Adventures in Knitting

   Sometimes the office gets slow. No phone calls, no emails received or to send, no computer work, etc. So, I needed to find something to do with my hands when I’m done with everything else. I’ve crocheted a few things on and off throughout the past decade, but never really decided to do much with it. Most of the patterns for the cute things I see online are knitted. So after crocheting a rather large, gorgeous Claudia Scarf, I decided to give knitting a whirl. I tried knitting about a year or two ago (for the same dang reason too), but I got frustrated with trying to cast on, knit, purl, etc. so I set it aside kind-of-but-not-really-intending-to, pick it up again at a later date. Well, that later day came…with a vengeance.

   A few of the plurkers I follow are knitters. So I hear about these awesome socks (I love socks), gorgeous shawls, the fantastic yarns (I really like seeing all the colors!) they found, and so on. Well, I decided, “What the heck? Might as well give it another try.”  So I dug out what few knitting accouterments I had, discovered KnittingHelp.com, and gave it another try. After a while of cursing and frustrated sighs, I finally cast on some stitches and knit my first row. After that, it wasn’t too bad. “I can do this,” I thought. After I got about halfway done I was sidetracked by gaming on the XBox 360 and set the knitting aside (I’m easily sidetracked at times). I did pick it up again a month or so later and finished my first washcloth. :) And boy was I proud of that! I then started another washcloth. And another. Woohoo! I was making some progress.

   Well, after those first few washcloths I decided it was time to do what my little heart really desired—socks. I searched around Ravelry and found what looked like a fairly simple to understand sock pattern searched around online for some sock yarn—since we only have a WalMart with a small selection of yarn—and went for it. I’ve had some good learning experiences from it, like “Make sure you read the directions correctly” and “Oh, look! Tink it back about 10 rows because you misread the directions,” but I guess that’s something one needs to experience once in awhile. ::lol:: I’ve managed to finish one sock and start the next in the pair. Not a bad start I think.  Now to finish this last sock, so I can start the Citron Shawl…