Day 78

I decided to give knitting another try today.  Because it has been so long I had to revisit the DVD "The Complete Beginner's Guide to Knitting".  This time I changed the yarn I was using to a beautiful but frizzy blue yarn.  I love the yarn, but because it's frizzy while doing the knitting I kept catching the little fly a ways and had to keep starting over.  After an hour of trial and error, I got through the first part of the DVD, up until the end of the knit stitch and she tells me that I'm now ready to do a Garter Stitch Scarf!  I agree and pull out my practice knitting and start on the scarf.

I had to cast on 26 stitches for the large scarf and then just do knit stitches until I have 24".  After that I have no idea!  Okay, well I know I'm supposed to bind off and weave the ends.  Well I haven't got to those parts of the DVD so once I have a 24" long scarf, I"ll watch those two chapters and hope I can figure out what needs to be done.  I worked on this knitting for a few hours, stopping for breaks and to get ready for work tomorrow, so I didn't get too much done, just about 7".  But I really enjoyed working on it, and I would still be working on it if I didn't need to post this and then finish getting ready for tomorrow.  Knitting is really fun, who knew!  I'm really proud of myself though, I can't wait until I can make something bigger.  I have directions for a prayer shawl so I think once I"m more comfortable I'll make that!

Here is what I have done so far:

Here is a close up of the work:

And here is Karma trying to walk off with the "working" string:

Day 57

I really enjoy watching knitting shows on TV, and have wanted to learn for the longest time.  I am not one who enjoys going to classes, since I'm such an introvert, and I have never seen a program that was really about learning exactly how to knit, from a beginners stand point anyway.  After some searching, and searching and searching, I came across a DVD on Amazon.com called "The Complete Beginner's Guide to Knitting" by Nici Mcnally.  I borrowed some knitting needles and yarn from mom (she crochets, but doesn't knit) and threw the DVD in not really feeling confident, even though the reviews for this DVD are awesome.  But the needles and yarn I have are not the ones called for in the DVD, so I thought this might have a big impact on my learning.

I began following the DVD and got through the first two "chapters", which teaches you first Casting On, and then the Knit Stitch.  I got to the part where it tells you to keep going until you feel comfortable, and then pull it out and start over, and keep doing this until you feel you got it.  I turned off the DVD and just kept going and let me tell you, I AM SO PROUD OF MYSELF!!!!!  I can't even believe I figured this out on my own, and the DVD is fantastic!  It's like she's sitting in the room with you, so detailed, and goes super slow so you see everything, and you can of course pause, slow down, rewind...etc...  LOVE IT!  I am seriously so excited about knitting and I want to keep going so I can perfect this and make the first scarf in the upcoming chapters on the DVD. 

Anyone who has wanted to try knitting needs to pick up this DVD!  Anyone can knit with it!!

Here is the DVD:

It was hard to get a good picture, so I tried a few with flash and without, also the yarn is burgundy: