Sunday, January 27, 2008

Learning to Knit

I love to make things for my home and as gifts. I don't always have time or take the time to do it. I have been crocheting since I was a teenager. My Mom crocheted and she taught me. I can go really fast when I crochet. A dear older lady in our fellowship in Florida taught me how to knit. I moved not too long after that and I have had tons of questions for her. I started knitting a winter scarf for me in beautiful variegated pink cotton yarn. I worked on the scarf for 3 winters. It was not just because I am slow and awkward, but it had a pattern that you had to repeat 4 times and then switch to another pattern and repeat it 4 times. I can't have any distractions or I lose my place on my scarf. I had a friend who was visiting me. One of her children pulled the needle out of my work. She apologized but I knew that the child was just curious. The mother put the needle back into the work, but the loops are all wrong and I don't know how to fix it. So, it sits and waits until I have another truly knowledgable knitter to help me.
Ginny and I have been friends for a long time. We lived near each other in Florida and now live near each other in Ohio. She is very creative and crafty. She is also learning to knit, but it appears she is a senior in high school at knitting and I am still in first grade. =) She got a wonderful book called "The Sweater Workshop". The book has you start out by making a knitting sampler that lets you see all the stitches and tricks and what they are used for and why. She set to work and in a very short time was done. She has since made at least 2 sweaters. I have decided that I want to be a better knitter, so I am attempting to make a knitting sampler. Here are some pictures of Ginnys. I asked her permission to post these pictures.
The first 2 pictures just show 2 sides to the sampler. It is knit in the round on circular needles. It looks sort of like a windsock. You can click on any of these pictures and make them larger to see more detail.

Here are some close up pictures. This shows her fair isle knitting (that is the pretty pattern with pink and green and tan. You can also see her knitted tie string which is threaded through holes. It shows you where she decreased her stitches and doing several types of stripes.
Here shows where she increased her stitches. That is also a flap with a button hole. I told her it made me think of making a pair of long underwear with the button flap in the back. This also shows some different sorts of stitches and another strip variety.
The pink add on, is a sweatshirt pocket.
It also has you make several types of edgings. There is a loop, a lacy edging (that is hard to see in the picture) and just a regular one. I will take pictures of mine as I go. Right no, I have barely begun. Ginny, if I left anything out or you want to add anything, leave a note in the comments section.
We woke up the last 2 morning with fresh snow on the ground. Around an inch or less each morning. It got back down to around 7 degrees one night. Today we are having a heat wave. It is 30 degrees. It looks like that sort of weather will hang around this week.

4 comments:

Kelli said...

What a lovely sampler, Marci! I have been doing a little knitting this winter too. Is there a knitting shop in your area that you could take your project in to ask for help?
Hugs,
Kelli

Lynn Bartlett said...

Hi Marci,
I used some of my Christmas money to purchase a knitting book, and now all I need to do is buy needles and yarn and I will be in business! Guess I can ask you if I run into any problems -- you are much farther along than I am! Don't come our way, though, as today it was in the 30's, but by tomorrow night we'll have temps in the -30's (and that doesn't include the windchill factor!)

Unknown said...

I hope we see some pictures of yours soon, darling. :-D

Clara....in TN said...

Marci, do you want to mail me your scarf and needles and let me see if I can fix it?
You say you forget where you are on your scarf if you get distracted. What you do is make a chart. Write down the color above it. Write down 1, 2, 3, 4 ....several times......everytime you start a row, mark off the row you are on. When you come back to it, you can look at the chart and tell exactly what row you are on. When you change colors, do the same thing. Write down the color and mark off the rows as you go. I think you are doing great.
P.S. If you would want me to look at your scarf, send the instructions with it and I will try to get you going again. Love, Clara