This Ol' Gal is Gonna Learn a New Trick!

Ever felt like you needed a more portable craft?  I'm a busy hands kinda girl and always have been.  I can remember in Sunday school as a child specifically being given something to color during the lessons because I did my best listening and sitting still if my hands had something to do.  It's probably why I'm a hand quilter and haven't made it to the world of machine quilting yet.

My busy hands are always in search of portable crafts to take with me for those times of waiting - sitting in the car, waiting at the doctor's office, even when I'm watching gymnastics and my fingers are begging for work to do.  Sometimes taking a quilt with me just isn't practical.  Enter my new trick I'm trying to learn...knitting!

Now I know I'm late jumping on the knitting bandwagon, but I just couldn't depart from my beloved fabric sooner to enter the world of yarns.  Shhhh, don't tell fabric but after a recent visit to Jo-Ann's I have a second love.  Seriously, how did I live this long without noticing how many gorgeous yarns are available?  Plus, there is so much beautiful inspiration out there in blogland for working with yarn, like Kristen shares at Knitionary or from Rachel who shares her lovelies at Maybe Matilda.  Rachel actually crochets, but I tried that a few years ago, failed miserably, said goodbye to the crochet hook and moved on.  Hey, just because I can't do it doesn't mean I can't be inspired by it!

 After consulting with a sweet lady shopping in Jo-Ann's yesterday, I came home with a lovely purple yarn and a set of knitting needles.  She was so sweet and helpful and told me she was new to the area, but "no matter where I live I can always make a new friend at Jo-Ann's".  So true of us crafty sort, right?

Yesterday was the first day back to school and was rainy and yucky.  The kids were so tired after an exhausting day back and requested a rest on the couch with an after school show.  Forget the laundry pile and the taxes!  That combination of rainy weather and tired kids cuddling with me on the couch just screamed "Time to knit!".   What do you think?

If you don't look too closely, it's semi-ok. Let me confess that when compared to my crocheting skills, I could be the world's foremost knitting expert (no, I'm not being humble...it was really that bad).  I didn't have a plan and have just been practicing the basic casting on and knit stitch, but when my little girl saw this endeavor she asked if I could make her a scarf.  So, we're calling this a scarf for my daughter.  If I don't learn how to cast-off next, it may be neverending (giving new meaning to the trendy infinity scarf).

I also learned that, like many things in life, there is more than one method to getting started with knitting.  I learned this the very hard and long way when I could not get my knit stitch right.  I finally figured out after watching my seemingly hundredth video tutorial that I did not cast on correctly.  Apparently the tutorial you watch makes a big difference.

I highly recommend the video tutorials from VideoJug with Rachel Ong.  I got the basic stitch down from watching this series and pausing and practicing.  Now I've got to practice to get a more even stitch and we'll see what happens from there!

Do any of you experienced knitters have any words of wisdom for me and the rest of us novice knitters?

Happy Creating!