Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Knitting. . .Another New Skill

Last week's knitting lesson was sort of a lesson, and sort of not.  DD2 did not go with us (having her first 'real' date that evening--meaning with a male friend to something not school related), and neither DD1 nor DD2 had their ruffled scarves all the way knitted, so we did not learn to finish them by sewing off the ends.  And, since they hadn't completed the previous lesson by knitting the entire skein of yarn for their scarves, along with DD2's absence, the instructor and I decided not to start a new project that evening either.

Instead, I asked her about knitting in the round.  It sounds so intriguing, especially when I keep seeing patterns for things that say 'knit in the round', and people who hear that I am taking knitting lessons ask if I'm learning to 'knit in the round' yet.

She said that she had some circular needles and some yarn I could practice with, and for an hour or so, DD1 and I sat with the instructor and just got the hang of knitting in the round.  I also learned how to knit on, because my tail I started with wasn't quite long enough to fill the circular needles, which is what the instructor wanted us to do.  As she was showing me how to knit on to add stitches to my cast on row, the instructor said "normally I don't show beginners this. . ."  We weren't making anything, just filling the needle with cast on stitches, inserting a row marker, and then knitting and knitting and knitting to our hearts content.  Well, to our time limit, anyway.

It was all about practice and repetition.  It was fun.  I'm not sure, but I think I might like knitting in the round better than knitting on straight needles.  I definitely want to pursue it further.

It has been just over four days since that last lesson.  I have nothing knitting related to work on at home since we didn't start a new project (in hindsight, I wish I'd purchased some circular needles just to I could practice it more at home), and the knitting bug is biting.  So. . . I dug out some straight needles I'd purchased several years ago (when I started  wanting to learn to knit) and a nice soft skein of yarn, and last night I started a plain Jane normal scarf for myself.  Plain Jane in that it will be completely of knit stitches, no ribs, cables or anything fancy.  I'll just knit and knit and knit until I feel the scarf is long enough and then I'll bind off.  Something to keep my hands busy when I'm sitting, and satisfy my urge to knit, because our next lesson is five long days off yet!

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