Wednesday 24 October 2007

Gasp....not actual knitting content!

Yup...actual blogging about knitting! Woo Hoo!

The main reason I have been quiet on the knitting front is that it's been so damn slow of late. I got distracted with other projects and the cardigan sat unloved in the corner with post-it saying "too hard" stuck to it. I think all the tinking and ripping and looking up how to do things on the net got too much. I would love to knit an easy top....just once. Aren't you supposed to learn on easy stuff???

However last weekend I grabbed hold of the darn thing and forced myself to start working on it again. Of course that was after ripping back the front ribbing...sigh!! Still. It's right now and I have one side done. YUP...actually finished!! hehehe I feel so happy it's silly.
What's more even though the arm and side is yet to be sewn up it still looks like a piece of clothing. It's amazing! I'll take some photos on the weekend when the light is good.

So all I have to do now is sew the left side to the arm and back (its raglan), pick up 212 stitches evenly all the way across and then knit a rib of about 50 rows wrapping about 30 of them!!! Phew!

On the upside of all this ripping (there's an up side?) I have learnt heaps in a very short space of time. Plus the challenge has kept me interested where with an easier project I may well have died of boredom!
Officially I can now knit & purl very evenly, I can slipstitch, cast on & off a couple of different ways, wrap & turn, read a knitting pattern, know how very important gauge is, increase & decrease with flair, pick up stitches from an edge, understand roughly how to alter a pattern to fit me, tink back, rip without fear (almost!), recognise a twisted stitch, fix a twisted stitch, ladder down to fix a stitch (very scary the first time) and pick up a dropped stitch.

Not bad for a two cardigan career huh!!

1 comment:

Gina E. said...

Oh well done, Kathie! I have NEVER been able to knit, despite having teachers, friends, Mothers-in-law (2) and others try to teach me. All thumbs with those needles in my hands. But embroidery, that's another thing. You're right about learning so much from your mistakes. When you have to undo something and fix it up, it makes you look again at what you did wrong the first time..bit like learning how to work on a computer, right?