Knitting For Beginners: The Warning!

With all the hectic activities in my life currently, I decided to dabble in the art of knitting. It was an impromptu hobby that I only picked up due to my growing collection of yarn, but it's now a current obsession of mine. It keeps me doing something with my hands - although my carpel tunnel isn't always too pleased with me - plus it helps my mind to ease up a bit on the everyday stresses I'm constantly battling.


While I'm waiting for my Padawan to get out of school, before bed, watching a show, any free time I have that isn't dedicated to my little guy I use on knitting. Granted I really don't have that much free time, but nonetheless I'm getting some of my knitting project done.


When I began I was an absolute mess. I made some of my stitches slip, I missed some spots, I left a hole, it was a disaster. I nearly gave up with the amount of crap that was going wrong, but I stuck with it with some help from a few YouTube videos.


I gotta say, it's a twisted little thing knitting is.


Currently I'm in the process of knitting patches of different colors for a blanket. I'm hoping to finish before the extremely cold weather hits, but at this rate who knows. I'm almost done with my first patch and my square patches are a bit bigger than you'd think (perhaps I'll make them "strips"?), but I'm trying my best to remain optimistic. I will say that I've learned a couple things along the way and let me tell you, you'll be thankful that these few warnings are available for you now!


1. Yarn quality really does matter.
There's nothing more annoying than being quite a ways through your pieces, when your yarn starts to shed. It's a nasty, annoying problem that can literally alter the way your entire piece will turn out. It's frustrating and while I'm completely on board with bargaining, I don't think it will necessarily play out well in this case. I don't think that you should break the bank, but perhaps a little investment would be wise.


2. Your knitting needles matter.
Knitting needles come in a variety of sizes and depending on the project you're trying to complete, you'll probably end up with majority of the sizes. For example they have special knitting needles with curved ends and plastic loops connecting each of them, to help with creating beanies (to name one of the many looped projects). Also the texture of your needles can make a world of difference: metal can be slippery, wood can have more texture (which can be good or bad).


Perhaps the list is short and perhaps you deserve a few more warnings (which I'm sure will come as time progresses along with my venture into the knitting world), but for now this is what I have to offer.


I'm excited to see where I end up and how much I complete. I have a goal to someday complete a chunky knit blanket, but for now I think I'll stick to the small yarn with slow stitches.