WIP Wednesday

Ok, so it's technically Thursday since it is almost 1 am, but I thought I'd get in a post and show what I'm working on presently. I'm not one to have a lot of WIPs (nor 'whips' ) and tend to only have one, maybe two, projects going on at any certain time. I suppose if I had bigger projects, and not these 'quickie' projects, I might keep two or three other projects on hand, too. But lately, I tend to work on small projects, so I tend to have them completed before starting something else.

This is a scarf I started last night. I'm using size 13 Clover needles, but I wish I had some bigger needles and in metal. I tried this yarn with the metal needles (though smaller) and it really slid on the needles well. But I wanted to knit this scarf faster than a pair of 8 needles were going so I got out the highest number I had though they are wooden. How high do the numbers go in knitting needles anyway? I think I've seen 15 before. But am I correct in thinking I've even heard of size 30? They were big! Well, I wouldn't mind having a 15 or a little bit bigger set of needles so this scarf would be knit up even lighter and lacier. And be quicker to knit too!



I crocheted a scarf last week, so I thought I'd try my hand at knitting one. I knit very rarely, and actually had to get a book out to remind myself how to cast-on! And even then, I couldn't figure out how to cast on like I had learned initially, with one needle in my right hand and the yarn in the left! I looked at an instruction book showing 3 different methods of casting on and though this method of casting on with one needle was featured, I just couldn't get it! However, I did understand the method of using two needles...cast on 1st stitch with hand and needle; switch needle to left hand, pick up second needle in right, with right needle insert under cast on stitch on left needle towards the back, yarn around right needle, pull through cast on stitch, a loop on each needle now, take left needle and insert into right needle's stitch and transfer to left needle. Ok, those are long instructions, but I understood it, and I didn't the first time I knit back in '98!

Also, when I taught myself to knit back in '98, I could not for the life of me get comfortable holding the yarn in my right hand and certainly not letting go of the needles to throw the yarn over the right needle! A side effect from being a crocheter, I believed. I almost gave up trying to learn to knit until someone told me there were other ways to hold the yarn, and basically to knit however you were comfortable. So I switched the yarn from the awkward feeling right hand and held it in my left hand as I do when I crochet. And wow - I could knit! I was excited!

Now, I still do crochet much more frequently than I knit, and I've never knitted anything complicated. Give me a garter stitch item, and I can do it. I'm a little intimidated by the knit sock...3 or 4 needles at the same time??? and the garment that is knit in pieces that have to be assembled. Oh, I'll try these items one day, I'm sure. But probably not TODAY!

One more ironic piece of information about my knitting...remember that when I first learned back in '98, I couldn't get comfortable bringing the yarn from my right hand and throwing over? Well, as I was re-learning how to cast-on the other night, I also realized that I wasn't sure I was knitting correctly (I was, but it just looked funny at the time). So I checked my instruction book on knitting. And do you know I could let the yarn come in from the right AND throw over the yarn onto my right needle with no feelings of awkwardness? I was amazed! I was thinking "Hey, look at me! I'm knitting like a normal person!" ha ha! Of course, I know everyone doesn't knit that way, and it's not necessarily "normal". But it was interesting to discover that I could knit a different way than I thought I could. Though I could comfortably knit that way, yarn from the right and doing that "throw over", I still ended up switching the yarn to my left and knit Continental. I feel it produces a faster result for me. There again, surely a side effect of being a crocheter first.