The Hunt!

Last night I watched a video on how to knit. Then I realized it was going WAY too fast. I asked my hubby look for instructions because I am search engine challenged and he seems to always find exactly what he needs in a matter of seconds. So he prints out the instructions from TLC (The Learning Chanel) which really helped. I used the second method on the "How to cast on" page. It was easy to cast on because the second method seemed a lot like crochet that I learned a small amount from my Grandmother. I have attempted to learn to knit before and didn't have much success, past casting on, because I kept having the stitches fall off the end. Someone, and for the life of me I can't remember who, suggested I use wooden needles because they said it held the yarn better. Then a piece of advice in the "learning the knit stitch" really helped me. It said there are lots of different ways to knit and lots of ways to hold the yarn and I should find one that was comfortable for me. So I used the method my grandmother spent a VERY long time teaching me to hold the yarn.  It worked much better than the last book that told me to do it a certain way.

I was holding the thread kind of like this, but with it around the palm of my hand as well and of course the knitting needle in my hand instead of just the other hand.

 
I was very relieved that it seemed MUCH easier with these two improvements. I had to read the instructions about 5 times, but did manage to knit. I am SO proud of myself, even thought I dropped several stitches in the first few rows and it has big holes.

Here is the first PIC with a few rows

This is how far I am now

 I am going to work on it a little more before bed, but my hands are really starting to hurt.  :-(

I did however have one incident that made me, and the friend I have already told laugh, so I thought I should share. I was concentrating on trying to push the needle through, wrap then pull it back in the right order very intently. So much so, that when I went to put the work down for a few I had a pain in my head. Then I realized I had knitted my hair into the stitches. I got most of it out, but in the PIC you can still see the hair.

Of course after that I made sure to put my hair up. Oh well, the little things you don't think about when you are starting something new.

Follow your craft,
Michelle