it anyway, and it's kept her warm during these not-quite-spring times.

She loves these mannequins. She calls them "my friends" which makes me smile at the same time it breaks my heart, for some reason. I think it's because she doesn't have any actual, human, recurring friends in her life. I just cannot seem to dig up consistent age-appropriate playmates for her.

Anyway, about the knitting: The stockinette body of this vest also came out crooked-looking, prompting me to try and figure out what the hell is wrong with my technique. I finally figured out that I've been doing a few things wrong the entire time I've been knitting. Things like, um...the purling...and the knitting. WRONG. For four years. I watched a lot of videos and mostly corrected myself, but then a friend asked me to teach her to knit and I decided it would be more fun to take a class together. I thought the class might well be a waste of $45 and four hours, but I am the sort of person who needs the reassurance of someone checking my work. It worked out well, because instead of being bored I learned to knit continental-style (working yarn coming in from the left, instead of the right as it does in English-style knitting) and was able to help other members of the class when they struggled. Sometimes the teacher didn't seem to explain things in a way that everyone could understand - I think it's the problem of teaching something that comes easily to you - and I was glad I had some previous experience or I might've been totally lost and felt really dumb and started crying in the middle of the yarn shop. I felt nice and useful, though, because I was able to translate his rapid-fire instructions into something that my classmates could more readily absorb.

Part 2 of our class is this week, and we will learn proper purling. Wish me luck!