Learning to Knit and other things

I have had it in my head for a while now that I want to learn to knit. Mostly because of this blog. Angela's was one of the first blogs I started reading online when I was learning to quilt, and was amazed that there were other women out there that were as passionate about quilting as I was becoming. And lately she has been posting such beautiful pictures of the things she knits.

Now, I have never been particularly good at working with yarn. I'm not sure how my fingers can work so well with fabric and thread but yard is a totally different story. Years and years ago my mother had taught me the basics of crochet, and maybe I just didn't have the patience or attention span for it at the time (she taught me to sew back then to and it didn't stick that well either) but whatever it was I was horrible at it. So the prospect of knitting seemed daunting, especially because I was always told that it was harder to knit than to crochet. None of the women in my family could knit, at least none that I knew of, but they could all crochet. My sister is a prodigy at crocheting. She can make anything, with or without a pattern.

But regardless of how daunting it seemed, I was pretty determined. When I first started quilting, other than being able to sew two pieces of fabric together I really had no idea how in the world to do any of it, and taught myself for the most part, or learned from my sister. I had never even used a rotary cutter before!

The night before Thanksgiving I sat down with some yarn and a learning to knit book and tried. And tried again. And said some choice words and tried again. And then decided that the learning to knit book was basically worthless and watched some videos on YouTube. And I got it.

And here is what I've been working on. Just a simple scarf, basic knit stitch, absolutely nothing fancy. (I'm not sure I will ever be able to make the gorgeous cowls, sweaters and socks that Angela makes, but I maybe one day will progress to that.) Either way, I am very proud of my scarf so far. I'm using cheap acrylic yarn, I wanted to make sure I could do it before I spent big money on a really nice skein of beautiful wool or the wonderful hand dyed things I keep seeing all over blog land. But I am actually liking the fleck yarn in this particular scarf, and I can't wait for it to be long enough to wear!

 

 

I also managed to get some actually sewing done over the weekend. I finished the blocks for a baby quilt I am making for my boyfriend's new niece coming in the next couple months, and I finished the top to a table runner I have been working on for a little over a month. I finally sat down yesterday and pieced together what I had worked on up to that point. It's now ready to basted and quilted this week. It will probably be wrapped and gifted for Christmas. I used Fellowship by Brannock and Patek and some tan texture I had leftover from another table runner I had made earlier this year for the border. I am in love with the colors, I think they are Christmas-y without being overly so.

 



When I get a chance to spread it out for a good picture I will. I should have another post later this week with some other things I have been working on. I have been super busy, and feeling under the weather yesterday and today too. I am feeling much better this evening after resting for almost two entire days, so hopefully I will be back to myself tomorrow.