Learning to Knit!

I've known how to crochet since I was a kid and really enjoy it when the mood strikes me. As I've been going through my very old stash of yarn, I've found a desire to make something wearable. However, alot of crocheted clothing tends toward the bulky, thick style due to the way yarn is wrapped multiple times around itself for each stitch. You would have to crochet with something almost threadlike yarn to come up with a fine, light weight item.

Knitting however, uses much less yarn per stitch and can result in a much lighter weight, finer textured finished product. But alas... I don't know how to knit. And even being a creative yarn lover, it seems daunting to have 2 sticks instead of one, no hooked end to grab the yarn with and the requirement that both sticks need to move in a coordinating fashion, all while the correct tension is held to the working yarn and many stitches are held open, as opposed to just one at a time. Yikes!

So I decided to take a class... Renaissance Yarns has many classes to choose from but the best for a total newby is of course Knitting 101. The first week you learn to hold the needles, keep the tension and do the knit (garter) stitch while making a lovely scarf from pure Peruvian wool that you can, of course, purchase in their store.

It was a wonderful experience! With an excellent teacher, it turns out an old dog really can learn new tricks and even have fun at it! I found knitting to be instantly addictive, relaxing and therapuetic and can't wait to see what is next...

Winter Hibernation = Time to Play with Yarn

Aside from very occasionally taking a crochet project with me on a road trip, I have done very little crafting with yarn over the last 10 years. It isn't that I never got into it or don't have the skill; just somehow lifes distractions (and maybe the learning curve and excitement of my newer hobbies; quilting and papercrafting?) drew me away from it.

This winter, I've been on a mission to be at home a little more frequently, organize around the house, go through boxes that have never been opened since our move over 4 years ago and finish some of the projects that had been started as long as 15 years ago.

Yes, I am a project starter and I do like to have multiple projects to switch to so that I'm never bored or tired of the one I'm working on. I'm OK with that and don't really consider it a flaw but the problem is, I've now lived long enough to have too many UFO's (unfinished objects).

While going through some tubs in the attic, I came across my yarn and yarn projects, some of them soooo close to completion! I pulled out an afghan, abandon the attic project and went to work on it. Just a couple of hours of work and a few days later, it was done and gorgeous! (And I didn't take a picture before it got away). I was so excited with this and so enjoyed cuddling up with it while I worked on it, I immediately started the next one (and also failed to take a photo of it). The third one was a baby afghan, done in white sport weight yarn with a silky white thread woven in. It is very nice close up but somewhat lacked interest overall or especially from any distance. I went back to organizing and tackled a messy, tangled box of ribbon. Ribbon? Yes! That's what the baby afghan needed. So now it is complete too and this time... I took a photos. :-)