If you've got a knitting issue, here's a knitting tissue...

I have decided to re-discover my knowledge of knitting. I'm a crafty renaissance woman, didn't you know? My grandma, who also taught me how to sew, taught me how to knit many years ago. I never really mastered anything beyond a straight line. I am the bomb at scarves and blankets. Five years ago I tried to knit a sweater. I still own it but it is unwearable, in public anyway. My grandma had to fix a lot of mistakes. The sleeves are super wonky, bless her heart. She did the best she could with what I gave her. Recently, I have taken to wearing it for warmth at home. It's purple. Sometimes I also wear my purple lounge pants with it and John calls me the Purple People Eater. He thinks he's hilarious. Silly rabbit.

ANYWAY -- I really wanted to get back into knitting but with my knitting coach 4 hours away, I'm going to have to challenge myself and learn on my own. Luckily, good old You Tube is a wealth of knitting information.

Mad Knitting Skillz I already knew: casting on, knitting, purling, casting off.

I've never had to decrease or increase, although sometimes that happens unintentionally. Oops. I decided to tackle a hat for John. He has no winter hat. Can you believe that? In OHIO?! I found a pattern called the Easy Peasy hat (I'll post the link when I'm finished making it). This pattern required me to put on my big girl panties and learn how to both decrease and..... knit in the round. This terrifies me. The picture looked like stockinette but I wasn't sure how I'd knit and purl opposite sides to achieve this in the round. I'll let you novice knitters in on a little secret, knitting in the round does this for you automatically! By virtue of knitting in the round, you'll come out with stockinette anyway. Happy day!

You Tube warned me to be very careful not to twist my knitting while in the round (by the way - non-knitters, knitting in the round is knitting on two needles attached by a long plastic cord). You Tube said, "twisted knitting cannot be fixed and must be abandoned." I should have taken that as a stern warning.


I'm not sure if you can tell here, but about 5 rows into the hat, I realized it was already twisted. BLAST! I suppose I can be happy it occurred so early in the project. I'm going to chalk it up to being a knitting in the round beginner. My needles kept flipping over and that cord never did straighten out right. I casted on again and went on my merry way.

Stay tuned for the finished project.....coming soon!