More craft than art

Ganoush and I took a beginners' knitting class today with the homeschool group. She learned how to cast on well enough. Then she got frustrated, bored, and cast off her stitches. After milling about for a bit, a teacher gave her some burlap and a yarn needle, so she stitched a light blue VW Beetle.



Here is my first ever knitting work, thus far. I did get the hang of the knit stitch, though it isn't second nature yet. I have one errant stitch that wraps around the finished rows, visible as green in the upper left corner of the second photo. I really like working with variegated yarn. It makes it easier to describe the stitching process: the green part goes over the pink part.

We were shown examples of knitting a book marker or a bracelet or a wash cloth. For a wash cloth, they recommended cotton yarn. I will be happy to just make a square. I'll stitch until I don't. I have an all-day car trip in my future. This could be part of it.

I seem to be doing most of my work right on the tips of the needles, but then it feels tight as I push the completed loops farther down on the receiving needle.

The yarn appears to unwind itself as I go. Much like separating strands of embroidery floss. When I go to make a stitch, the yarn on the holding needle is more a set of four strands than a piece of one yarn. I have missed portions of the yarn on a stitch.

I also have had a piece of yarn leap frog over its neighbor stitch. In the first photo, there is a stitch of yellow between two pinks. On the flip side, the yellow is between a pink and a purple. I don't know how I did that.

And I intend to keep this for myself, even though my general philosophy about starting a new craft is:

When trying a new craft, make your first project for your mom, or someone else near to you who will have to love it no matter how it looks.