To put it mildly, my knitting is not going well. Even though I took up this new hobby six months ago, I still seem to have trouble learning and incorporating new techniques..
I attended a "Knitting 102" class at my LYS yesterday, and felt so nervous and anxious about not being able to keep up I was embarrassed. The instructor, who is a professional art teacher and was excellent, covered topics such as gauge, increasing and decreasing, and pattern interpretation. The project assigned was a scarf knitted of panels highlighting the new stitches.
Well, I was all thumbs. I had only gotten four hours sleep the night before, and made the mistake of drinking a Red Bull directly before the class began. After all, knitting is supposed to be relaxing, but I was instead a nervous wreck throughout the entirety of the two-hour period.
I've found it difficult, in a class setting, to concentrate while the rest of the class is talking incessantly. I just can't focus.
The end result is that I learned virtually nothing in the class that I can now recall. I will have to pick up directions for the various stitches from the Internet, and that usually works prettty well. But I must admit I'm tiring of knitting and purling; I'm ready to proceed to a higher level with my knitting. The problem is it's not happening.
Yet I continue to practice, practice, practice. I love knitting and can't get enough of it, even if I do knit like shit. I'm determined to continue to learn and improve my skills. In fact, I'm counting on it.
I can't believe I'm still struggling with this stupid hat! Here is a picture of the store sample at my LYS, where this hat was featured as the project in my knitting-in-the-round class. I've sadly decided I ultimately learned zilch in this class, mostly because I was knitting like a fiend in an effort to keep up with my classmates (I knit slowly).
However, we learned nothing about ladders at the corners and how to avoid them, or how to keep stitches from falling off the ends of our Size 7 dpns. These issues, you see, form the crux of my problem.
Anyhow, I've decided once again to ditch the hat I'm working on and start another. See how the seams in the pictured hat are so perfectly even? Well, mine are not, and it's driving me bonkers.
My LYS just got in a shipment of 17 new colors of Malabrigo yarn from Uruguay. I am crazy about this stuff; it's as soft as cashmere and works up beautifully. So I will go over there next week and buy a couple of hanks: enough to make two hats.
Okay, so I'm on my second purse, and I must say that so far it's looking gorgeous. It's the Diana bag featured by Rowan in their book, A Midas Touch. All the patterns in this beautiful book are knitted using various shades of Rowan Glimmer Print. Here is a picture of the finished product as made by my ever-patient knitting instructor and co-owner of my LYS, amylovie, . I created my bag in the paler Lavish Pink as shown in the book; Amy chose the more fuchsia shade of the yarn.
I've got the body of the bag done and am waiting to get home (I've been housesitting for my mom for a week) to get hold of my Size L crochet hook, which I need to complete the strap and roses that will be stitched to the front. I know my bag won't achieve anywhere near the level of perfection of Amy's, but I think it will be good enough to pass muster. I have had a ball working with this shoestring-y fiber; it knits up beautifully and is so easy with which to work. I'll post a photo of my own FO when it's done and we'll see how it measures up to the example pictured here.
To put it mildly, my knitting is not going well. Even though I took up this new hobby six months ago, I still seem to have trouble learning and incorporating new techniques..
