Learning to knit was never something I thought about trying but my second month in on my Crafter’s Box journey I got to knit a cozy cute pillow. My mantra is to always try every medium once.
I received my box with 4 skeins of white yarn and a pillow insert (both washable, very important) and wooden knitting needles with connecting tube, along with a booklet to complete 3 different pillow patterns and a knitted blanket.
Since I was a newbie I went for the basic repeating Garter Stitch pattern. Just one simple stitch repeated back and forth back and forth till the end. Seems easy. Just starting or casting on the yard kind of took me a couple of trys. After the first row was down, turning back the other direction again seemed easy so I made a few rows and realized this is NOT a rectangle this is a triangle. I understand learning new skills you always have to make a few mistakes. But when you’re knitting how does one fix a single stitch 58 stitches ago? You start over. Unraveling stitches that took me several hours to complete was probably the hardest part of knitting. So after the first unraveling I started again. This time I was knitting a rectangle, but after knitting about ten rows, I realize that not all my loops were looked the same. SO I unraveled everything again and this repeated I think at least 5 times.
I know I tend to rush though things because I’m so excited for the end project. After painfully unraveling my hard work I decided to just get lost in the process alone in a quiet room with no distractions, rather than working a little here and there with people over or watching tv. This turned out to be the final draft if you will. I knitted more in that one sitting that I ever had before and it was turning out just perfect. I think after another 2 or 3 sittings I finally finished my big rectangle and wrapped it around the pillow inset and stitched in up. Now it sits beautifully on my bed. when people come over I’m like a proud child saying, “look I knitted this pillow myself!”.
Knitting is one of those meditative acts that can really clear your head if you let it. I have a whole new appreciation for knitting now. I don’t think i’m quite ready for any thing crazy complicated but have plans to knit the two other pillow patterns but I might just dive right into the blanket.
Monthly Crafting, Silk Screening
For those of you that have not heard of The Crafter’s Box, here’s the scoop.
The Crafter’s Box is a monthly creative package that pops up on your door and has everything inside for you to explore a new creative skill and craft an awesome project. Each month is featured by a different artist/maker. A long with a box of supplies you get a tutorial video and can attend a live Q&A at the end of the month. The Crafter’s Box is also a creative community so they encourage crafter’s to share all stages of the project and how you made it your own.
I received a subscription as a Christmas present (probably one of the best gifts ever). December was my first month and Jen Hewett put together a silk screening kit. Jen is a printmaker that designs beautiful botanical inspired prints (right up my ally). Print making is something that I have wanted to try for a very long time so I was pumped to be guided by Jen. Her box included two tea towels to print on, a greenish teal and a magenta ink, a silk screen frame, a squeegee and a adorable flower pattern. After cutting the patterned out, the actual printing took a little finessing. It took few trys to find the perfect angle to hold the squeegee at. I put the flowers in each corner of the tea towel, leaving me the sides to create my own pattern of a vine with little flower buds. The vines visually connect the flowers growing each one to the next and (hopefully) blends in with Jen’s style. This left me feeling like I could silk screen anything! So why not do a completely O.G. design? I do have a second towel.
Since it was December, our Christmas Cacti were in full of bloom. So I started sketching out very silhouette-y shapes of the cactus, and man their flowers are very … particular. The cactus leaves hang, which makes the buds hang down, but then when they bloom they start growing up. It ain’t easy to draw, especially as a recognizable solid shape. But I finally got to something I was happy with. I started to put down the first layers of green and realized that I did NOT leave enough space for the flowers. (D’Oh!) There are a few spots where the flowers over lap with the ones next to them, BUT not everything comes out exactly as you want it to! and thats okay. Lessons learned I suppose. I’m still very happy with how my Christmas Cactus inspired pattern came out. Both of my towels are on alternating display on my oven. People always ask about them and I’m always glad to blow their minds and tell them I made them.
So thats what I learned and experienced with my first crafter’s box. More craftin’ will be coming to you soon.
