Knitting fascinates me. It is so different than crochet.
For my third knitted project, I chose Blossoms by the Brook, a knitted shawlette pattern that I found free on Ravelry (with both written and charted instructions) and I decided it was time to dive into my lovely yarn stash from my Yarnbox classic subscription.
I ended up selecting the MJ Yarns, Peruvian Dream yarn that came in the January 2016 shipment in a colorway called Cerulean Twilight, it’s a lovely mix of 50% Alpaca, 30% Merino, and 20% silk – it was heavenly to work with!
Being new to knitting, I AM PAINFULLY SLOW! But I am also determined to master this craft. Even though I wonder if I will ever master reading a chart. I can understand the symbols on the chart, but the problem is visual – I keep loosing my place (one of those times when I really wish I had vision in both eyes) – oh well, progress while I strive for perfection! I also find that I absolutely should not knit when I’m tired – I really screw things up and end up having to frog it. Oh how I wish knitting was as easy to frog as crochet!
Here I am at the end of the first 16 rows, you can already see the lovely stitch definition. That’s what intrigues me the most about knitting – the final fabric that is created and the stitch definition are just so different between the two techniques.
As I progressed, I decided that I wanted the shawlette to be deeper, so instead of repeating Rows 7-14 of Chart A four times I repeated them 6 times and then simply adjusted the number of repeats in Chart B. Yes, even as a newbie knitter I’m adjusting things LOL
While this was a fairly easy pattern, as a newbie I was not without issues – at one point I realized that I had miscounted a couple of rows back and attempted to frog it, fix it and move on. NOT – I only made matters worse and ended up frogging the entire thing and starting over! I found that a ball winder makes an excellent frogging tool!
My second attempt was much better and here is a picture of the final project!
