Having done all that cabling, and more importantly, having it work, I don't feel like such a beginner knitter any more.
I learnt to knit many many many moons ago - probably a good twenty-plus years - but I never finished anything more complex than a hat or a scarf until a couple of years ago. I started knitting after a long gap when I was pregnant with Katie but I developed carpal tunnel and had to stop. When Jess was born I hauled out my unfinished knitting and discovered that I had all the pieces of a cardigan - I just hadn't sewn it up. I have no idea why - carpal tunnel shouldn't stop you doing an hours' seaming but there you go - blame it on baby brain! (Women who have had children will understand!)
Since then I have finished heaps of things - seven or eight sweaters, a pair of baby trousers for Jess, countless hats - most of them from my own patterns (with very mixed results! Although I am still so proud of the trousers...). But I still felt like a beginner. This is very similar to motherhood...
I remember when I first started taking Katie to playgroup, when she was about 22 months old, I felt like a total fraud: all the other women were mothers, and I was just pretending. Even though at least half (oh, all right, three quarters) of them were younger than me I still felt like they were grown-ups and I was just this idiot who accidentally had a baby and had no idea what she was doing. Of course, just about everyone secretly felt like that (except for a couple of really, really irritating people who were probably prefects at school and always know everything and ... well you know the ones!). Sometime after Jess was born I stopped feeling like such a novice and fraud - still incompetent and with very little idea what I was doing, but at some point, without really noticing, I had become a Mum.
And now, I think, maybe I've become a Knitter.
So, having read, and been inspired by, David Demchuck's wonderful column on why beginners shouldn't limit themselves to garter stitch scarves, I decided to try to conquer the Everest of beginner knitters... The Sock. My mother kindly came around with a set of double point needles (because I couldn't find any of mine - I really should do just a little more housework and a little less knitting) and I hauled out the gorgeous expensive pure wool that she bought me a year ago and sat down with the wonderful visual instructions from Terri Lea Royea.
Well people, all I can say is that knitting with four needles is against the laws of physics and nature. It just can't be done. I don't care that thousands of people claim to do it regularly - they're all liars. Or else I am incredibly stupid. And I got an A+ for that shoddy essay (very odd I must say, standards at university seem to have slipped) so I can't be that dumb...
So I put aside the dpns (for 'put aside' read 'threw violently at the wall') and went back to things I know - hats!
Yup, it's been a week of hats here. I made a hat to match the purple jumper, after which Katie demanded a hat to match the cabled jumper, and then Jess had to have one just because. And because I'm bored by beanies, I've been working on variations of a hat I call Hex.
I learnt to knit many many many moons ago - probably a good twenty-plus years - but I never finished anything more complex than a hat or a scarf until a couple of years ago. I started knitting after a long gap when I was pregnant with Katie but I developed carpal tunnel and had to stop. When Jess was born I hauled out my unfinished knitting and discovered that I had all the pieces of a cardigan - I just hadn't sewn it up. I have no idea why - carpal tunnel shouldn't stop you doing an hours' seaming but there you go - blame it on baby brain! (Women who have had children will understand!)
Since then I have finished heaps of things - seven or eight sweaters, a pair of baby trousers for Jess, countless hats - most of them from my own patterns (with very mixed results! Although I am still so proud of the trousers...). But I still felt like a beginner. This is very similar to motherhood...
I remember when I first started taking Katie to playgroup, when she was about 22 months old, I felt like a total fraud: all the other women were mothers, and I was just pretending. Even though at least half (oh, all right, three quarters) of them were younger than me I still felt like they were grown-ups and I was just this idiot who accidentally had a baby and had no idea what she was doing. Of course, just about everyone secretly felt like that (except for a couple of really, really irritating people who were probably prefects at school and always know everything and ... well you know the ones!). Sometime after Jess was born I stopped feeling like such a novice and fraud - still incompetent and with very little idea what I was doing, but at some point, without really noticing, I had become a Mum.
And now, I think, maybe I've become a Knitter.
So, having read, and been inspired by, David Demchuck's wonderful column on why beginners shouldn't limit themselves to garter stitch scarves, I decided to try to conquer the Everest of beginner knitters... The Sock. My mother kindly came around with a set of double point needles (because I couldn't find any of mine - I really should do just a little more housework and a little less knitting) and I hauled out the gorgeous expensive pure wool that she bought me a year ago and sat down with the wonderful visual instructions from Terri Lea Royea.
Well people, all I can say is that knitting with four needles is against the laws of physics and nature. It just can't be done. I don't care that thousands of people claim to do it regularly - they're all liars. Or else I am incredibly stupid. And I got an A+ for that shoddy essay (very odd I must say, standards at university seem to have slipped) so I can't be that dumb...
So I put aside the dpns (for 'put aside' read 'threw violently at the wall') and went back to things I know - hats!
Yup, it's been a week of hats here. I made a hat to match the purple jumper, after which Katie demanded a hat to match the cabled jumper, and then Jess had to have one just because. And because I'm bored by beanies, I've been working on variations of a hat I call Hex.
I was going to insert some photos there but they're on the camera, which is out of batteries again. I finally bought some new rechargeable batteries, but it seems they don't come charged. Who knew?
So here are two little photos, and when I get the batteries charged I'll slap some more up, along with the pattern!
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