Sunday, January 9, 2011

A Picture for the Cyber-Fridge

If I were six years old, I'd be pushing my knitting into your lap, insisting that you praise it and hang it up on the fridge for all to admire. So this will have to be the cyber fridge: look at what I did! Look! Look! No, you're not looking properly, look at it! (but not too closely because a few stitches are still a bit wonky.)

Last night I tried to work on DPNs (double-pointed needles) but I failed utterly and miserably. It seemed that every time I concentrated on two needles, the other two would up and attack me. Really! Feeling a bit despondent, I decided to try something new to give myself a sense of accomplishment - so I started the Irish Hiking Scarf from the Ravelry database.

Guess what? I can manage simple cables! Yay, me! After a couple of inches, I went into the project gallery in the Ravelry database to look at photos of other people's scarves and was pleased to note that my first cable scarf was better than some other beginners' cable scarves, despite my unorthodox knitting method and the underlying fear that the needles would rise up against me and poke my eyes out. So I preened in front of my computer screen and stroked my luvverly cables.

But as we all know, dear readers, pride goeth before a fall and it was as I was preening and stroking that I noticed that I had dropped a stitch in one of my cables, two rows down and, after I'd picked myself off the floor, I set about fixing it with three knitting needles, a pair of crochet hooks and my teeth (don't ask). Phew. Back on track, I think.

15 comments:

Ev said...

Yay!! Well done!! It's looking really good!

Reality Jayne said...

Good job Gingy Lady....Love the color too

Gracey is not my name.... said...

Nice job! Love the color!

Emily said...

fantastic, but I'm so shocked, Liv, DEFECTING FROM CROCHET!!!! Well done, I would literally eat it first. I look at those knitted cables and want to weep!! I'm *very* proud of you!

suzehil said...

Beautiful scarf! I do love purple!

Crymson Flower said...

I wish I had it in me now to learn knitting, I tend to get all flustered with a needle in each hand instead of just one hand dealing with the hook. The scarf looks great and I love the color. Bravo!

wdmk said...

Wow! You are making me wanna give knitting a try. Im a crochet girl at heart but you are doing so good I wanna play too!

Chain Stitch Crochet said...

Just gorgeous! I have tried to knit and it kicks my butt every dang time. :o(

Linda-B said...

Beautiful cables! Don't you love the pattern? -- I'm working on the Irish Hiking Scarf also.

Paula said...

That was my very first cable project, and the piece of knitting that I wear the most. All The Time, in fact. And I get compliments on it All The Time. And yours looks way better than mine did. :) Beautiful!

Joan said...

Wow! You are progressing by leaps and bounds! And the thing I am most impressed with is that you managed to capture your runaway stitch and fix it without frogging-- you're a natural!

Paul & Carla said...

Ah, what a lovely Irish (ahem) Hiking Scarf! I cannot imagine why you might want to choose THAT pattern. LOL, it's a great pattern and aren't cables fun? I, too, am enormously impressed that you managed to repair a cable without ripping out rows. I can do it now but I promise, it took several years to get that far along. You're a knitting natural!

patrysia said...

How funny--that was one of the first projects I knitted, and I remember thinking, "well, cabling is not hard at all." Yours looks lovely.

octoberski said...

Looks AWESOME. I made that pattern this Christmas and fell in love with the crispness of the cables. The color you chose is just gorgeous, and really shows off your work well. Congrats. I'd print and hang on my fridge, but I have 3 kids, so it is already overcrowded ;)

Beautiful work.

Unknown said...

Wow, I am super-impressed - you are doing pretty clever stuff. I learnt to knit very young too but left off until 5 years ago, with just a couple of brief forays when I was 14 (but only to annoy the PE teacher for making me be goalkeper in hockey - I just stood there knitting away in protest) and as a 20 year old student. What I'm working my way up to is that even though i have had enough experience in knitting I STILL haven't mastered cables. Whenever I tried to do them they seem incredibly reluctant to part with their new friend the cable needle. My poor, weak little hands try to force them on but the knitting protests and is all tight and awkward and just plain - unhappy. So good on you for not only giving it a go but also for actually being able to do it. Fiona
PS - when my sister first learnt to knit she knitted English but twisted her stitches by knitting into them wrong. She was corrected by our next door neighbour before she got into too much of a habit, but only last weekend taught herself Continental with a Norwegian Purl (gone off her too...)