I thought I would try increases today, but instead I ventured into the world of purling.  I knit “Stockinette Stitch”.

I was very pleased to discover that I didn’t have much trouble purling, though my hands were getting a bit sore.  The basic mechanics of the stitch came back to me fairly quickly.

Now if I could just figure out the most comfortable way to hold my yarn when knitting. I accidentally get it right sometimes, but when I attempt to figure out what I was doing I can’t recreate it.

I guess this is why it’s called practice. Another 2 hours knitting today though, so I’m all caught up. Though I’m realizing I can’t do much in 1/2 an hour knitting. Still too slow.

Another day of decreasing.

Trying to figure out this left leaning, right leaning thing.

My knitting went fairly well, but I seem to run into trouble when I get to the shorter rows toward the end. Another hour of knitting time down though.

I’m definitely getting faster with the casting on. I think I need to try increasing tomorrow.

Time to get comfy with decreasing.  The Lovely Sarah pointed me toward this online resource to help me: KnittingHelp.com.

One of the marvelous things about learning crochet and knitting in this era of internet videos, is how easy it can be to find someone demonstrating the technique you need. Even if it is at strange hours when all but your friends in Australia are asleep.

I did pretty well with the decreasing for 20 rows using the SKP decrease. I ran into a few little problems after that , though it worked out. 

I had so much fun making decreases and seeing how the fabric changed that I ended up knitting 2 hours today.

Now I have only 1.5 hours to make up. In 3 days, if I knit 1 hour each day, I’ll be all caught up. Yay!

More shapes tomorrow.

Things went much better today.  I switched to a ball of Vanna’s Choice that I had on hand. The color works well with the eventual destination for these experiments.

I cast on 18 stitches and managed to maintain that count. I was knitting while talking on the phone with the Lovely Sarah, obviously she was my lucky charm. 

She gave me some knitting hints as well as talking me thru trying out some decrease techniques. SKP, being one.  Don’t ask me to describe it, but it did create a nifty looking decrease.

Tomorrow will be about shapes. I’m going to try decreasing more. I’m feeling brave and ready to branch out from squares and rectangles anyway.

Let’s see, time for some math here.

I was supposed to start my Knitting Love on February 14th. It is now the 23rd. That makes today Day 10.

At 1/2 an hour a day that would have been 5 hours of knitting.  I spent 2 hours knitting on Saturday. So that means I have 3 hours of knitting to do to catch up.

There is no way I am going to knit for 3 hours today.  Instead I am going to attempt an hour of knitting each day for the next six days, starting today. Considering how slowly I knit that may be a better plan for getting much of anything done.

So onto the next bit of knitting.

I was casting on  too tightly last Saturday.  Some of my stitching buds suggested that I might want to use a larger needle to cast on initially, then move the stitches to the needles I want to use for the project.  Since I didn’t have my larger needles with me at PJ Jam, I decided to give this idea a try today.

I’m knitting on size 7 needles, so I figure I need some size 8s for my cast-on.  Hmmm, no size 8 regular straight needles in my paltry collection.

Ah ha! I do have some size 8 dpns. I don’t know why I have Size 8 dpns (in fact 2 sets), it is one of the many mysteries of my strange stash of hooks, needles and other yarn wrangling paraphernalia. Anywho. They should do the trick for casting on 20 stitches to start my project.

Well so much for that idea. Didn’t really make my stitches any looser and when I moved them to the smaller needle I messed up. Pull that off and try again.

This time I succeeded by making myself cast-on loosely to my Size 7 needle. Worked great.  I knit one row and managed to keep the right stitch count.  Though I’m not sure what is happening over here on my right hand needle?  At least I can straighten it out and keep going.

Very interesting, 3 rows knit and I somehow added an extra stitch. Oh well, going to keep on working.

Knit 2 of the stitches together to get back to my original 20. Decided at this point in the game I need to count my stitches at least at the end of every row.

An hour of knitting and here is Swatch #2.  20 stitches and 12 rows of garter stitch.  An improvement over Swatch #1 for consistency of stitching, though still some boo-boos here and there.

I think I may be switching to a different yarn for the future swatches. This stuff is lovely, but has a rather loose twist and I keep splitting it with the points of my needles. Not an issue as much I’m sure for more experienced knitters, but is making me cranky as an inexperienced knitter.

 Well, the progress was slow, painful and occasionally hilarious , but this past Saturday night at my stitching group I finally got some knitting time.  The knitting love was bordering on knitting hate for awhile there.

 

This tiny little swatch of a mere 12 stitches and 10 rows of garter stitch took the majority of 2 hours time and much coaching from my stitching buddies. 

Including some interventional stitching by my friends A and T when things got too maddening. Though I did not allow them to correct my unintentional increases and decreases. I felt my swatch should make it’s debut on the blog warts and all.

As my friend T tells me all the time. I crochet my knitting.  Some yarn wrangling habits are stuck in my hands. I’m definitely more accustomed to having a hook at the end of my implement.

I’m beginning to have doubts about making it to the end of the 30 days I promised myself.  Especially as there are crochet projects and patterns wanting my attention too. It may be a few days before Swatch/Fragment #2 is attempted.

Yesterday was supposed to be Day 1 and was a complete wash. Poor little knitting bag wasn’t even touched as I am still working on a crochet design project that needs to go out the door.  My month of Knitting Love is off to a rocky start.