Despite this, and despite the fact that I am not young and hip enough to be a young, hip knitter, and not old enough to be a granny knitter, and have the hand-eye coordination of a banana slug, I have gotten into knitting. It started with wool mittens for the ducklings, in the hopes that they would keep their hands warm in the rain, which is the standard winter weather around here.The mother of our park friends showed me how.
I started in December, and for the first week I felt like I was battling a porcupine. Then the porcupine vanished and was replaced by cheerfully clicking needles churning out row after row of even stitches. It took me until the beginning of February to get mittens for all of the ducklings, but we at least had a few cold, wet days left to appreciate them. Of course, after all that work they are worth quite a bit more than their weight in gold to me, so I am as strict as the mother of the three little kittens.
Then I finished all the mittens and didn't know what to do with myself next. I'd gotten used to having something nice sliding through my fingers during the evening viewing of Monk or while playing games. Fortunately DOB decided he needed a knit hat, and he doesn't do acrylic. So we found some gray Peruvian wool and the shop lady wound it into a giant cake of yarn for me (apparently you're NOT supposed to just pull from the skein until it gets into a big snarly mess. Who knew?) I'm going to make it with dinosaur spikes.
I still haven't gotten the hang of patterns. They all seem to have this crazy idea that I am going to want to do what they say and go out and buy yarn according to their instructions and be able to read their cryptic little code. But I don't want to. So I just keep trying things until they turn out the way I want. Which is why I have started DOB's hat nine times, though I may have what I want this time. It's OK with me, as it prevents me from having to start a new project, which might involve buying yarn, which costs money.
And I am NOT raising sheep.
7 comments:
Watching Monk and knitting? I think you'll have to start that hat ten times.
I always like to see a fellow addict starting out. And I'm amazed that you started with mittens!
Seriously mittens. Those are darn cute. I started knitting years ago and still haven't gone beyond dishcloths and baby blankets. Even a scarf seems too hard. :)
My wife has precisely the same attitude about lesson plans that you raised about patterns. I see patterns and plans as instructive; she sees them as restrictive and oppressive :)
Hooray for knitting! I am an order knitter, though, just as I am an order Muppet. I like patterns. I will explain the benefits of a gauge swatch to anyone who will listen, and I will completely ignore the yarn suggestions in my patterns and make them with what I like. Which is why I am starting a worsted weight sweater pattern in lace weight yarn. Why would I need a heavy wool sweater that I could wear 1 month out of the year?
And Darren, I don't like lessons plans either. I write them after we have done the work so I only have to do it once.
And reading knitting patterns is like knowing a secret code revealed to a select few. I'll have to try that at my next knitting group. "A-ha! I have mastered this secret code and I know what the DK are up to. Don't you wish you knew? With this knowledge I shall rule the galaxy!"
You certainly jumped into the deep end with the 4 needle projects: socks and mitten, though. I have yet to make a mitten.
I should confess that this was not quite my first knitting project--however the last time I knitted was about twenty years ago. Hats. No patterns then either. I've always done the multiple needle thing. And when I started again, it definitely felt like I had forgotten everything.
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