One down...

I finished knitting the burgundy scarf (hopefully I'll post a pic this weekend) and cast on a second. I'm using the same yarn, but in brown. This time I put some yarn aside for the fringe. I didn't make fringe for the first one but I decided to try it on this scarf. I haven't decided whether to give the burgundy or brown on as the gift - perhaps the decision will be made for me if I don't finish the brown one in time.

I like having a TV-knitting project and am already thinking about the super soft yarn I bought at Fengari to make a hat and the sock yarn (also from Fengari) to make, well, socks of course. I've never knit socks before and I'm a little intimidated by the thought. I'm a self-taught lefty and don't even know if I'm knitting correctly. I think that's why I'm afraid to take a class or join a knit-along. I'm afraid people will point and laugh and tell me I'm doing it all wrong. Oh, I know they won't. Knitters and sewers tend to be very nice people, but I'm still afraid to find out I've been doing it all wrong.

I haven't knit too many things and certainly haven't finished many. I used a book to teach myself how to knit while I was in college (drove my roommate nuts that I had time to knit). My first project was a garter stitch scarf. It wasn't half bad. The gauge only sorta-kinda got out of whack! I don't remember the exact order of my next few projects, but they were much more ambitious: baby sweater, pants and booties for my nephew, vest for my mom (out of yicky craft store acrylic - sorry mom), and a vest for myself (haven't worn it in many, many years but it's still in my drawer). Then a series of unfinished projects began. Most were too ambitious and thus un-finishable for a novice knitter.

I attempted an argyle pattern sweater but my gauge was wrong and it was never going to fit. I think I knit the front and one sleeve and threw it away during one of my moves.

I tried to knit a big, soft sweater in a graphic black and white pattern with a huge cowl (yeah, it was the 80's) and remember knitting almost the whole front (or back) during a blizzard in Colorado, but again I screwed up the gauge and had trouble changing colors. I ripped it out but I still have the yarn. If I recall I made at least two attempts to knit the thing.

I attempted to knit a bunting for my sister-in-law's baby shower (my niece is now 7) but my tension seemed to change between back and front pieces and because I'm a lefty and followed the instructions exactly, the front pieces ended up reversed. Not knowing how to fix the pattern has prevented me from trying anything non-symmetric ever since. I don't have to tell you that I didn't finish it.

I started a baby dress for no one in particular but I was hopeful that I'd have the baby who would wear it. It remains unfinished and is a reminder both of my infertility and of the days I spent sitting in the family room with my dad while he was dying from liver cancer.

Then I started on another sweater, for me, from a pattern out of Knitter's magazine. I worked on it during many coast-to-coast flights I took for my job. It's a complicated stitch, of course, and not something I can just pick up and start working.

I have actually finish some things: baby booties for a friend's baby and another scarf. Last January we took a road trip where I spent 3 days in the car, so I went to Walmart and bought some chenille yarn and some knitting needles and, well, knitted.

So scarves are more my speed right now. I have enough complicated sewing projects to make me nuts and the simple knitting is just perfect for TV watching.