Shiny happy knitting and blogging

I feel almost as excited about this - my first post on my new and shiny blog - as I did when I opened the knitting kit I bought last month. The time had arrived, after several years of vaguely feeling like I wanted to take up knitting (last seen holding needles with some impossibly tight mess hanging from them aged about 7 ) to take the plunge. The nights were drawing in, the need for woollen garments to snuggle into was bceoming obvious, this was it I was going to learn to knit.

I've always loved making things but often feel like they don't live up to my mental image of what I am trying to create, and require so much 'stuff' to get on with them, that when I slump onto the sofa after a day at work getting out the card, the paper, the glue, the cutter, the glitter etc etc seems like just too much effort. The thought of having a pattern to follow and a ball of wool and a pair of needles ready and waiting seemed very attractive.

I had no yarn, needles or idea of how to combine them so a knitting kit seemed like a sensible place to start and I found this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product//0715323660/ref=cm_rv_thx_view/202-8000182-0395021

The book is good and helping me a lot but the needles are a bit flimsy and the yarn was useless to start knitting with - really shiny, bobbly and easy to split. I couldn't see the stitches I was knitting for the bobbles and fuzz and I eventually gave up after a few attempts and got myself on ebay to buy some ends of balls of something plain to practice with.

Well that was an eye opener, a new hobby all in itself - I got my plain yarn and just one or two other knitting things :) !!! Oddly for someone with only one pair of needles my first arrival was this lovely knitting needle box:




closely followed by more needles to go in it and then some yarn, then some more and then a bit more... My boyfriend has been heard to ask whether an addiction to hard drugs might not be cheaper!

Anyway talking about my knitting at work (the stream of ebay packages delivered there as they won't fit through my letter box has alerted people that something is up) led to an introduction to the fab knitty.com and from there a link from Glenna C's lovely pattern Ivy led me to her blog and from there down the rabbit hole to the world of knitting blogs and podcasts. Suddenly knitting and knitting related activities have taken over my world!!

So far the knitting has been mainly restricted to scarves (and plain ones at that), keeping things nice and simple so that I can use some of the mighty yarn mountain that has been sent via ebay (they were all such bargains :) ) to create a scarf each for my nearest and dearest for Christmas.

There have been four completed objects so far - or I guess I should call these FOs (I think I get most of the acronyms now) and one more that is just waiting to be tidied up but more about those when I have some photos.

I just love that though all I have is the barest grasp of the basics I can make items I am happy to wear or give away.

And I really love the world of knitting blogs and so I couldn't resist joining in and keeping a record of my progress and those who have to spend time with me will be so relieved that I have somewhere to talk about knitting :)