Holey Cowl!

February 14, 2011 | My Jottings

Since my daughter Sharon has been knitting professionally for years and now owns a hand-dyed yarn business, I thought I’d better learn to knit. My mom was a knitter and I have always enjoyed creating things with my hands, but I didn’t set my mind to knitting until this year.

I sent out an invitation to a handful of friends and asked if they’d like to join me for a four-week class in my home. Sharon would be our patient teacher and no one would feel like a fool if they couldn’t catch on right away. We had eight people signed up in no time, and have had two classes.

We are all working with a bulkier yarn and circular needles size 13, and we’re making a cowl to keep our necks warm in winter. My yarn was actually dyed by Sharon and she gave it to me for Christmas. It’s called “North Shore.”  🙂

So here’s a photo of my almost complete first project — a cowl full of mistakes and holes. A holey cowl. After a few mistakes, I ripped it out and started again, ripped it out and started again, ripped it out and started again, ripped it out and started again, ripped it out and started again until the yarn started getting fuzzy, and then I decided that I’d keep going whether I made mistakes or not. Someday the imperfect cowl would be a reminder of the humble beginnings of my illustrious knitting career. Ha.

The colorway reminds me of some of the lyrics to “Sweet Baby James”….. “deep greens and blues are the colors I choose…”

And here are a couple of the dime-sized holes in my cowl:

So, I have really enjoyed knitting so far. I decided that I wanted to try some smaller needles, and a less bulky yarn this time. I could get free yarn from Sharon, but I decided to wander nonchalantly into our local yarn store (which carries Three Irish Girls yarn) and buy some from them. I found the display where TIG yarn was set up, and I ooohed and aaahed as I looked at all the skeins so the owner might possibly see how smart she was to carry Sharon’s yarn. Then I bought some silky yarn, along with size 8 straight needles. And a row counter.

I’m making a very plain scarf for a friend of mine who doesn’t read this blog, so I think I can put a photo up. Her favorite color is purple, and she has warm skin tones and brunette hair, so I thought the colorway “Eilis” would be perfect for her scarf. Here’s what it looks like about one-third complete:

It has some mistakes I didn’t know how to fix but nothing dime-sized yet.

So in the last couple of days we watched a movie at home. Guess what I was doing while we were watching? Knitting.

Today I had to take our car in to have the remote entry keys reset. Guess what I was doing while sitting in the customer waiting room? Knitting.

We are planning a trip to Scotland and England in the fall, Godwilling. Guess what I plan to be doing to help pass the time during an eight hour flight? Knitting!

I hope I can learn to do something other than cast on, knit, purl and cast off someday soon. I have read and heard that the brain waves of a person who’s knitting are almost identical to the brain waves of a person who’s meditating. Many avid knitters say they find it very therapeutic. That sounds good to me.

I need help with my brain waves these days, and I’m hoping some knitting will do the trick.