Knitter Natter – Tales of a knitting newbie

I’ve always wanted to knit. As a small child, I’d wrap yarn across a pair of twigs and pretend to knit. A few years later, I gave knitting a real shot, with a pair of my mother’s knitting needles and a ball of yarn – phlemy yellow, coarse and unraveled from an old woolen sock. The wool didn’t feel right (I’ve always wanted the materials I use to be of at least good quality, if not luxurious) and I just couldn’t get my head around the concept of knit and purl. I remember my mother getting more and more exasperated with every fumbling movement that I made with the needles and that yellow yarn. And finally, she told me to give it up and focus on the things I was good at, like painting.

image credit: UVM bored

It took me another 15 years to pick up a set of knitting needles, this time my own and bought at the local store in a small town. I remember the skein of bubble gum pink wool that I had bought along with it and my attempt at learning to knit a scarf from the cleaning woman. The pattern was wrong for a scarf and it had to be unraveled by my mother and knit all over again. I tried again, but I dropped more stitches than I knitted. In the end, my mother unraveled the scarf once again and knitted it up herself.

The next year, I bought a skein of Smurf-blue wool and knitted up a cap for my husband. I ended up increasing the number of stitches so much (without realizing it) that the end result looked more like a “German Helmet” (in my husband’s words) than a cap that could keep anyone warm. I still have that knitted creation, unworn and brand new, tucked beneath the other layers of woolen clothes.

A few years later and with my mother and mother-in-law’s help, I knitted up lots of small squares with colored yarn, which my mother joined up into a bright and beautiful woolen patchwork blanket. But after that, I tucked away my knitting needles because really, how many more woolen squares could one knit and how many more woolen blankets does one need?

This year, which I’ve declared as my creative year, I decided to give knitting a shot again. I have always loved the concept of looping yarn across a pair of needles to create something beautiful, and there’s no better time to try something new than now, right?

So far, I’ve knitted 63 inches of a coral pink shawlette-stole with the drop-stitch pattern. There’s still another 25 inches to go and so far, it’s been a peaceful knitting journey with very few self-created knitting roadblocks. I’m also collaborating on another knitting project with my mother, a spearmint green scarf in seed stitch, and dreaming of a peacock blue cowl that I’m about to cast on. My knitting basket has skeins of butter-popcorn white wool, waiting to be knitted up into another lacy scarf.

I’m still sticking to scarves and cowls, with the hope that I may be able to knit up a few beanies the next year. The sweaters and cardigans may never be born from my knitting needles, but for now, I’m knitting-content. As long as I can loop yarn around my knitting needles, buy copious amounts of jewel-colored wool and dream of the gorgeous woolen accessories that come out of my knit-and-purl, I’m a happy girl.

Are you a knitting newbie too? What are you knitting at the moment?
Let me know at my Facebook page.

#knitting #creativity #creative2016