Jumping headfirst into a sea of yarn

Have you ever walked into a store where everything was labeled in a foreign language you didn’t understand? I can honestly say that’s how I felt the first time I walked into a yarn shop. Other than the obvious designations between needle sizes (Metric and I are friends, I’m happy that he is deeply involved in the world of needle sizes), I was pretty lost. Why would I use a circular needle? What are DPNs? Crochet hook? Why would I use a crochet hook if I’m knitting???!

I won’t repeat my very humble beginnings here, instead I’ve left a very thorough explanation on my About page. Please feel free to take a look.

As most know, I’m new to the world of knitting. I’m still testing the waters, still trying to find my footing. Math helps a lot. The world of knitting is very much founded on some simple mathematical principles, and I’m sure I’ll get into them more when I have a chance. I’ll be updating once a week, likely on Saturday mornings with a coffee in-hand. For now, I’m going to leave you with some eye candy of two of my recently completed projects.

The Coffee Scarf

I knit this for my mom. The back story is that I made my first scarf at Christmas. It was the first scarf I had ever knit and I was knitting it as a gift for my sister, who is currently teaching in Japan. When my mom saw the scarf, she loved it and wanted one exactly like it. Despite the fact that I hate working with this yarn (Paton’s Allure), I love my mom. As such, I agreed to make another Coffee Scarf just for her, despite my aversion to the yarn. The original Coffee Scarf has no photos, but I intend to take some when my sister returns in August. My mom is getting this for her birthday, which is on Friday.

The Too-Small-Roll-Up-Rim Hat

I took a hat-making class at Lettuce Knit and this was the result. It is too small for the man in my life (hereafter will be referred to as Mr. BF), so I’ve cast on (meaning, started) a new hat for him. I think it turned out too small because my knitting tends to be rather tight. Despite knitting 7 inches as I was instructed by Denny (the lovely instructor at Lettuce Knit), when I began decreasing I knit too tight, so the crown of the hat wasn’t big enough. Decreasing was a novelty to me a few months ago, and I had never used it in practice until I knit the hat. Lesson learned? Gauge Swatch. Visit one of the lovely resources I have listed in my links to find out the exact definition of a Gauge Swatch. I never cared until I had a hat no one could wear.

For more photos of my knitted projects (and projects gone wrong), you can take a look at my Flickr knitting set.

Cheers, everyone! I’ll be back with some weird and wacky tales in a few days.

~ by tripknit on March 5, 2008.