Dinner is in the oven, shopping is packed away, Zahra's in the bath, I have a cuppa by my side....lets talk knitting.
As I adventure further on my novice knitting journey I find that I am getting more and more excited about the possibilities. I'm now looking at knits in the store, checking what they're made off, looking at the patterns and thinking nah, I could make that... well almost... soon... a girl can dream can't she? Last winter I was finishing off most of the hats and scarves I was knitting right at the end of the cold weather, but this year, this year, I'm getting in early. Yesterday I cast off my biggest knit yet, and not a minute too soon with temperatures dropping and icy rain falling. When I say biggest knit I'm not alluding to anything fancy, I simply mean the most stitches I've ever had on my needles, some two hundred or thereabouts. I say thereabouts because it became clear after casting on and beginning the increases that the number of stitches I had on my needles was a wee bit different to the pattern. I frogged it three times. With Elizabeth's advice on knitting courageously and some encouragement from a seasoned knitting friend I decided that with so many stitches a few odd ones wouldn't be noticed, this time at least. For someone whose top stitch count for a project has only ever reached about eighty,this project seemed huge, voluminous, something I imagine knitting a cardigan is like...my strategy you see is to slowly work up to just that. When you're starting out at something new it helps to get some quick results to boost not only confidence but the desire to keep on learning and growing with the process, so I've generally stuck to small things like baby socks, bootees or beanies for Zahra.
After finishing with the increases, a few rows here and a few rows there over a couple of weeks turned into a comfy and warm Winter hat (the montana beret, third pic third row down) which I am very chuffed to say fits all of my thick and unruly hair inside when I've pulled it back. Love that.
I think it's back behind the lens for this shutter shy Mama
~Cxo~
