Circular knitting looms.
So, for last christmas, my mom bought me a set of circular knitting looms. Pretty simple, and pretty easy to work with. I was able to turn out a simple tube scarf and a semi-oversized beanie hat out of three balls of this glitzy fuzzy yarn she gave me with them. The hat and scarf ended up being given to my brother's girlfriend, and my grandmother asked me to make her a set in red. It didn't take me too long to find red yarn (well, a red, copper and pink blend, but close enough) of the same type my mom had given me with the looms, and I started on the set for my grandmother. I got side tracked with going crazy, and only just recently finished her stuff.
My niece absolutely loves the yarn, and she took to the hat and scarf right away after she woke up from her nap after I'd given them to my grandmother. So I decided the child needed a pretty scarf of her own. I had two other sets of colors that my mom had given me with the knitting looms, so I picked the one that's pink, blue, green and purple to make a scarf for my niece. I decided to get more length from the scarf with less yarn and try a flat scarf instead of a tube like before. I am happy to find that producing a flat piece on these looms is just as easy as doing a tube, and now I'm starting to think of a bigger project. I want a sweater that I've made myself.
I'm thinking of something somewhat boxy and loose. The weave on the stuff produced on these looms leans towards loose, but since that's what I am wanting, that'll probably work. I'm trying to decide if I should attempt to make bell sleeves on the thing, or if I should just settle for something straight for now. It probably wouldn't be hard to make them bell, as I'll have to do all the parts for the sweater on the same size loom, to make sure the weave matches from part to part, and I'll have to use the biggest loom to be able to make pieces for the torso to be big enough, so working from a more fitted size for my upper arms out to a wider bell for the end of the sleeves wouldn't be a problem there.
My biggest thing on this project is being able to keep myself focused enough to go from start to finish on it, and figuring out how much yarn I'll need. I think I can do it so that I have one piece for the front of the torso, one piece for the back, then one piece for each sleeve. I'm not sure of the best way to attach the pieces together, but I'm sure my mom can make suggestions there. Anyways, if I can do the pieces the way I picture it, I should be able to attach the sleeves to the upper part for the torso pieces, each sleeve end half attached to either torso piece, then brought together on the underside where they'd come back together before the torso pieces start joining together down to the bottom. It works out in my head, and I'm not sure if I've described it very well. I can try to sketch it out later if anyone wants to know what I'm doing. I am thinking that I want it in a fuzzy purple yarn, but I'll have to see what I can find.
For now, I'll just finish the simple little scarf for my niece. I know she'll enjoy it simply because it's soft and bright. It's awesome to have someone in your life who likes you for who you are, and can enjoy the simple things in life for you once you've scrambled your brain so much you can't.