[ed: am finally posting this thing that’s been on my tablet’s “local drafts” for I’m not sure how long — am guessing approx mid-November 2011.]
It’s been about six weeks now since I found the (horrible) Idiot’s Guide to Knitting in the back of a closet and decided to take up the hobby. So far I’ve made two scarves, two and a half pairs of fingerless gloves (wrist warmers? wristers?), and a french press cozy, and I’m in the middle of a third scarf. Suffice it to say that I’m enjoying the process.
I’ve basically ruined one partially-used skein of yarn, which seems to be irreparably tangled. Happily, it was a teal acrylic that I didn’t like very much anyway; less happily, I only did one half of a pair of wristers and was looking forward to doing the second one. I’ve discovered that I’m really picky about texture. I bought a skein of a wool/acrylic blend that I might just give away, because I hate the way it feels when I try to knit with it. And my new favorite scarf is a wool-acrylic blend that was so soft and easy to knit that I was almost sad to finish. Right now I’ve got several weights of the least expensive blend from the yarn/fabric store downtown that I really like; the scarf-in-progress is a chunky weight knit on fairly small needles, so it’s really plush.
I signed up for Ravelry (epersonae, as everywhere else); it’s a clever site, good to be able to track projects and yarns. I get more enthusiastic about taking pictures, so I can post them, even though I don’t know that anybody is seeing them! More dangerously, I’m in love with the pattern browser. It’s astonishing how many free patterns are out there, and it’s delightful to be able to narrow by skill level, yarn type, project type, even methodology. (I have yet to learn knitting in the round.) My two wish list items: a decent mobile experience and a way to say “not” — ie, “not infant”, “not knit-in-the-round”, etc. Of the three wrister patterns I’ve tried, I found two on Ravelry, and they both came out quite nice. Actually, one of them is now my go-to for when it’s cold at the office, which is most of the time.
The scarf patterns (such as they are) have been from books; I’ve sampled a variety of books from the library, mostly to pick up techniques. Chicks With Sticks was good; Stitch ‘N Bitch was as well. I also bought an inexpensive book that looks promising; I don’t have it at hand, can’t remember the title. It’s mostly a catalog of basic techniques with really big color photos, which is just the thing for me. I’m thinking about using what I can untangle of the teal acrylic to try out increases and decreases.
I have gotten some help in person — I went to a knitting group at Skep & Skein (mead & cider place on the west side) with a woman I know from Twitter, and she helped me get a better cast-on technique. That was one of those things that I just could not figure out from any of the half-dozen books (websites, etc) that I looked at, and she walked me through it a few times until I got the feel of it. Curiously, I think I was making it more complicated than it actually was; my basic reaction was: oh, that’s it? And it was fun to sit and knit with other people, although they all knew each other more than I knew anybody.
Knitting on the bus is strangely relaxing, and a combination of weather and health has put me on the bus quite a bit in the last couple of weeks, so I’ve been enjoying that. I’m also guessing that T-Mobile upgraded a tower someplace, because now I can get streaming audio on my phone all the way to the office, instead of it cutting off somewhere around 40th SE in Lacey. So yeah, I’m that lady sitting on the bus, knitting and listening to NPR. I think I’m okay with that.
It’s a little late in the year to be able to make much for giving away for Christmas, but beware: there will almost certainly be knitted gifts next year!