Thoughts on knitting

Alright.  So I'm pretty sure any Tom, Dick or Harry out there who wants to knit, can.  But this post isn't about them.  It's about me.  And learning to knit.

I forgot how I learnt to knit. My mum must've shown me, but I don't recall any extensive lessons or anything. By learning, I mean I learnt how to cast on and garter stitch.  And the only things I ever knit were scarves made with the most frightful acrylic yarn that ended up being all kinds of wrong.  Before my current foray into knitting, the last time I delved into it was 7ish years ago.  There was a bit of a rage going round of knitting scarves out of that disgusting feather yarn.  Uggh. 

I've always liked the idea of knitting.  But always found it so so difficult.  My brain didn't really compute why this was the case.  I've always been a bit of a crafty lass, with cross stitching and sewing and various things involving glue, felt and polyfill.  But knitting was just so hard.  SO MANY LOOPS.  So very fiddly.  Stitches so easily dropped, and not so easily found.  And it's so so slow.  So slow.  And it made my fingers hurt.  Those needles were so pointy.

Fast forward to learning to crochet.  I taught myself from a book and online videos, and picked it up like a fish to water.  I instantly loved it.  It gave me everything I ever wanted from knitting, and more. 

But now, I feel I've gone as far as I can with my beloved crochet.  Oh there's still lots more I want to make, but I just don't feel challenged anymore.  And I don't find it particularly versatile, and crochet garments just don't do it from me.  Also I started feeling this enormous pressure to make all the lovely things I kept seeing out there in blog land.  Knitters outnumber us crocheters, so I really felt the odds were not in my favour (hehe Hunger Games references work everywhere!).

My crocheted Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.  Proof that I am a crochet master.

Enter my self imposed challenge:  Learn to knit properly.   I thought, surely it must have some similarities to crochet, and I can crochet like the wind!  So I found myself a couple of projects that I thought I could do, and do you know what, I did them!

Knitting project 1:  Different Lines, and 2:  Hitchhiker, proof that I can garter with the best of them.

And you know what else?  I feel like I need more of a challenge!!  I thought the knitting learning curve was super steep, and that I would need to work my way up to it.  That just made me *snore*.  So I thought, F*** IT!  I'm going to give something awesome a go.

LOOK WHAT I DID!!

Are you impressed?  I am bloody over the moon with this little test piece.  Moss stitch (ok, not that impressive).  Yarn overs (oooOOOooo).  CABLES (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).   I still can't believe I did it.  I feel like Dr Frankenstein.  Look at what I have created!!

Aaaannnnddd I blocked it.  No idea if I blocked it correctly, I didn't want to stretch it out like I would lacy corchet, it didn't feel right. 

The pattern is Umaro and before I purchased it I studied other people's projects very closely.  It's just so beautiful, do I dare try? 

Now I'm starting to understand what a lot of my problems with knitting have been.  I wasn't holding the yarn properly, and this meant I had no control over the yarn or my tension.  I was using disgusting yarn and the wrong needles  (I acutally don't mind crocheting with acrylic yarn, but wow it is not fun to knit with.  I never knew the yarn could make such a difference!).  I've discovered that I love knitting with bulky yarn.  I used some random bulky yarn I had in my stash.  And I knit that sucker up SUPER quickly.  Well, it took me a couple of hours - but to me it was so much new stuff and I had to follow the chart, so the time flew. 

So, the moral of the story?  I'm becoming a knitter.  I don't think of myself as a proper knitter yet.  I read these posts (eg 1 and 2) where knitters patiently frog their work over and over again to get it right, and I cannot see myself doing that.  But I can see myself hunkering down with some pointy sticks to attempt to make something beautiful!  I'm going to do a few chunky yarn projects first, and then see where that takes me. 

Stay tuned!! (if I haven't already bored you to tears)