A New Skill is Learned!

I can knit!!! Not well, and so far not anything wearable by an adult human being, but I have learned the secretes of the knitted sweater. I now fully understand why you never cut a loose sweater loop, you always tuck it back inside! If I wanted to I could be like those little old ladies or hipsters at the coffee shop with my yarn and knitting tools making some random item of fuzzy goodness!

I originally wrote about my purchase of this “made for kids” knitting kit here. Then in my blogging 101 course we were prompted to try doing something out of our usual blogging style. Since mine is a pretty informal diary of personal rants, stories and life events I thought I would try a Crafting Blog. Here is my progression from just a ball of yarn and a circle with pegs to final product:

Easy to follow instructions and simple tools made getting the first round of yarn around the circle a piece of cake, this technique is called “Casting On.”

What I really like about knitting is that progress is shown pretty quickly. You already have a sense of accomplishment after just a few minuets.

If you enjoy working with your hands and don’t mind monotony then knitting may be for you. Here you can see the structure of what could be a hat or impractical purse depending on how you choose to close up the final piece.

As you can see I decided to get a little daring at the end and added a different color. The “boob” like effect was just an accidental bonus. Tying on a new color is as simple as making a knot. Once you weave it around a few times you cannot even see where the two pieces connect. I chose to cinch off the top of this piece and ended up with a beanie style hat (ala Meg Griffin style for those that watch Family Guy.)

The yarn that came in the kit was, of course, not the highest quality so there is little stretch or give to it. This hat could fit on a small child with no fashion sense or a very easy going dog. As I’m still learning, closing the piece was a bit of a challenge as it was not the smooth, seamless finish I had hoped for. I’m sure that develops with practice.

Should my skills progress and if any new and usable items are made I may write more about them. Should the excitement of knitting loose it’s luster and everything just ends up in the closet with the other failed hobbies, then I hope you enjoyed my one and only “Crafting Blog” post 🙂