Nah, a crafter can live with both! Indeed, be adept enough, be talented enough, to excel at both! My goal - to be as excellent a knitter as I perceive myself to be as a crocheter! [the crocheted squares in the photo are destined for an afghan with solid berry and buff blocks to coordinate with this lovely "Hollyberry" color in Red Heart Soft yarn.]
I have spent much of my yarn crafting career (which has spanned close to 4 decades!) using the hook and yarn combination with great success. I have made baby blankets, and scarves and hats and slipper socks and baby booties and baby sweaters and more blankets and hats and baby booties and ... well, you get the idea!!
Just this year, after several aborted attempts in the far past, I have found inspiration in the knitting of others! I really want to knit as they do. The intricate designs. The self striping sock yarn. The dpns and circs and bamboo and rosewood. The cute felted hedgehogs and lambs and booga bags. The Fair Isle, Intarsia, Lace! I have lusted after soft merino and ... well you get the idea!
Dorothy has helped me out (see previous posts) and I am trying to do her proud... but after 24 rows or so, what is up with that raggedy side???
I will slog on and complete my appointed task! Then I will practice with Cascade. Then I will venture forth and try my hand at, hmmm, what will I try? I have the Hedgehog pattern, but find I am a bit leery of trying that without really knowing the lingo. I may just swatch and swatch and swatch - until I feel comfortable with the shorthand - and then make a pillow of the swatches! :)
I have asked for the Mason-Dixon Knitting book for my birthday/Mother's Day gift. I bought myself two of The Yarn Harlot's books last night as I wandered through Border's.
I got half-way through Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter riding the bus to and from work today! I was especially touched by The Sheep Shawl story. As a crocheter whose work is routinely called "knitting" by the uninitiated, the story has a particulary poignant ending ~~ I almost guffawed right there on the bus!!
So begins the transformation - from dedicated crocheter to a dual specialist - well, at least a crafter that both crochets AND knits!
3 comments:
Hang in there. I think the problem is tension - not the nervous kind, but in your knitting. It's very tough to achieve the same degree of tension in your stitches. Takes practice, practice, practice. You can see how some of the stitches are tighter together than others? That's what causes that raggedy edge. Relax when you knit ... keep the yarn loose but not too loose ... basically just try to keep in consistent in terms of how tightly you are making your stitches and soon you'll be straightened up! You're doing great!
Try slipping the first stitch of every row. (Passing it from one needle to the other without doing anything to it.) Even experienced knitters have trouble with edges. I'm glad you liked the ending to that story. I guess crocheters are just as misunderstood as knitters!
They are right; it's just your tension is uneven. but that is completely expected, it's your FIRST knitting. But I think that that scarf will look fine overall even with some wonky tension.
As for slipping the first stitch, also good advice, (well, consider the source!). Do it purlwise, ie, the needle coming headlong into the stitch instead of knitwise, ie, sliding up along the stitch. Am I being way confusing? Sorry.
Don't be like my husband. tried to knit once, got uneven tension and decided it was too hard. Be like my son. Learned to knit in November, knit his own hedgehog in March.
We made juggling beanbag with our first swatches. Mason Dixon will inspire you to make dishcloths.
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