I'm hooked! (or unhooked, as it were)

[quietann]

My try at knitting went recently well. Various knit-nighters were very helpful, especially about casting on (Thanks to Joe for the tip about using a crochet hook in place of the right needle!)

I managed to figure out how to knit and purl (though not in the same row; that was this morning's experiment and it was an abject failure! Having done some poking around on the web, I know have a better idea how to do this)... I discovered that as a crocheter, I'll be more comfortable holding the yarn in my left hand (I believe this is called "Eastern" or "European" style???)





This is my yarn, and I am using size 15 (HUGE!) needles so I can see what I am doing better, and also get results more quickly. The yarn is really soft, and so is the resulting knitted swatch. If I were crocheting with this, it wouldn't be so soft. It's nice to be experienced enough with yarn that I feel comfortable with using something other than ugly acrylic to learn with.

I have this crazy idea that I am going to make a sweater, but we'll see. This is a vest made with this yarn.

Comments

[candle-light.livejournal.com]

You looked remarkably at-ease last night for someone who was just starting out knitting.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

Well, you weren't there right at the beginning when I was casting on!

[kathrynt.livejournal.com]

The trick to knitting and purling in the same row is to move the yarn to the front BEFORE you put the tip of the needle through the stitch.

[quietann.livejournal.com]

OK. What seemed to be happening was that I was wrapping the yarn around the bottom of the piece, so I was getting a lot of bumps.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

i think we have a pattern book in the house intended pretty specifically for people doing their "first sweater". let me know if you want to look at it next knitnight....

[quietann.livejournal.com]

Actually the little guide I was using last night has a pretty basic sweater pattern, so I'll work with that for now.

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

Size 15 is quite large. I find with needles that large, that the stitches seem more likely to slide off. I'm currently doing a project with size 15, and sometimes have the slide off problem.

By the way, that knitted item I showed you this weekend used size 13 in the middle.