Stockinette, stockinette, STOCKINETTE!!!!!

I think I’m about to explode. I unwisely chose large, simple projects to knit for my friends down south when I see them after Christmas. Unwise because they’re all knit with the stockinette stitch! What is driving me crazy the most though, is the Lord of the Rings scarf that I’m making.

It looks all fine and dandy, right? Well, after these first two bands of Elvish, it’s just plain knitting until the other end. Just. Plain. Stockinette. The worst part about it is that it’s knitted on the round, which means that there isn’t even the every other purl row to help dilute the monotony. But I’m persevering and determined to get it knitted, blocked, and fringed before December 27. (note: the picture was taken in October, it is now much longer)

Another thing strictly stockinette is the bags I’m working on. The finished one I am super happy with. It took me a long time to figure out what I was going to do, then test the pattern, and then finally complete it! At first, I didn’t even want to felt it. I mean, who would want to completely obliterate all signs of knitting? But then I felted a swatch or three, and I was hooked. But I did not know how to compensate for the extra shrinking that occurs to the height of the object during felting, so I asked around on the Ravelry group Felting is My Bag and the people on there gave me some wonderful suggestions, the one looked upon with most favor being needle felting the design on the flap rather than knitting it in before felting. Here’s a picture so you know what I’m talking about.

Well, you’re just going to have to tilt your head because apparently wordpress is “unable to save image edit.” Oh well. So yes, I have another one of these to do with a different symbol on its flap and I will be done with my Christmas knitting! It still seems like a whole lot to knit, though…

Knitting Notions

Just recently, I’ve rediscovered how much I like knitting. I only knew how to do the garter stitch until I discovered knitting tutorials on youtube. Knit Witch was especially helpful when I was learning how to purl. So since then I have been combing the internet, trying to find patterns that interest me. So far I’ve found a lot of nerdy things like a knitted Companion Cube from Portal, a Golden Snitch and House Scarfs from Harry Potter, Tom Baker’s scarf and plush TARDIS from Doctor Who, and a One Ring scarf and Pippin’s scarf from Lord of the Rings. What I really want to do now is find a simple cloak pattern that can be adapted to look like the Lothlorien cloaks from Lord of the Rings. I got a Leaf of Lorien pin for my birthday last year, and later, after Christmas, my brother played Frodo in a skit, using that pin. He made a cloak out of an old blanket, and I was thinking that it would be the coolest thing to knit one of those cloaks. Bear in mind, I’m a novice knitter that is eager to learn. If anyone has any suggestions at all, or equally geeky knitting patterns, I would be most obliged.