Being a procrastinator that I am I just shipped off these hats to Craft Hope today.

The story about the Littlest Warrior brought tears to my eyes and I knew I wanted to participate. Not only are hats one of my favorite things to knit but all of the items are going to local (MN) children’s hospitals.

Learn more about Craft Hope – www.crafthope.com.

I’m looking forward to the next project already!

Get ready for St. Patrick’s Day with these fun crafts I found online.

Living Locurto made some great cupcake toppers but you can use them for anything really. Stickers and buttons come to mind for me. Download them here.

Martha Stewart has a ton of crafts but I think these Shamrock Boutonnieres are sweet way to accessorize your St. Patrick’s Day outfit. Learn how to make them here.

Are you a knitter? Vickie Howell has two free patterns! Make a mitered shamrock or a darling pair of booties for your baby. Get the patterns.

Need a card? Zakka Life has a tutorial for a simple & sweet card.

Knitting caught my attention seven years ago when some women at my workplace brought in some knitting projects for a “knitting lunch” and asked if I’d like to join. I thought learning how to knit would be the challenge I was looking for and accepted their invitation. I just needed some knitting needles and yarn, right?! I remember buying my first set of knitting needles quite vividly. I went to Michael’s and just stared at the wall of needles before me. I had no clue that there were so many varieties – had I known, I would have asked my co-worker for some advice on which ones to buy. So here I was alone in the knitting aisle, quite overwhelmed by all the choices. There were straight, circular, bamboo, metal, plastic and so on. I ended up going with a pair of bamboo circular needles. I chose bamboo more for aesthetics than anything else, but choosing circular needles was  a huge mistake–especially for a beginner.

To those of you who are contemplating picking up the art of knitting, I would suggest getting a pair of straight needles. I think straight needles are easier to maneuver, and I think you’d end up less likely to give up so quickly (oh, you should have seen me trying to work with those circulars!). I would also suggest getting bamboo needles as they have a little more friction and your stitches are less likely to slip off than on metal needles. As for size of the needles, I would choose a size that fits comfortably in your hand. The smaller sizes (US0-4) can make your hands cramp up pretty quickly and the larger sizes (US15+) can make you feel a little clumsy which doesn’t really help the confidence of a beginner! I would choose a size between US7 and US9 for small to medium size hands.

Learning how to hold the needles will be the most challenging part, in my opinion. But once you figure out how your fingers work with the needles and the yarn, you’ll work your way up to circular needles in no time!

A lot of people are surprised to learn that I’m a self-taught knitter or that I knit at all! It all started when I got married and discovered a love for HGTV. I remember watching a show called “crafters from coast to coast” and thinking that it would be fun to pick up a crafting hobby.

I initially learned from a “Learn to Knit” kit I picked up at Michaels. While the book was helpful in learning the basic techniques of casting on, knitting and purling I found I needed more guidance then what the book could provide if I wanted to make more than potholders. Not knowing anyone who knitted and being an IT professional, I turned to–you guessed it–the Internet!

One of the firsts websites I came across was knittinghelp.com. What drew me in were the free instructional videos. They were just the thing I needed to learn more advanced stitches, like increasing and decreasing! (It’s funny to hear myself say that increasing and decreasing were considered advanced but to me each new technique is advanced!) Even now, four years later, I return time and time again to KnittingHelp for a refresher on a technique I hadn’t used in awhile or for something new.

Another site I use is knittingdaily.com. They just recently started posting how-to videos and some of my favorites are how to knit joggless stripes in the round and tubular cast on. The knittingdaily blog also is a wealth of information. It’s taught me how to take my body measurememtnts to ensure that a sweater will fit, how to knit lace, and different types of cast-ons and cast-offs.

I’ve come a long way since my potholder days and I owe it to all the great online knitting websites. Now that I’ve given out my secret, you can start knitting now too!

P.S. I am in no way affiliated with KnittingHelp and KnittingDaily, nor did they pay me to say such great things. KnittingDaily image from knittingdaily.com