Jul 3, 2017

Perhaps it’s partially due to being so pregnant and now doing a lot of resting while I recover, but I’ve been itching to learn more about knitting lately. I just love the idea of being able to sit and work on it anywhere. 

I know the (super) basics; I can cast on, do a knit stitch, purl stitch, and cast off (but I always have to look it up on a YouTube video). So far I’ve only ever knit straight lines–things like scarves and dishcloths–but I’d love to learn how to knit socks or sweaters or baby blankets or, I dunno, other fun things. 

What I don’t know how to do is everything else. I’ve never done blocking or worked from a pattern before. I’ve never used stitch counters or done anything fancy like add or drop stitches (eh, on purpose). And I think it’s also worth mentioning that I have no idea how to choose worthwhile yarn. So those are all things I’d like to learn. 

There’s a local fabric and yarn store that carries really high quality knitting supplies and yarn and they also teach knitting and sewing classes. They have a class coming up this fall and winter to learn how to knit sweaters and I think that’d be so awesome. 

I called and talked to someone at the shop and she said that I could just sign up for that class (it’s an intermediate level class), but it might be better if I learned some more of the basics first. I looked into signing up for one of their beginner classes even though the projects for those didn’t interest me as much, but they were all either full or only being offered on Sundays, so that’s out unless they add more classes on days I could actually attend. 

I’ve also heard that ravely.com is a great resource for knitting and crocheting, so I signed up for a free account there today, but the site is kind of an overwhelmingly enormous database and looks and feels like it was created in the mid 90’s and then never updated. Sooo I guess I either need to look around there more to figure out how to better navigate it or get some advice from someone on the best way to utilize that resource. 

I also checked out a few good knitting books from the library. My favorite of them so far is a Mollie Makes book on knitting that seems pretty great, but I need to sit down and study it some more. Also, I need to buy some yarn and maybe some knitting needles that are the right size before I could actually start on any of the projects. 

Anyway, it may likely be a while before I could actually get out to buy yarn or even study a book or pattern well enough to know what kind of yarn to even buy. But it’s fun to keep looking forward.