Author: Nicola Florence @ ayarnyrobin

  In which I make a giant leap!

You may well have thought ‘Well that didn’t last long!’ and for a wee while there I thought I may never knit again to.  I have not knit since the last time we spoke of knitting just here.  There are many reasons why but they could just be summed up in one word…’life!’ Yes, life has been busy and if I’m honest very, very sad at the nest, due to a very sudden and very untimely bereavement and so as such I have been unable to comprehend summoning up the fair amount of concentration knitting demands from me. 

I have taken solace in my hook and hooked rows of simple half double crochet on my long forgotten Charming Harbour Blanket instead.

So, after a good while without knitting I spent an evening browsing patterns and decided I still may never knit again because they seemed so flipping difficult to read and  to interpret.  That was until I saw this rather magnificent blanket... by Purl Soho inspired by Barbara Walker.  Advanced beginner it said…and I said ‘well then I can do this!’  

I borrowed my Mom’s circular needles and tried to cast on.  There lay my first problem, I had forgotten how to cast on and I thought yet again I may never learn to knit! That would have been an awful shame because my lovely brother had in the passing weeks gifted me these beautiful needles.  

With a little perseverance and some minor cursing I remembered how to cast on and look…

I  had managed 123 little stitches followed by one row of knit stitches.  What this picture doesn’t tell you is that this took two attempts as I lost a stitch somehow on my first try.

So, you see my knitting adventure continues precariously but it does continue!

xxxxx

part 1 of my knitting adventure is just here

 part 2 of my knitting adventure is just here

 part 3 of my knitting adventure is just here 

  In which wine is not involved!

I have not knitted every day this week; I have done a wee bit though.  Most of my yarn time has been given over to a beautiful crochet baby blanket and to getting the pattern and tutorial ready to go out in a couple of days, which actually has been quite time consuming…

It’s a good job I love to do nothing better! 

But back to knitting…this is what I have completed. 

I have completed 35 rows of stocking stitch. 

Told you it wasn’t much…but this is what I have learned.  Purl stitch is spelt P.U.R.L… not as I had spelt it in my last post! 

 I think I can count the rows better if I look at the purl side.  I also have been keeping track of which row I am leaving my stitches at by emailing myself…you may laugh but it works for me! 

I have also had another little lesson with Mom, no wine involved this time;  in which we discussed and she demonstrated increasing and decreasing and I got a little frustrated…! 

Mom also gave me an old pattern just to look through and get familiar with the terms and just actually reading a knitting pattern…which got me thinking that making these squares is a bit dull. 

Before I knew where I was, it was way past midnight and I had picked out a few easy knit mitts and beanies over on ravelry…this is my favourite just here

Now do you think I should really start something just yet?

xxxxx

part 1 of my knitting adventure is just here

 part 2 of my knitting adventure is just here

  In which I progress to pearl stitch…

I have knitted religiously every day this week; just a little bit here and there.  I read about the brain having ‘muscle memory’ and the importance of repetition when learning something new.  If only knitting practice or crochet for that matter toned the physical muscles…I would be a goddess by now!

So I have knitted more squares using the ‘knit’ stitch and I have sorted out the wibbly edge.  I am pleased with my tension and I am not getting a random extra stitch anymore.  I can cast on and off all by myself too.  I have learnt that this knit stitch is also called garter stitch and that when the fabric is separated you have an umbrella and a v underneath…but to count the stitches is tricky.  I am doing 40 rows not 20 like I thought! 

This is my weeks work… 

 On Friday evening  my Mom came round with some more wine…(there is a theme here isn’t there?) and taught me how to pearl. 

Now as far as I can tell this is just backward knit stitch, but I love it.  It gives a flatter fabric which makes my heart flutter a little bit.  I thought I would be able to make squares just from pearl stitches but Mom explained that I could not do this and would need to make squares to practice that were  made up of a row of knit stitch followed by a row of pearl stitch; repeated…also known as ‘stocking stitch’. 

I love that in knitting there is a term like stocking stitch or garter stitch which refers to a pattern repeat…I don’t think crochet does this so well. 

Anyway, this is my first attempt at stocking stitch…can you notice the BIG whoops?  Yes, I lost track of my rows and must have pearled or knitted two rows together and my flatter pearl rows jumped over to the bumpier knit side! Oh well!  It may have been the wine. 

I still can’t count the rows…it is so difficult to count the rows. 

Any advice gladly welcome?

xxxxx

part 1 of my knitting adventure is just here  

I can not knit. 

I have tried before, but it has not ended well.  For a while now I have thought about knitting, but then I would recall my previous attempts and squash any thought I had. 

But, just the other week I spied the most gorgeous pair of fair isle mitts I ever did see and I thought I must learn to knit.  Then I thought of my previous attempts at knitting and instead of squashing that thought…I thought… I SHOULD really learn to knit.   Of course, me being me I have set my heart on fair isle.  I know it is most complicated and tricky, but it is also absolutely beautiful.  And so, here I am documenting  part 1 of my yarny knitting adventure.  

If you have read my previous post you will know that there is still much crochet going on here at the nest too and that will continue as always.

So, yesterday afternoon after Easter Sunday dinner at my parents house, my Mom fetched her hoard of knitting needles and sorted me a pair of 4mm needles…an odd pair, but a pair non the less.

  Mom, then showed me how to cast on and do a knit stitch.  20 stitches per row and set me the task of knitting 20 rows.

I found the knit stitch reassuringly satisfying as the needles made a gentle clicking sound and of course the familiar feel of the yarn in my hands was heart warming.  The 21st stitch that appeared from no where was baffling as was the loopy first stitch in every row.

  I must also stress the responsibility of holding 20 (sometimes 21) stitches on the needle all at the same time instead of the 1 stitch in crochet required much concentration…which after 3 large glasses of wine was a challenge I must confess.    After a good nights sleep I continued  with my task until I noticed something didn’t look quite right, see…

Now, I still am not quite sure what had happened here, but I also couldn’t just leave it.  So I ripped the rows back

recaptured the 20 little stitches and continued until I could count 19 rows and 20 stitches on the needle.  Now I thought do I knit another row to make 20 rows or do the stitches on the needle count as row 20 already???  Cue Mom and another cup of tea and a cast off lesson to!

I am so pleased, but I still have to get this knit stitch nailed. 

I still need to be able to cast on and knit on my own, visually  recognise the stitch so that I can recognise when the stitch is not right.  I need to fix the wibbly edge and cast off on my own too.  So I plan on knitting some more knit stitch squares before progressing to pearling. 

So, I can no longer say I can’t knit, instead I can now say I am learning to knit.

xxxxx