Secret Pal 11 contest #4

I had to laugh when I received these instructions in my inbox today:

"You will have to post a picture of your first finished object and your most recent finished object and talk about how you feel you've improved in your knitter since the first!"

I thought to way back when I decided I was going to learn to knit. I asked Alison and Robyn from my playgroup if I could join them at their knitting group if they could teach me. You see, Robyn had made for me (well, for Grace) a knit ducky hat (which is why we call her "Ducky" actually)(Grace, not Robyn) and once I saw it I decided I must learn how to do it myself (you know, I never did get around to knitting one myself, lol). That first meeting Alison gave me needles and some yarn and Robyn showed me how to cast on and the knit stitch. I caught on rather quickly, and after a few rows I asked how to make a dishcloth. Alison gave me a ball of Bernat dishcloth cotton, explained how it was done and I was on my way. I cast on that afternoon while watching the Buskers with my son (start of obsession...) and it took me quite a while to get through that first dishcloth. There was ripping back, when I started the decreases I only did one so it wasn't actually getting smaller (need to do 2 because of the yarnover)...and when I finished it I used my knitting needles to pin it to my head. I wore it for about 20 minutes.

This is the dishcloth. It's no longer a nice shade of beige with barely noticeable flecks of colour...but it has lasted longer than any other dishcloth I've made:

Proudly serving the Neily kitchen since August 2005

My next project was pants for my daughter. No screwing around, let's get right down to pants.

How have a grown as a knitter? Well, for starters I still make mistakes but I don't panic when I do, I can usually fix it. I am way more confident about my skill and I have the makings of a real fibre snob. My initial approach to yarn purchasing was to figure out what I wanted to make then buy only what I needed, and now I find I buy yarn simply because it's pretty, even if I do not have a project in mind. My seaming has improved leaps and bounds, and I am able to look at a pattern and adjust it to suit my needs.

I've also learned that knitting becomes a part of who you are, not just something that you do.

Here is the photo of the most recent FO:


Well...not really. Because I finished it's mate Friday night. But I totally forgot to take a picture and they are already on their way to their recipient. However, somehow they are totally identical, so just imagine this exact sock, but on the other foot.