My first post about knitting

Last year I decided to make a New Year's resolution that would add to my skills, and be something I've wanted to know how to do for a while. I chose 'learn to sew with knit fabric', yep, pretty geeky yet it was somethign I'd never tried and something that I'd been a little intimidated to try, especially since I don't own a serger.

This year I chose 'learn to knit'. Oh, I've knit before. I think they made us knit a little garter stitch square in Brownies... and in grade 7 I knit a lopi sweater (with some help from Mum) for a 4H project. That sweater was never worn. It was ugly in a way that makes you think it was designed to be worn by a human/preying mantis hybrid. And made in pink acrylic. It was bad. Real bad.

So this January I joined Ravelry. Ravelry is the online place to be if you knit. It now has over 400,000 members worldwide. Ravelry is Queen of the knitting world. So, I joined ravelry and I knit a dishcloth. Then I knit some hats, and a pair of fingerless mits. With each project I learned a skill or two: casting on and off, knit, purl, cables, increases, decreases. It was all going well. Then I had a baby. Now, a few months later I'm knitting again. I've also done some internet shopping and bought the Purl Stitch by Sally Melville that I'd been borrowning from a friend, and her Knit Stich book, too, and a hilarious book by Stephanie Pearl-McFee, and a book with intimidating sock patterns that would probably take me a year to make... If I made it through to the end. And, I had so much fun getting ready to knit again, that I spent some more time surfing around the internet, reading knitting blogs and finding other cool things to make. I found Pattern Fish and bought a few vest patterns. That's when I knew I was getting close to picking up the needles again.

The first vest patterns is pretty easy, but made with a fine DK yarn. I chose a single ply Briggs and Little wool for this one in dark khaki green. I thought it would be a nice warm and casual item for winter. Yeah, mine's going to be much more rustic than the one shown below.

Then, there's the very cool zippered vest designed for worsted weight. I want two of them (for now). I chose Briggs and Little Regal in dark grey and an alpaca/wool/cashmere tweed in a yummy dark orange colour. (Yes, I already have the yarns for these projects!) This one should be the fastest of the three. I'm going to use a two-way zips.

Finally, my favourite and the one in progress right now. A very sweet little buttoned vest. I like how it has empire styling and just skims over the waist and hips. Very flattering. I found a nice acrylic/wool DK (Click DK by Sidar) that seems nice enough. Truth be told when I went into the LYS to buy the yarn, I was hoping for an old-world green. Something that said early 20th century. But, alas, I had a four year old who was running around grabbing yarn balls from who knows where and bringing them to me because they were so pretty and 'we should buy them' and I had a crying baby wrapped up on me who was not very happy that I had parked myself in front of a yarn section and was not bouncing her enough. Evey knows when she doesn't have my attention and she makes me pay. So, the green I thought I wanted was too blue... and I ended up buying blue? Does that make sense? I think it will look nice with blue jeans. I really hope so. I really do like the Briggs and Little stuff better, but that was a later trip when I'd done more research and had escaped the house sans kids. I'm hoping to buy more of their wool. I like that it's Canadian, that it's really well priced and that they process it the old-fashioned way. This stuff still has some straw in it (I'm told it washes out and the fabric gets nice and soft).

I've got the left front made and just cast on the back. 137 stitches per row. And, I'm a painfully slow knitter (even my Mum says so, and she loves me). Wish me luck. I knit at night after the baby has gone to sleep. A few rows here and there, but I love it!