I'm trying my hand at designing some rather simple knitting patterns.
The first is what I'm calling the Second Grade Sweater, which I'm knitting for my nephew. He's in first grade now, so I'm giving myself a rather large cushion of time to finish it. Here's a progress shot:
I've started with a German (aka long-tail) cast on. If you are not familiar with this cast on method, here's a nice little video for you from Knitting Help:
For those of you who don't knit, but want to learn, Knitting Help has some wonderful video tutorials. I knit Continental style, i.e. with the yarn held in my left hand. The Continental style is more comfortable for me, since I started out crocheting before learning to knit, but a number of knitters prefer the English Method. Knitting Help has videos for both methods, so feel free to play around with which method suits your style better.
Anyhow, back to the Second Grade Sweater. As I said, I'm starting with rather simple designs. After casting on and joining the yarn for knitting in-the-round, I knit stockinette for 5 rounds, switched to seed stitch for another five, then back to stockinette. That's as far as I've gotten for now.
I'm also working on a pattern I'm calling the Intermittent Sock for my brother. Again, I started with the German/long-tail cast on, only this time I cast onto a needle about 3 sizes larger than the needle I plan to use for the project. This gave the edge a nice, very elastic quality, which makes for a nice fit when worn, obviously, but has the tendency to look a little loose compared to the ribbing when just hanging from the needles. I don't think it bugs me enough to start over, though, and will probably just try to fix with blocking and tightening a few of the looser cast on stitches. Then I substituted my size 2 Addi Turbos (my favorite circulars) and worked a knit 2, purl 2 ribs for approximately 2.5 inches. At that point, I started working in stockinette. I'll work some more on these this afternoon and further develop the pattern. Here's the progress shot:
Hopefully, I'll get a some knitting and pattern work done today and will have more to post tomorrow.
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