craft

Continuing on from my last story about just beginning to knit and managing a Granny Square (more like a Granny Rectangle) i must say that I have progressed. My friend heard that I had challenged myself to learn to knit and she wonderfully produced this bulk of fabric and yarn for me to play with:

That includes a set of knitting needles, crochet needles and a crochet book. Absolute legend she is. Knitting Challenge Accepted.

I also bought these from eBay:

Both of them, 99p including delivery from China. BARGAIN!!! So the top one is a set of four double pointed needles, lovely and smooth, but only 3mm – I could do with a selection of sizes. They are incredibly difficult to get a handle on how to hold them – you’re trying to knit with two of them and the other two are poking you in the hand and face (that may just be me) but I’ve so far made this from it:

which is a body of a rabbit that will fit in the hand. I started it seven times before getting to this point, and then I continued up to the head and making one of the ears but I messed up the ear big style, meaning I have to re-do the whole head… I have yet to complete this. Maybe I’ve jumped ahead of myself from a Granny Square to four-needle-knitting-in-the-round?

The bottom picture is a set of Darning and Cable needles which are very exciting. The Darning Needles are basically large sewing needles, large enough to put yarn through the eye in order to fasten off work. The Cable Needles allow you to take a number of stitches and hold them out of the way while you continue knitting until they are needed later on. This basically means you can add ribs and other fancy things on to your work. With that in mind, I made this mobile phone holder:

It’s not great but for a first attempt I’m pretty chuffed.

You can follow more of My Story and my knitting and crochet challenges here.

Since I got all excited about Sewing again, I went online and got a little excited – I wanted to Sew, Knit, Crochet, Woodwork, Needlefelt, Paint…. But I told myself I had to behave and concentrate on things I could do with materials that I already had, which was my Sewing fabric. However… I wanted to knit. SO!! For Christmas my boyfriend got me a Learning to Knit kit and I must say I’m loving it.

I’ll be honest, the kit itself is a tad rubbish. I won’t name any names but on the front it says ‘All You Need to Start Knitting’ but on the inside it says ‘You also need a Darning Needle and a Cable Needle’ – I didn’t have these or know what they were.

Anyway, I persevered and opened the leaflet that teaches knitting skills. The first step said ‘Make a Slipknot’ – accompanied by a picture of a completed Slipknot. What is a Slipknot? How do I make a completed one? My boyfriend tried to teach me but couldn’t work out how to show me properly from the other-way-around so I had to Google that.

Secondly, it taught ‘Casting On’. A section of seven pictures and some terribly complicated wording. I got to picture 3 with both of my needles and that was the end – picture 4 was never to be. After about half an hour I took to Google again and found a ridiculously simple 1 needle Casting On method – probably not great for the seasoned knitter but perfect to get me going.

Ok, we’ve got a Slipknot and a row of Cast Ons on one needle. Next step? According to this leaflet it was Yarn Over, which showed a picture of 2 needles, both with an amount of knitting on them. No mention of how to get any knitting on to my needles.

Safe to say I swiftly gave up and turned to YouTube which has been my Godsend.

Learning to Knit — First bit of Knitting

What do we think – Any good?

To follow more of My Story and see What’s Going On With Me, take a look here