Look! I'm a Knitter!

Well, not really, but I'm learning. I once had a friend who knitted a pair of socks for me, and I loved them and have wanted to learn how to knit socks ever since. Not scarves or hats or mittens, just socks. I've never knitted before in my life, and my quilting friends who also knit told me I couldn't start with socks, so I never bothered to learn.

A couple weeks ago my friend DonnaB mentioned that she was teaching a sock knitting class at a local craft shop. She said it was just fine if I'd never knitted before, so I signed up for the class.

She did tell me it would be helpful if I could at least learn the knit stitch and the purl stitch, so I bought a couple of books, a pair of knitting needles, and a skein of inexpensive yarn. I sat down one evening with one of the books, I Can Knit, which is supposed to be a book for preteen girls. I couldn't make heads or tails of it, so I ditched it and moved on to the second book.

The second one had what looked like a pretty good series of step by step photos; but try as I might, I just couldn't seem to understand how to cast the stitches onto the needle. I tried holding my hands and the yarn just like the photos, but it still wasn't making any sense to me. Meanwhile my husband, who was sitting on the sofa with me watching television, was also watching me out of the corner of his eye and snickering. He finally got to laughing so hard that I couldn't concentrate anymore. By then I was pretty close to heaving it out the window anyway. He suggested I try to find a video on YouTube.

Turns out there are all kinds of knitting videos on the internet, and as soon as I watched someone actually cast on stitches, it all clicked and away I went. I taught myself the knit and purl stitches, which was a huge help once I got to class.

Working with two knitting needles is awkward for me because I'm new at it, so what's two more? I really didn't think working with four was much more difficult. This is the top of the sock, the ribbing, which is two inches long, and I'm thrilled that it actually looks like it's supposed to. Before the next class I'm supposed to knit five more inches, which will be easier and faster than the ribbing. At the next class we're going to work on the heel, which looks a little more intimidating.

Not bad for my first time, eh?