Learning to knit

If you're reading this, you'll know what I mean. The very first time you picked up the sticks. Where you were sitting, who taught you, the feel of the yarn in your hands, your tension off as you nervously jammed the needles too hard into the tight cast-on stitch. Yep. Memories coming back? Thought so.

For me, I was sitting on my red couch next to my grandma. I'd been watching her knit for as long as I could remember, but I finally felt I was old enough to try. I crawled up next to Grandma and asked. She handed me some supple bamboo US 7s and a small skein of a cottony yellow yarn and cast on about twenty stitches, then showed me how to do a knit st. Rather than practice just k, she taught me into purling as well, and the resulting piece is comparable to a soldier's shoes after standing in Valley Forge for a whole winter. 

It was that bad. 

There's the top. You can see my dropped sts (lots of them!), my loose tension, and the complete lack of any kind of gauge. :)

And this lovely loopy-thingy. As an intermediate knitter now, I can't even imagine how I managed to do that.

As you can see, the bottom has dwindled to a mere eight or so sts, but I love it nonetheless. 

There's the whole thing, hanging on my wall next to a photo of the ever-lovely Sir Paul. The weird back-and-forth stripey thing is because I kept forgetting when to k and when to p, so as a result it's all wrong. 

There you have it! My first project, that I keep around to remind myself what hard work can help you accomplish. What do your first projects look like?

Emma

Hello!

I doubt anyone's going to read this, which is fine by me, but if someone's out there, hi!!! *waves wildly* Welcome to my newest baby blog. Isn't she somethin'?

I prolly should introduce myself. My name's Emma, and I've been knitting for a few years now. Nine, to be exact. I actually can't remember a time when I wasn't knitting, to be honest. But it wasn't until two or three years ago that I realized just how fun knitting could be. I learned a few new stitches and, with a little help from my fairy godmother, advanced to projects harder than scarves and dishcloths! Knitting has become my stress-relief system, and it's just a great way to make yourself stand out in a crowd! "Hi, I'm Anne, I'm a history student and oh, yeah, I made this sweater." :D

I'm honored to have you stumble upon my blog, delightful mystery readers! I hope it's entertaining and maybe even worth a second visit.

Emma