Saturday, February 16, 2008

Knitting

Last Friday, I decided that my right hand WAS going to cooperate, and I WAS going to learn to knit. Efforts to learn over the Christmas holiday break had left me frustrated because after crocheting, knitting just made me feel like I had 20 fingers, and my right hand had a mind of it's own (I'm a leftie).

I joined a dishcloth KAL on Yahoo, picked a pattern, and jumped in using some helpful knitting videos I found online. Much easier than trying to learn it from a book. I had to make the decision to learn to knit English or Continental, because to learn the left-handed message would mean that I would have to continually make modify patterns (from what I gathered)to allow for knitting left-handed. That didn't sound fun. (I have never had to modify a pattern to crochet left-handed.) I decided to go with the English version, although from what I have read, Continental is easier. I may try that at another time. Start with the difficult, then move to the easy...right? So...I jumped in...

Here is my first completed dishcloth...

It is far from perfect, but I started over more times than I care to count, and frogged back several times as well. It's not as easy to frog back in knitting as crocheting, I discovered. So I was pretty much ready to be done, and tired of going back, so I just pressed on until I was finished.

And my second...

If you look closely, you can see a butterfly pattern. I probably should have used a solid color to do this in, but it is what I had in my stash from a previous CAL in the 'Ville that I never finished. I didn't have to start over but once, but still had to frog back quite a few times, but it went better.

I sent both of these to my Mom for her birthday, cuz what Mom doesn't like to get handmade things from their kids? I felt like I was back in kindergarten and did my first fingerpainting...LOL! I have a couple more in progress, and with each one I get better. I like it more and more, and my right hand has become quite cooperative now that it has figured out what the heck is going on. I'm stubborn that way.

5 comments:

Crafty Christina said...

Glad to see you back! The dishcloths are very nice and I'm glad your hand cooperated enough to do them!

Laurah said...

Pretty dishcloths! I never get tired of making dishcloths.
I'm pushing myself to try more knitting patterns, too. (Also a leftie.)

Debbi-a1 said...

Youd did great on knitting. I can't handle it. LOL.

Debbi-a1 said...

Great job on the dishclothes. I just can't get into knitting and wish I could, I love your items.

Lace-lovin' Librarian ~ Diane said...

Great job on the dishcloths! I think if you try Continental knitting, it will feel more familiar. It's a closer feel to crocheting. I can knit more comfortably, more quickly, and more evenly using the Continental style. Good luck!