This is the sleeve of the navy blue sweater I am currently knitting. I used little bits of scrap yarn to create the multi-colored tweed, since good quality tweed yarn now runs about $20.00 a skein, a price I can't afford.Knitting the ribbed sleeves and the bottom of both the front and back pieces was super easy. I blew through it!
Yesterday, however, I went over to Eleganza Yarns in Frederick, MD, to get my first lesson in cable knitting from my wonderful friend and teacher, Kristy. The first thing she did was point out that I didn't know the difference between "kfb" (knit front/back, a method for increasing stitches) and "tbl" (through the back loop, which creates a different look but does not increase stitches). This meant I had 13 fewer stitches at the base of the honeycomb than I was supposed to have.
She made me take the whole thing out, and got a tremendous amount of joy out of laughing at my misfortune (never underestimate the power of schadenfreude among ladies who knit together). But don't get me wrong - she was kind enough to give me a free lesson - I've got nothing to complain about.
Finally, we got to the first row of the cable. Now, everyone in my knitting circle keeps telling me how easy cable knitting is "once you get the hang of it". And I can tell you all right now how miserable it is "until you get the hang of it". I've entirely lost the rhythm and momentum of knitting and purling, I can barely handle the stitches once they are on the cable hook, and I have to count constantly because I don't even know if I'm on a front cable or a back cable half the time. The synapses in my brain feel as if they are on strike. I hope to God this is going to get easier or I'm going to stab the next person who gets on my nerves with a crochet hook, or something. And honeycomb is one of the easiest cable stitches out there - can you imagine if I had started with something hard?
No comments:
Post a Comment