I have decided that in the spirit of DIY and all that entails I should learn how to knit.
Knitting wasn't something my mom or grandmother did and therefore I want to do it. Its just something that I thought would be fun to learn. I also thought you, our readers, might enjoy a peek into the saga that is sure to ensue from me muddling my way through learning to knit.
I began my knitting journey yesterday at
Michaels craft store in the knitting aisle. Having never knitted at all before, I had no idea what I was looking for other than a book. I wanted something that made this whole thing easy for me and didn't cost too much. I found something that I thought would fit the bill. A book that came with needles and some other stuff that looked interesting and mysterious. I also grabbed some inexpensive yarn that I wouldn't feel bad about destroying but was also a nice color if I did manage to make something.
I took my book/starter kit home and opened it. Only then did I realize that the book was published in 1987 with no style updates. By this I mean I will NEVER wear any of the sweaters and neither will anyone that I even remotely know. There are a couple of things I can make but if I want to make anything really good I'll have to find another book or other patterns.
I did however figure that I could at least learn the basics with this book and decided to press on. At this point though, it was time for bed so I put my knitting things away for the night.
Remember how I said my mom didn't really knit? Well it turns out that she did do some knitting in her time for which, it turns out, I am very grateful as you will see. I opened my knitting book today and could not figure out what I was supposed to do. I tried over and over to get something to work and all I had was a knot on my knitting needle.
My mom had asked us over for lunch today so I took my knitting things with me in hopes that she could help me understand the stupid
knitting book. (the love for my book was already starting to die) Thanks to my wonderful mother I figured out how to do casting on. I managed to get one really good looking row done but it all went down hill from there.
My one good row of cast on stitches came after lots of taking out and starting over and lot of giggles over my knitting incompetence. When my dad came home from work I found out that I got my lack of knitting savvy from him. Apparently he tried to learn a time or two while he was in the Air Force and was a knitting failure.
I decided not to let my poor knitting genes stop me. I kept trying and after many restarts I had a small badly knitted and purled thing my four year old son, Jonathan, said looked like a harmonica. I think I dropped a few stitches or something because there are several holes in my harmonica. Then something happened that made continuing impossible. As you can see in the picture of my harmonica, the stitches in the last row are all twisted and will not accept any more stitches.
This was day one. I will keep pressing on and hopefully I will have something, anything that I will be able to use to keep my feet, neck, head or even all of me warm by this winter. Over the next weeks or months I will continue to share my journey to knitting expert with you. If you have any tips for the knitting beginner I would much appreciate it. So please, leave me a comment and help me have something better to show for my efforts than what came about today.
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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)
I just learned to knit a couple of weeks ago. I took a "Learn to Knit in Two Hours" class at my local yarn shop and it was fantastic! I'm finishing up my first scarf and I'm having a ball with it.
ReplyHowever, my beginnings weren't so successful. I'd tried and tried and tried to learn via book/internet/etc but nothing worked. The class was most helpful. I also crochet so I think that helped me a lot too.
Keep it up and good luck!!
On the 1987 book - oh dear! Mainstream, big box stores *are* selling some good stuff these days, but some suppliers, usually the ones offering the least expensive tools in big craft stores, are still shilling stuff that seems really outdated to me.
ReplyI'm working on a Big Resource Thing about this, but I can tell you & ppl interested in this topic, before I post on it officially - try either the "Teach Yourself Visually" series or Debbie Stoller's "Stitch & Bitch" book - both are good. There was a big glut of "learn to knit" books published two or three years ago, so bookstores are full of them, something for every taste. You might be able to scope out one you want and then find it used on Amazon for cheap. Find something where the instructions make sense to *you*... some books work for some ppl and not for others (it's embarrassing how long it took me to learn to purl properly, because none of the writers at the time were explicit enough about where the yarn goes when you bring it forward). Knitting mags also always have basic instructions in the back.
Maureen ~ Stay with your knitting.....it will become a fun, relaxing
Replyhobby. Allison is right: take a class, then the book instructions
will make sense! Be patient with yourself....even seasoned knitters make those knitting and purling mistakes. Have fun with it all!