Up and running

I have now finished 2 dishcloths. The first one was supposed to be a Thanksgiving theme, with a horn of plenty and the word "thanks" above the horn. I would like to focus on the positive. Let's just say that my finished product had nice, neat borders. :-) The rest was a mess. My first effort at following a pattern didn't yield such great results. There was no horn. There were no thanks. It was a jumbled up mess of knots inside the pretty border... no rhyme or reason to the interior. Oh well. I was still thrilled to have completed something. And I managed to teach myself how to bind off, and it is now a finished piece.

Hot on the heels of that (my mumble jumble piece), I wanted to try to do a piece that could be deciphered. I picked another dishcloth, this one with a snowflake. I finished it pretty quickly, and, while not perfect, it is discernable! My 8 year old son looked at it and said "it's a snowflake"! Wow! Progress! He also asked if he could have it! How could I refuse?!

I will post pictures of these pieces soon. I need to take pics and upload them. In the meantime, I have found something that I am positively aching to make. It seems to be pretty straigtforward-- just knit a row then purl a row all the way through. I should be able to handle that, right? I fear the many changes in color though. Can I do it? hmmmmmm.... we'll see! I can't seem to post a picture of the blanket, so here is a link:

http://www.knitty.com/issuesummer05/PATTwildstripes.html

Off I go... more later

Oy vey

Well. I decided to finally take the plunge and stop practicing and work on a pattern. I am a member of a great Yahoo group, and so I decided to try out the new KAL (knit along) that was posted for the group. It is a dishtowel. Should be simple enough, right? Or not. It seems that I was inadvertently adding a stitch onto some rows by putting my yarn in the wrong place at the beginning of the row. So instead of the yarn coming from behind for a knit stitch, somehow or another it came from the front (ie, user error) and created an extra stitch in the process. How? I have NO clue. That is the hard part of knitting so far for me--- not understanding the whys and hows-- and therefore, not knowing how to fix my mistakes. I got about 10 rows in and realized I had more stitches than I was supposed to. So I was following the pattern, and finishing what it said to do for each row, but having loops left on my left needle still. So, for the umpteenth time, I scrapped my work. I plan to re-attack it this weekend. I am bound and determined to actually FINISH something!!! Wish me luck. I'll post pictures as soon as I succeed!

one step forward...

I am really trying to get the hang of knitting. More specifically, I am trying to get the hang of LIKING what I knit!!! I have this problem. I cast on, I start knitting, I get a bunch of rows done, and I look at my work and think "god, what an ugly mess!". Then I take the yarn off the needles, cut it off of the skein, and start over again. Now I realize that just "practicing" I am not setting out to make anything in particular. But I feel like I am never going to get to the point where I make something at this rate!

I bought a book off of Amazon this morning. It is called "Stich n' Bitch". It is supposed to be a great resource for learning, complete with patterns for various levels. We'll see!

Learning to knot (I mean knit)

This knitting thing will be great... if I ever get the hang of it!!! I have actually been having a lot of fun with it since my first lesson on Saturday. Of course that fun has been accompanied by a little frustration! I spent about 3 hours at my teacher's house. She taught me to cast on, to knit, and to purl. I really thought I had the hang of all 3. I had done rows and rows of both knitting and purling. Then my teacher had me start doing k2, p2. It was all great. Then I went home. Somehow, between her house and mine (and playing with the kids for a while and going to the store!), when I sat down and pulled out the needles on Saturday night, I couldn't remember anything! Did the yarn go in front or behind for knit? And for purl-- am I supposed to wrap the yarn clockwise or counterclockwise? Oh no. In the end, I managed to get things so knotted up that I couldn't move the stiches at all. I tried to fix it and, in the process, pulled half of my work off one needle. I decided it was time to call that piece FINISHED.

No problem, I thought- it would give me a chance to cast-on again, and see how well I could do this! Oops. But I forgot how to cast on. Pulled out an instruction guide, but it showed a different method than my teacher taught me. I wanted to get that method down pat before learning other ways to cast on. After spending some time on the trusty internet, I discovered that the method I had learned was called the "thumb method". I also found a video online that gave me a refresher in how to do it. God bless the internet. I was off and running again. Until my yarn came unravelled and got me all screwed up again!

On Sunday, I ventured into a knitting store. I was a little afraid and intimidated, feeling in over my head. I went up to the counter and told the lady that I am new to knitting and need some good yarn. She was SO nice and helpful! Didn't treat me at all like the idiot I felt like.

Back home, needles, yarn, scissors.... trial and error. It took me a while, but I have finally gotten to the point where I am knitting, purling, and casting on without having to go reference an online video! Woo hoo! I may not be making anything pretty yet, but at least I am forging ahead.

Here goes!

Okay, well, after literally YEARS of wanting to learn to knit, it seems like I may be on the verge of doing so. My Nana taught me to "knit" when I was about 6. She was incredible at needlework. I wish she was still around to share the crafts with me now that I'm an adult and want to learn. Since she isn't, I bought a book on "how to knit" a few years ago. Got a pair of big blue needles, some yarn, and went home to my couch to indulge in my new hobby. I followed the first few steps, started a row, and was quite excited. Woo hoo-- watch me go! That is, until I had to learn the next stich.... I couldn't figure out what in the world the book and the illustration were trying to tell me to do. How on earth am I supposed to make the corner to the next row? It completely baffled me. So I went on the internet. That wasn't any better. I put down my shiny new needles and hoped to sign up for a class. But life (ie, two kids) kept me from doing it.

So here I am, years down the road, and I still want to learn to knit. Why? I don't know. Something about working with pretty colors and textures, having a project, seeing something concrete come out as the end result.... I have a great friend from college that has been into knitting for a while. She turned me on to a wonderful Yahoo group of women knitters. And introduced me to a lady who lives near me that is going to teach me to knit! This lady has been knitting herself for 60 years!!! I am so excited. Can't quite believe my luck, either! This Saturday looks like it will be my first meeting/lesson. So I created this blog to detail my successes and failures along the way. Hopefully there will be some successes amidst the failures!!