Knitting

About 10 years ago, I started cross-stitching so I could do something productive while watching TV. It also helped me keep my hands busy instead of snacking while sitting in front of the boob tube. Over the years, I have made some rather elaborate gifts, which mostly ended up on my mom's walls. I ran out of projects to give away, so I started cross-stitching baby items (blankets, bibs, etc).

Recently, I decided that cross-stitched gifts were too cheesy, so I'm learning to knit instead. My first class, at Pacific Fabrics, was disappointing. It was 6 hours long (3 nights, 2 hours each) and by the end I didn't feel I could make anything by looking at a pattern. The only thing I had to show for my time was a sample knit that I used to practice.

My second class was at Jo Ann Fabrics and we worked on a simple purse. I didn't have any idea what I was doing, so I ended up using all the yarn. What I didn't realize was that I needed to save some at the beginning and end to "sew" the purse together. The teacher found yard that was the closest to my color she could find, which was brown instead of grey. Overall, I think it looks pretty good since it's my first project!



For my second project, I wanted to make something easy, but incorporate something I haven't tried yet. I decided to make a Gryffindor scarf for my niece's christmas present. She's only 2-1/2 and prolly won't "get it", but Tony & Lisa will think it's hilarious!



I didn't do a *great* job on the scarf. I started out with 22 stitches on the row, and ended up with 25! About 3/4 thru the scarf, I thought I had dropped several stitches, so I tried to pick them back up. Apparently, I didn't drop them since I added to the original number, but I have *no* idea what happened. I should've just pulled the whole thing out since it was just one color block instead of making the rest of the scarf fatter. Oh well. It's only my second project, so I'm living & learning.

Here's a close-up of my mistakes.



Now I'm working on a baby blanket for Tony & Lisa's new one (Joshua is due in December). It's alternating knit and purl stitches so that it makes a checkerboard pattern. In November, I'll be taking another class - this one is making socks!