Saturday, September 25, 2010

Knitting.........

This old knitting project (see below), a sweater that I started in 2008 is once again on my project agenda.  I put away the project back in March 2008.  I had finished the back and was working on the front when I had to stop because I did not understand the next instruction.


In quilting, most patterns are for piecing and end up with the instruction, "quilt as desired".  For the novice quilter that instruction is daunting, impossible and frustrating.


In knitting, the same is true.  I can do a knit stitch and I can do a pearl stitch. Beyond that, I have to look at an instruction book, ask someone, or look it up on the internet.


Determined to figure out the instruction and not waste all that money that I spent on good yarn, I re-read the instructions over and over again until I was pretty sure I understood.  The stitch count was wrong, but I proceeded anyway and finished the front of the sweater.  (I hope it is correct.)


Today I started in on the first sleeve and the instruction said to "increase at the beginning and end of every fourth row."  The fourth row happened to be a pearl row.  Not one of my three instruction books had help for increasing at the beginning and end of a pearl row.  After looking at several You Tube videos and instructions from various websites, I came up with the method that made the most sense to me and went with that.  So far it is working just fine.




It has taken me years and years of being with other quilters to absorb knowledge, get ideas, and learn good skills.  I belong to the best Bee group in the world.  The women in my Bee group are so helpful and so generous in sharing good techniques, and I have learned volumes from them.


Perhaps I need to find a good knitting group if I plan to continue doing any serious knitting.  

1 comment:

Laura said...

Good for you for sticking with it!!