"But, really, why does anyone create? You feel a... a restlessness inside, a need to make something new, something no one has ever seen before. You want to add to the beauty and the richness of the world with a gift, an offering that is uniquely yours. It's an act of selfishness and generosity, all rolled into one."

-- Bruce Coville,
The Last Hunt

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

First Knits

Knitting has definitely become an obsession. Don't worry, I will always be a tatter, but lately it's all about the knitting. I have completed my first two dishcloths, and although they are far from perfect, I am quite proud of them.


This is the first one I did, in a simple garter stitch. You can see my stitches becoming more even the farther along I got. This looked on the ball like it was going to be a self-striping yarn, but it turned out to be a bunch of different solid colors tied together; there was a knot at each color change that I had to work around. This was OK too, as it gave me practice joining a new yarn and working in the ends.


This one is in a basketweave design, using this pattern. I miscounted row 5, so the basketweave pattern is messed up at the bottom, and if you look very closely you'll see one or two other wrong stitches. Again, though, you can see improvement as I worked my way through it. I think it's really cool that even a beginner can do textures like this just by mixing up the knits and purls. In fact, I am so enamored of the basketweave look that I have started a scarf in it.

It is International Balloon Fiesta week in Albuquerque. Most years, at least one day out of the week the winds push the balloons right up my street. Today was that day for this year.




6 comments:

  1. Your basket stitch looks good in parts, don't worry you will get the pattern with practice, your first one looks good,

    The ballon race has been on our local tv as there is one in the race that lives in Somerset, not too far from me. Your pictures look lovely and thank you for sharing them, I wish our skies look as good as yours, We have had cloud for days and rain, and more rain to come over the next few days.

    Margaret

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  2. It's actually difficult even for experienced knitters to do garter stitch evenly, and it's actually more 'difficult' to do compared to the ease of putting the needle into the 'knit' row of stockinet knitting (knit one row, purl one row).

    You will get a lot of practice with the basket weave on your scarf! And you've learned to keep the edges from curling by having the all-knit borders! Well done!

    Love those balloons - right over your house! Some are SO creative! We've had a few balloon events here in Pittsburgh, and they were so much fun to see! I can't imagine the Albuquerque Festival!

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  3. Your knitting looks great!!! :)
    I couldn't get knitting for some reason, but that's ok cuz' I love my tatting!! :)

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  4. Congratulations on your dishcloths! I used to knit years ago & have recently come back to it. I'm knitting dishcloths as well : )

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  5. Love the knitting, would like to try that again someday (soon)...Grandma taught me to knit in the continental style a good 20 years ago, but I didn't keep it up as I rather fell in love with crochet...have been wanted to have a go at it again though, even have my needles out and have been fiddling around trying to remember where to begin with casting on.

    We last managed to get down for the Balloon Fiesta about 7 years ago now I think...we are overdue to get down for the fun of that again. I think perhaps next fall we shall have to make a point of it, older daughter was 5 when we last went, Josie will be 4 next fall...it is even more magical with a child that age.

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