So as those who follow me on Twitter know, during my time away from TT I got heavily into knitting. It started as something to do while I listened to podcasts. I don't like sitting or laying idle while listening to them, but it takes a specific kind of activity for me not to lose the thread of what I'm listening to. It used to be that playing Picross fit the bill perfectly as something that engaged a totally different and non-overlapping part of my brain. But new podcast episodes come out way more frequently than new Picross games, so I was looking for something else, and knitting turns out to engage my brain (and hands) in exactly the same way. And as a bonus, I come away with actual tangible stuff that I can give to people. (In the almost three years that I've been knitting, I've only made three or four things for myself.)
I started out using one of those plastic looms, with which I made a baby hat for a coworker, and then a (very long!) scarf for my mom as a Christmas present. After that, I found an online tutorial to make small drawstring bags, and cranked out a couple dozen dice bags for just about everyone I knew into TTRPGs. (I think Shivam has one of these.) But at this point, I was starting to feel like the loom was training wheels and I was ready to graduate to "real" knitting.
So I took some courses at a local yarn shop and learned how to knit stockinette, seed stitch, and in the round, making some potholders/coasters and some pink hats for me and friends to take part in the local Women's March. At the march, I happened to run into some coworkers who were there completely separately from our group, and when I told them I was the one who made our hats, they said we should start a knitting circle at the office. I've learned a ton from them and worked my way up to progressively more complicated patterns; now the stuff I can make actually looks sort of impressive.
Anyway, I thought about making this a thread for my own knitting, but given that I have a Ravelry account already where I post my stuff, it feels like this would just end up being a mirror of that. So let's make this a thread for all the fiber arts enthusiasts around here!
Here's what I'm working on right now, which I haven't gotten around to uploading to Ravelry yet. I'm just starting the lace portion of this shawl; up to now, it's been row after row after row of seed stitch. I put a lifeline in when I was done with all of that; I'm trying to get more in the habit of using those so I don't have to start all the way over when I screw up once on a complicated pattern. (Because I screw up all the time, you see.)
I started out using one of those plastic looms, with which I made a baby hat for a coworker, and then a (very long!) scarf for my mom as a Christmas present. After that, I found an online tutorial to make small drawstring bags, and cranked out a couple dozen dice bags for just about everyone I knew into TTRPGs. (I think Shivam has one of these.) But at this point, I was starting to feel like the loom was training wheels and I was ready to graduate to "real" knitting.
So I took some courses at a local yarn shop and learned how to knit stockinette, seed stitch, and in the round, making some potholders/coasters and some pink hats for me and friends to take part in the local Women's March. At the march, I happened to run into some coworkers who were there completely separately from our group, and when I told them I was the one who made our hats, they said we should start a knitting circle at the office. I've learned a ton from them and worked my way up to progressively more complicated patterns; now the stuff I can make actually looks sort of impressive.
Anyway, I thought about making this a thread for my own knitting, but given that I have a Ravelry account already where I post my stuff, it feels like this would just end up being a mirror of that. So let's make this a thread for all the fiber arts enthusiasts around here!
Here's what I'm working on right now, which I haven't gotten around to uploading to Ravelry yet. I'm just starting the lace portion of this shawl; up to now, it's been row after row after row of seed stitch. I put a lifeline in when I was done with all of that; I'm trying to get more in the habit of using those so I don't have to start all the way over when I screw up once on a complicated pattern. (Because I screw up all the time, you see.)