Okay I have looked over previous blogs so I think I have a handle on this things I may have missed posting over the last year…I’ve been taking pictures and I’m going to start with knitting.
Two years ago, some friends and I took crochet classes. I knew how to crochet but had never officially be taught. (See blog https://sudukc.wordpress.com/2017/04/01/5015/) I learned that I knew how to crochet, but now I can read a pattern better AND that I was not counting my chain stitches correctly… I always was a stitch or two short.
But knitting is a whole different story! I am a complete novice at this and I think I may even be knitting challenged. This is not my first trip down this learning curve…in fact I think it is about the millionth time I have been down this road. But last year, some friends and I took knitting lessons. We bought a book, had instructions and ended by stitching a dish cloth for out final. While I understood and could follow along I have never been completely comfortable knitting. I have friends that can watch TV, carry on a conversation and knit…THAT IS NOT ME! Knitting requires my undivided attention and then some.
I have progressed past the knitting dishcloth stage. Not because I think I am much beyond this stage, but really how may dishcloths can you have? And my justification is that if I don’t push myself no one else will either.
My first project after the dishcloth was Rally flags for Christmas for my husband and son. If the rally flag looks like dish cloths on steroids; that’s because it is a large dishcloth with a handle ( It was in my begging book). Okay this was a joke for my two baseball watchers, they kept putting holes in my blue tea towels so they could swing them arounfd their fingers to rally the baseball team (Like the team or anyone but me could see them.) And I figure if they don’t use them I will just have two more dish cloths.
Then I decided to try a scarf from that same beginning book. I enlarged it by a couple repeats and made it longer. I wanted to use up the yarn I had from an old crochet project. It was not a good choice because the year was multi colored (two colors) and nubby. It was hard to see the pattern and hard to see my mistakes AND there are several!
But still I am persevering. My knitting friends have suggested
this knitting site: Knit Purl Hunter (http://knitpurlhunter.com/blog/) and to start with the book: Building Block instructions. Again I made the mistake of buying yarn that is either heathery or multi-color and it is difficult to see the pattern of the block used in this book. I am only on block 4 but have decided to preserver and when my friend Nancy comes back to KC for the summer I will get plain yarn and we will do this together with our other knitting friends that would like to join us…maybe just to laugh at me because I am sooooooo challenged at knitting. And since I am only on block 4, I may be playing catch up with all my knitting friends by the time summer is over.
So that’s it for the knitting…in a year: 4+ dishcloths, 2 rally flags, a scarf 
and 3 completed blocks toward a throw. I will not stitching a Peruvian sweater or any sweater anytime soon… But I am committed to getting better; I better 
be committed, I already have a stash of yarns and Santa even left me knitting needles. So, I will keep practicing but there are other things I would rather be doing. It is just a challenge, and I will conquer it…
someday!
I am off to needlepoint or bead ….and practice knitting too.
Thank you for stopping by, I hope you have time to stitch today.
ttfn…sue
sudukc's needleart & other musings 