First project!

Here are the pictures of my very first project ever! Can't wait to have many, many pictures of my creations to go through! I just started the backpack for my daugter, I'm hoping to finish it before the new school year starts!

WIP #1: Complete!

As of Wednesday night, I completed my first project! When I was about halfway done with my shrug I noticed I had made a couple mistakes. I was actually able to go in to my LYS  and (with help from the sweet girl there) fix my boo-boos, and Wednesday night I finished! Pictures will be posted soon. It is a crazy feeling to know that I took some yarn and two needles and made something wearable! My mom is super excited to wear it! I just need to block it and it will be ready for her. I showed a good friend of mine the completed shrug and now she wants one, too. I have two projects ahead of hers to finish first, my daughters punk rock backpack, and a baby blanket for my good friend who is going to be a first time mommy this September. I love doing this so there is never too many projects for me! I'm so excited!

WIP: Summer Shrug

I am up late waiting for the hubby to get off work so I can pick him up. I think to myself, this is the perfect time to work on my project! After about 3 hours I decided to take a break and upload some pictures.

I attended my very first class and it was so much fun! I was a little behind because there was a yarn entanglement issue so I started a little bit after everyone else, but I think I made up for it at home tonight!

And now with pictures! These are from my very first attempts, I made a little swatch of each before I moved on to the next technique. They are a little sucky, but I've only been at this for a week!

Garter


Stockinette

Seed

Rib

Cable

Heart design

I fell in love

I have never in my life found something I was good at. I don't dance or sing, I can cook ok, but I could never think of anything my friends could say, "Oh, Mary's good at that." Until I started knitting. Maybe that's why I love it so much.

Two and a half years ago, I was hospitalized to receive some medication to help manage my latest MS attack. I sat in a room for five days feeling fine (other than the fact that I felt numb head to toe). You can imagine how bored I was. I mentioned to my husband that I wished I could knit, then I would have something to do AND the use of my fine motor skills would help my hands rehabilitate faster. You never know how much you depend on your hands till they are hard to use! So, my affair with knitting was born.

Just kidding. I actually was so busy after I got out of the hospital, that I never had time to pick it up. I kept telling myself it would happen, but it never did. I couldn't dodge it forever, though, thankfully. About three weeks ago, my mom brought home a whole bunch of knitting gear. Her friend was a big knitter (TWENTY years ago!) and wanted someone to pass it on to. My mom, being the pack rat she is, offered to take it all home.

Since it was RIGHT in front of me now, I couldn't really ignore it. So, about a week later, I grabbed a pair of size 10 aluminum needles and a skein of baby soft yarn (100% acrylic, gasp!) and sat down with a learn how to knit guide. Six grueling hours later, I successfully cast on my first row! Since that day I have dedicated at least an hour to knitting and have picked up quite a few techniques (pictures of my laborious work will soon be posted).

A friend of mine suggested I go join her knit group that is held at a LYS (Don't know what that is? Why are you reading this blog?) she used to go to when she lived here. So, a few days later, I stopped by the store, and met the most delightful woman. Though she claimed to be a crocheter, she had no problem pointing me towards the books that could help me and walking me through the store describing the different kinds of yarn in there. I couldn't wait to return the next day for their sale (every woman's four letter word).

I left the store the next day with an amazing book, Stitch 'N Bitch, by Debbie Stoller, and three skeins of chunky baby alpaca yarn. I seriously spent the next four days having everyone who came to my house pet my yarn, its that soft. Or I'm that crazy. I prefer the former to the latter. I also signed up for a class to teach me how to knit a shrug. My very first project! First class is tonight, I can't wait to put up pictures of my project!

And that's how I fell in love with knitting. After some horrible knitting puns from my husband, who has kindheartedly listened to every word I've put in on the subject, I was told to go talk to people who would not only care about what I was talking about, but actually understand my new found obsession. Since I don't really have any friends who knit, blogging about it was the next best thing. and My Knitche was born.