Knitting - some people make it look so easy!
My grannie used to knit all the time. She used to make us grandchildren embarrassing home-knitted jerseys, which I did not appreciate at the time, but when I was a little older I actually asked her to knit one for me because the house I was living in while attending uni in Palmerston North was absolutely freezing!
My mum also used to knit occasionally, I do remember that she spent hours knitting mittens for me and a smaller pair for my little brother in preparation for a trip to the snow. On the first day up the mountain both pairs got saturated and were hung to dry in the drying room at the lodge. The next day my pair fitted my brother and his pair would have fitted a baby, oops! At some stage my grannie taught me to knit too. I can't remember actually finishing a knitting project at the time though.
Recently I have been inspired by all the lovely knitting on a few different blogs (here and here and here). The clothes (and other products!) they are producing don't look "home-made", all chunky and ill-fitting, they are beautiful and stylish. So I thought maybe I should try to learn to knit and make myself some nice clothes. I bought some wool from a stall at the farmers market (I think it was stock from a haberdashery that closed down or something, not fresh from the sheep anyway).
I had to search and search among the balls of impostor polyester and nylon to find 4 balls of blue wool, from sheep (some of the impostor "wool" had little cartoon pictures of sheep, which made the process even slower). And I bought some knitting needles, it came to $10.25, is that too much to pay? (I have just found new needles online for $10-30! so I think I did ok to get the wool AND needles for that price, tip for beginners- try farmers markets and op shops for your knitting supplies!).
Pete didn't believe that I knew how to knit and thought I was crazy taking so long to find wool. At that stage, having committed so much money (and reputation), I was really hoping that I did remember.
Well here is my effort. A headband because my ears always get cold in winter and beanies are never quite long enough (and make my hair messy). The basic knitting came back to me pretty quickly, Pete was very surprised that I could do it. Its just knits, I didn't want to confuse the issue with purls (shame, I thought they were pearls until I started reading a knitting website just now). I want to make beautiful vests and cardigans, but I'm going to have to learn to follow a pattern, and work out what the codes mean.
Does anyone have an easy pattern for me to start with? What's the next level up from a straight scarf or headband? I don't want to start something that's too hard for my skill level and get put off completely! But I need something challenging to keep me interested, and something useful that I'll wear. I also need some more wool.....any ideas for getting some more nice wool? Apart from old stock at farmers markets!
See below Amazon Affiliate links for a few knitting books that I find useful including the one I mentioned above. If you buy through these links I get a small commission at no extra cost for you. If you're reading this on email or blog reader, you will need to visit my blog to see all the links.
Previous posts about knitting and crochet:
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