Knitting!

I am trying my hand at this "knitting" thing, after getting a whole bunch of helpful suggestions from friends. My stepmother tried to teach me how to do it when I was a teenager, but I still much preferred crocheting at that time so didn't pay much attention. Some of it is coming back, albeit slowly....

With the Joann's 50% coupon (I love those things), I got a set of 10 / 10.5 needles -- about the size of the pens I use. I have a bunch of yarn, and since I was only planning on making samplers (i.e. keep to the basic stitches until I get a feel), I didn't feel like buying more yarn. I had some worseted weight wool blend, so I opted for that.

After learning how to do the long tail cast-on (relatively simple), I frogged my first two attempts.
1) I cast on too many stitches for the length of the needle. Hah! I'm not used to having to do that.
2) Somehow I was increasing my stitches without realizing it (so then I practiced decreasing which is similar to crocheting, then unraveled the whole thing)

The 3rd attempt actually is looking half-decent. I'm managing to keep the stitch count within +2 of my original stitch count, and I think I've figured out how I'm increasing the stitches without meaning to do so. But, decreasing is relatively easy, so I just do that if I find that I've accidently increased again.

Also, I'm finding the Continental form of knitting is a lot easier for me to cycle through, since I can hold the working yarn in my left, much like crocheting, and it seems more efficient overall. But, my tension is better using the English/American method.

So, I'll keep at this one, until it's about scarf length -- a combination of a regular knit stitch, elongated stitch, and purls. I just want the practice of actually doing said stitches. Since I'm going to have to learn how to read knitting patterns, I figured this would be easier than trying to learn multiple things at the same time.

Going to learn how to knit

I've more or less decided that I'm going to learn how to knit. This is after 20 years of just crocheting things here and there. Friends have sent me a whole slew of links and made many a suggestion.

We'll see where this goes.