Monday, September 1, 2008

Learning New Things



I learned to knit when I was in high school. A LYS owner came to the Youth Center which was across the street from my high school and gave lessons. While taking the classes I knitted up a storm, but after the classes were over I quit knitting although I kept my knitting bag, needles and yarn for years and took it with me on move after move, always thinking I would someday knit again. She taught us the English knitting method, so I have always been a thrower.

A few years later I worked with two women who were big crocheters so I learned to crochet from them and for years I was strictly a crocheter. About 6 years or so ago I decided I wanted to knit again so I bought a "how to knit" book, needles and yarn and started a huge afghan. Probably not my best choice as it had loooong rows and took me forever, plus it had a complicated border with lots of yarn overs, but it was a good learning experience.

Just recently I decided I wanted to learn continental knitting. I'm working on the sweater pictured above, which is from the fall issue of knitsimple, and designed for tweens. It's for my granddaughter and she picked out the yarn because she wanted it to be "fuzzy and cozy". That girl has definite ideas of what she wants! Since it has long rows of stockinette I decided it would be a good project to learn to knit continental and so this weekend that has been my project.

I searched out several youtube videos and tried a few different styles, but then found this video, which I found the most helpful. It's still a little awkward but I think I'm getting it and I tell myself since I am using new brain cells it may delay me losing my mind a few years!

3 comments:

Robin said...

I'm going to revisit that little video when I get a project that would be good to practice on. Her demonstration made better sense than others I've watched. I like the way she held her yarn.

Paige said...

Dear Diane,

Thank you so much for your message! Mom called to tell me that you two were looking at my site. When I'm in town, we should definitely get together to knit! I'm glad to hear that you're teaching yourself to knit continental style -- it's one of my goals this year to learn that, too. Keep me updated!

Candyce said...

You are getting me to want to do it!