Knitting Update

I know you've all been waiting with bated breath to hear another update about my knitting.  In the last post I wrote, I was pretty frustrated about my lack of skill in a beginning class that turned out to be more than a beginning class.  Well, I did go in and get extra help from my teacher Monday.  I spent two more hours knitting with her nearby for help if I needed it.  I finally felt good about alternating between the two stitches.

Until I got home and realized I had added 5 extra stitches to my pattern!

Major frustration!  I had now spent 7 hours knitting and still was not on my way to completing my homework for the week or understanding why I kept getting extra loops.  I had to figure that out before I continued on.  Scott and I trucked off to Walmart to buy larger needles and bulkier yarn to practice on.  And sure enough, I was able to figure out the two places where I was making mistakes. 

At that point I thought I would tear out the project I started with the purple yarn and begin my project over since that's the nice yarn I wanted for my project.  The only problem was the needles were smaller, which meant smaller stitches, which meant more time to get to 25 inches by Saturday.

Therefore, I decided to stick with the big needles and cheap yarn and treat this as a practice scarf that I wouldn't plan on wearing.  I spent 15 hours from Monday night to Saturday morning knitting away on my scarf.  My hands were killing me and I even developed a blister on one of my fingers.  Here's what I had completed by the time I went to class Saturday afternoon.

Not too bad for only knowing how to knit for a week, huh?  The sad news was that I only had 21 inches by class time.  The good news is only one person (the overachiever who already knew how to knit) had completed the 25 inches by class time and everyone else had a mere 5-8 inches.  I was no longer the lowest in the class!  Amazing what perseverance can do.

I spent class time knitting another 3 inches, so I was closer to the 25 needed.  Then I learned how to make a keyhole in the scarf.  I just have to knit 9 inches this week and my scarf will be complete.  Then I'll learn how to bind off and weave in the two noticable mistakes I made.  Wow.  I think I might actually consider tackling another knitting project.

I'll show you the finished project next week and a close-up of the pattern.