A few years ago, I tried to learn to crochet....I crashed and burned. What I didn't know then was that you can take lessons at YARN STORES. Sadly, I didn't know such stores even existed. A friend of mine dropped by to show me a few basic stitches for crochet and then had to leave to go to work. As soon as she drove off, I started messing up. I didn't know how to fix it and the "Teach Yourself to Crochet" book was virtually useless. I pulled out all my stiches and began again, only to make another error. Ultimately, the entire skein of yarn and the crochet hook were chucked across the room and later relagated to a drawer.
Now, I love to read. One might even call me a voracious reader. When I find a book/author that I love, I have to go visit the author's site and learn all about the series. If the author writes a blog, I follow it. (Some of them, like Ilona Andrews, offers snippets of works in progress. It's like manna from heaven.) I really enjoyed the Allie Beckstrom novels, so I started reading Devon Monk's blog. She is an avid knitter and posted lots of her projects. While I was envious of her skill, I let it pass by me for a year. Until she posted fingerless gloves. I think the finger things are kind of weird, but I WANT these gloves. Even more than that, I want to MAKE these gloves myself.
So....I googled knitting lessons. I found four or five local knitting shops that offer lessons. Recalling the abysmal failure of my attempt at crochet, I called my friend Vickie to see if she'd take the class with me. I figured she could assist me when I ran into problems, as I invariably would. Vickie was excited to take lessons, but life got in the way. With the holidays and her kids' sports, she wasn't going to be able to sign up until January. I was way too excited to wait that long, so I signed up to take a class by myself. I took a personal day from work (had to use 'em up by year end anyway) and bravely set out.
I've only learned how to cast on and the knit stitch so far, but I'm really enjoying it. Our project is to make a felted bag. There are tons of examples of felted bags on google. Mine is "oregano" and "camel." In the picture above, I've knitted the bottom. At my next lesson, I'll be learning to knit the body of the bag. I'm ridiculously excited.
