Y’all! I finished my first knitting project that was not a scarf! Ah! Lol. Ok, so backstory: Ten years ago, my friend came home from camp and she had learned how to knit, so of course, we all had to learn to knit! It was fun! But that also means I have been straight knitting(with some purling) for like, ten years. And all I have ever made is scarves because those are the easiest to me! So, a year ago my cousin, Ginny, asked me if I could knit her one of those knit headbands and naturally I was like, yeah! I know the perfect yarn too! And then promptly began. Then pulled it out. Then began again. Then pulled it out. This has repeated for like, a year.
Then for some reason this year my fingers have found my needles again and all I want to do is knit! I found this stitch called “brioche knit” and fell in love. When I went to the eye doctor a few days later I took my knitting and began on the head band for the final time! I finished it this past Saturday and y’all, I was so dang excited! I even sewed the ends together since I didn’t knit in the round and was so proud of myself! You can see in that last picture where I joined the two ends. I immediately took a picture sent it to Ginny and asked if she still wanted it (she did). So yay! Now to finish something else! First, look at the colors on that blanket in the first picture! I didn't realize how pretty there were! haha. I’ve been working on this very large scarf, lap blanket, shawl, thing that I’m not sure what I want it to be. I found the yarn in the sale bin at Wal-Mart. It is some of the softest yarn I’ve ever used and only cost $1.50 and for some reason unknown to my conscious mind I only bought one skein instead of every skein I could find. When I returned, I found only one other skein. Sadness! I have started and restarted this one about twenty times, too. I switched from straight needles (in the first picture) to circular needles (in the second picture) once I realized that it was easier for a large piece of knitting to be on circular needles. And that I didn’t have to knit in a circle just because I was using circular needles! I know that sounds crazy, but you know how sometimes you get caught up in what things are supposed to be used for and forget that you can use them in other ways.
Anyways, I feel like I have learned a lot a lot by just finishing this project! And then I watched a knitting video on YouTube and my mind was blown. Oops. But that still does not diminish the project I completed! I feel like I needed those ten years of just knitting straight knit to get to the point where I’m comfortable enough to try more. So that's how I'm looking at how long it has taken me to get past straight stitch! I predict I will be stuck on brioche knit for a good little while now.
On a different note, I think it is so cool how it seems like several of my friends or people I simply know of are knitting and/or crocheting. Last weekend Faith, Autumn, and Kendall came over to my house and although Kendall didn't do any stitching, us three girls did! We have all begun stitching more frequently it seems even though none of us discussed it with the others. Even in the blogging world, it seems that there has been an explosion of knitting among bloggers who do not specialize in this craft.
I began this post thinking it would be a quick write up and just post it out there and be done. But the more I thought and typed, the more I realized I had more to say about knitting. So I believe I am gonna split this into two posts. Thanks for reading!