Knitting Lessons

I mentioned prior to my surgery that I was going to teach myself to knit. The dishcloth pattern on the internet had a video, but I knew that would not be very viewable on my Nook which I was using the first two weeks while my foot had to be elevated. I used a booklet I received probably 20 plus years ago to help me remember what I had seen on the internet re basic knitting.

Actually, this gift included some yarn and a pair of knitting needles, and I knitted a few practice swatches but didn’t make anything. My memory of that experience was positive; I felt pretty sure I would enjoy knitting. This time I wanted something I could use. Besides ending up with a dishcloth, the goals were to not go stir crazy and to take my focus off of my foot. It worked wonderfully.

 Unfortunately, I ran into some problems. I made a mistake and didn’t know how to fix it. This was during my 3rd start and I was pretty far along; I finally decided it would still be useable as a dishcloth, flaws and all. My binding off definitely doesn’t look good. This dishcloth had a special effect around the edges. It required me to do a yarn over plus the first few stitches I had to follow a pattern before knitting to the end of the row. Those tasks were new to me. There was only knitting, no purling so I will have to find a different project to relearn that. I found I liked least knitting two together.

Since I had some yarn left over, I decided to make a second cloth to reinforce what I had learned. I surmised I had less than half the yarn I used in the first cloth so I made this cloth slightly smaller. You can see in the photo the “end tail”; it was a close call.

                                                                   Second dishcloth

Again I had some trouble binding off. I guess I need an instructor, not just a book. I definitely will need an instructor to move on to more difficult projects, learning about gauge and how to use more than one ball of yarn, fix problems, etc. I still need to find a crochet hook to weave the “tails” in.

 Yes, I enjoyed the experience enough to continue. My second cloth went more quickly. I never became a speed demon, but there was a nice rhythmic flow that was kind of soothing.

I bought this book at Half-Price Books for $2 ( discount bargain section) that has several scarves that interest me.

 

As I knitted, I couldn’t help but see parallels to the Christian life. God has purposes for us and can use us with our flaws. However, sin has consequences which can go on for some time. I had hoped when I started a new row of knitting, the “mistake” would remain in the previous row, but it continued. About midway, I learned about knitting two together and decided to see if that would help my flawed place. It worked, but I don’t know why. Just as I found I need an experienced knitter to get me thru the hard times, Christians need one another with our different gifts and backgrounds to advance in our Christian walk.

 3 more weeks until I can slowly start bearing weight on my operated right foot. There will be more extensive physical therapy then, too. The knitting experiment did help the time go by.