All Fingers and Thumbs

No it's a sock! (Did you hear the fanfare?) I am unnaturally excited about this little pile of wool. After seeing so many lovely socks on the blogs I've been itching to have a go but wondering whether I should get a few more knitting hours under my belt first. We have been away for a long weekend and when doing some shopping in Exeter on Thursday I found a lovely craft shop called Inspirations with a good knitting section. Having spent some serious fondling time with the yarn (most of my yarn knowledge is web based and while I can try and imagine what 75% wool, 25% silk feels like there is just no substitute for getting some hands on yarn time) I decided I'd take the plunge and have a look for a sock kit as I was aware I was leaping out of my comfort zone and wanted a bit more than to just buy some dpns. After wandering around looking a bit bemused for a while the very helpful ladies took me in hand and kitted me out with two balls of Sirdar Town and Country in Volcano (y

This was it, the honeymoon was over. All my thoughts of 'knitting is so much easier than I expected' were out the window. I could not knit some simple ribbing! Literally knit 2 purl 2 and I couldn't do it, what was wrong with me? Was I some kind of freak? I tried to do a basic ribbed scarf - nice pattern in my kit book of varying ribs so you could practice. After several rows I just had a twisted mess and knew I must be doing something wrong but despite several feverish re-readings of the book I couldn't work it out. Off the mess came in a fit of pique and I resigned myself to another garter stitch scarf with some pretty stripes to cheer me up (still on the needles as other things keep jumping ahead!) The following Sunday we went to my bf's parents for lunch and I plucked up the courage to ask his Mum, a very accomplished knitter, what I was doing wrong. I felt ashamed to admit to my freakishness but I had to get past this or my visions of goregous jumpers and cardi

The first scarf hot off the needles was Miss Skinny Minny (modelled here by the lovely Lilith who remained patiently in position for all of six seconds), mainly done so that I could learn to purl. I'd started off with a plain garter stitch scarf in a turquoisey mermaidy yarn(see picture below) but I quickly found that having only one project on the go is just not cricket, or knitting as it may be. Miss S Minny managed to overtake and become FO1 by virtue of her compact and bijou nature making her a more suitable companion for a train trip to Birmingham. She is really a rather lovely sparkly, green which has not come out here at all - Patons Spritz Shade no:03002 (ohI wish all shades had names - I would call this Envious Disco Diva :) ) I was pleased to have a finished project on 27 October - about a week after I really got going with some decent needles and yarn and only 18 days from K day (when I hit pay on the Amazon order). Is it wrong to feel so proud of something you have made

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 co