Knit One Purl One - My New Hobby

My Nanna taught me to knit years ago, when I was a little girl, she did pretty well teaching a left hander (me) the basics and she taught me the right handed way. Go Nanna

Other than a basic knowledge of knit one purl one and the odd scarf knitted in moss stitch I have never knitted anything other than a scarf, and I can't read knitting patterns to save my life, but since moving to Chicago and stumbling upon a gorgeous yarn shop, Close Knit, I decided I'd at least try to knit something that wasn't a scarf and lucky for me the shop was doing classes starting soon and on the mornings I have both girls in pre-school yeah.....

I wasn't sure what to expect at Close Knit so with a coffee in hand off I went and Lucie the teacher (& owner) explained it was more like a drop in knit/crochet session, everyone brings in their work and Lucie helps out with any problems, teaching, so with me, as I could at least knit, it was about getting me knitting and reading patterns so I chose to do a baby's hat,  I picked my yarn and Lucie handed me some circular needles!!!!! now I was stumped , I have no knowledge of circular needles, needles are grey, long straight and plastic aren't they?

Embarrassingly I couldn't even remember how to cast on, so luckily Lucie was at hand to remind me and I got started, it didn't take me long to take to the circular needles I loved them, by the time the next week came along I was ready to start decreasing which Lucie showed me how to do, then she brought out the double pointed needles (DPN's) what are those for? I asked oh that's the next bit Lucie replied and with some instruction and guidance I was now knitting with 4 DPN's wow who would have thought it, circular & double pointed needles all in 2 weeks. I was also very lucky to have my mum in law over, who is a knitting whiz, to help me out with dropped stitches and there were a few of those in between my classes. In no time I had finished my first baby hat and I was hooked.

My First hat knitted on the right

My next project I chose was this gorgeous Baby Jacket by Debbie Bliss I found on Ravelry, Lucie helped my choose the right yarn, I selected a neutral cream colour as it was for a friend who's baby was due soon but we didn't know the sex. Out came the circular needles again and this was knitted in one piece and was easy for a beginner to do. Lucie helped me with the picking up stitches to do the collar and showed me how to join the seams and block the garment. As I had some yarn left over I knitted another baby hat to go with the jacket, I loved it so much I did another one in green as by then, my gorgeous friend had had her baby, a lovely beautiful boy and I forgot to take some photos of the jackets oops.

Next up was a Kina cardigan for Tilly, found here, Tilly picked out the yarn herself - luckily this was so easy to do, as school was out for 3 months and I wouldn't be going to any of the classes. The cardigan for Tilly took me 3 weeks to do and I'm very pleased with it as too was Tilly, bless her cotton socks she wore it out on a really hot day.

My last project was the Baby Kina using the yarn I picked up from the Lancaster Yarn Shop whilst on our holiday's, I have just finished this today, I've yet to block it and sew on the buttons. This is for a special little person's birthday coming up.

And I can read a pattern too now woo hoo thanks to Ravelry, Lucie and the Internet.

And now on my knitting needles is this great dishcloth pattern - I'm using the gorgeous Lily Sugar'n Cream yarn.

What I love about knitting is, of an evening, once the girls are in bed, I can do it whilst watching TV and I do love my TV I am a night time TV junkie.

Do you love knitting? what's currently on your needles at the moment?