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Lino's Coat

1/27/2015

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This is my absolute first needle knitted project, or as my partner called it: baptism by fire. I've always wanted to give needle knitting a try ever since I was a child, but I simply could not get the hang of it. 

Luckily, everything I learned last year helped me get to this point:
- By learning how to loom knit, I saw how each stitch was formed and learned how the stitches correspond with each another. 
- Crochet taught me how to hold onto yarn with an extended figure and to be diligent with the movements even if the tension is wonky. The motions used in crochet eventually taught me how to needle knit in the continental style, and from there, nothing was going to hold me down.

Just like with crochet, I taught myself the basic stitches and got really eager to work on something challenging... so I decided to jump straight into a peacoat. Yeah, my partner thought I was crazy too. 

"Why don't you start off with something small... like a scarf?" he said.
"NO! I'm stubborn and overly ambitious!" I replied. 
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Oh no! A dropped stitch! PANIC!
I learned a LOT, such as increasing, decreasing, picking up stitches, binding off... and having to undo that bind off, Russian join, switching between straight and circular needles... the list goes on! The hood was a nightmare to do at first, and I spent hours trying to pick up the stitches properly without leaving a massive gap in some areas. Sewing on the buttons was the easiest part and I have my mother to thank for teaching me how to hand sew during my teenage years.
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It's not perfect, but I'm really proud of my little peacoat. :] 

Needles: 4mm needles, 3.75 circular. 
Yarn: 4 Seasons Kringle, 100% acrylic, 200g. 
Pattern: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/linos-coat

Hope all of you living in the Northeast are staying warm and toasty after that blizzard. If you're in the southern hemisphere like me, make sure you slap on some sunscreen even if you're staying indoors! 
- Nat
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The Road to Recovery

1/16/2015

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It's been almost four months since I've practiced any form of yoga and my body was certainly feeling it. I found myself sitting on the sofa or computer chair for the majority of the day and my buttocks was beginning to feel like pancakes that had a rather annoying elephant constantly flattening out the dough. 

Yesterday I woke up feeling worse for wear with my joints creaking and my body feeling extremely worn out. I'm only 25 and I shouldn't be feeling this way... I just had enough! I began a 30 day yoga challenge that I found on Youtube, and although I'm a few days behind, I'm already seeing a difference in my body. I lost most of my flexibility that I had from before my back injury and some poses still don't agree with my back, but I'm determined to finish this challenge and get my groove back. 
Before my injury, the crow pose was my favorite pose to practice. My upper body strength was at the point where I was beginning to practice forearm handstands without the use of a wall, and I was getting ever closer to my ultimate goal: the scorpion pose. After my back injury, the crow pose became a bit of a problem, but I discovered the bird's of paradise pose and fell in love. 
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Crow Pose © Tara Stiles.
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Bird's of Paradise Pose © Yoga Bliss Photo
In knitting news, I'm currently working on a new project that has taken up most of my personal time. I'm almost at the finish line, and although there's a lot of mistakes, I'm really excited to share the finished piece with you all. It's been a LONG journey of learning how to knit buttonholes, increasing, decreasing, picking up stitches, binding off and having to undo that bind off... the list just goes on! Hopefully I'll have something craft related for you all in the next few weeks. :]

Have a wonderful weekend!
- Nat
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2015 - The Year of Stitches

1/6/2015

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My my my, time has sure flown by! In January of 2014, I made a New Year's resolution to maintain a craft and art blog to help get myself back into a creative mindset after a fight with depression. With the help of this blog and practicing my daily yoga routine, my depression was kicked to the curb and my creativity found its way back into my life again. After moving to New Zealand in early August, I fell in love with crochet and found myself finishing projects almost every week. A few months passed and I soon found myself nursing a back injury which forced me to temporarily give up yoga and begin to fall back into my sedentary ways. Not everything was bad during this healing period however, I set down my crochet hooks and picked up my one pair of knitting needles and focused on teaching myself a new craft. At first I thought that I would never understand needle knitting, but after I discovered continental knitting, everything clicked and fell into place. I can now proudly proclaim that I am bistitchual!  

So let's talk about projects. Last year my awesome mother-in-law sent me this beautiful yarn for my birthday and I instantly fell in love with it. 
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The yarn was unbelievably soft and I had a hard time choosing what I would make with it. A few week's earlier, I had loom knitted myself a scarf so I didn't want to work on another one, so I decided to make some gloves instead. This proved to be a challenge within itself since I didn't want mittens, and crochet patterns featured on Ravelry were mostly for that style. I wanted fingered gloves and was hell-bent on finding a pattern for them. Youtube ended up being a great source of patterns for me in the past and I decided to find something there, and luckily I did! You can find the video here.
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The video was incredibly confusing at first since the designer had a tendency of changing her mind halfway through the tutorial. She started with hdc and made it up to the cuff before she changed her mind and reworked the piece in sc. Since I had the piece already going, I didn't want to start over and stuck to my hdc guns till the end. Turns out it didn't make much of a difference, but I did have to reduce the stitches for the palm in order to fit my hand comfortably.  
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It turned out quite lovely!
For 2015, I promise to get back into yoga and continue producing crochet and knitting related projects. There is still much to learn for both mediums and I am still a beginner when it comes to knitting. Please follow me into another year of creativity!

- Nat
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    Nenssa

    Illustrator, Embroiderer, Crocheter, Knitter and Bibliophile.


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