Welcome!

"You are the only one who can use your ability. It is an awesome responsibility." Zig Zigler

Welcome to my blog. In it, I'll talk about knitting...and whatever else comes to mind.

I am a new knitter. I started knitting 2 months ago, after reading Debbie Macomber's book "The Shop on Blossom Street". I went to my local craft store and bought books and a cdROM to learn how to knit. Then I found a wonderful show on DIY Network called "Knitty Gritty". On that particular episode, Vicki Square was talking about knitting and showed some basic things (casting on, casting off, knitting & purling). What hooked me was that she showed the Continental method as well as the English method. The Continental method was for me! Everything I'd heard up till that point made being a left-handed knitter seem so difficult. If you are left-handed and want to knit, don't believe the hype (about using mirrors to see how to knit and all that crazy stuff! Try the Continental method!! I bought Vicki's book, "The Knitter's Companion", and I was off!

About a month later, a group was formed at my church: The Nutty Knitters. It was formed as a Prayer Shawl Ministry. Because there were so many new knitters, our first project was a cotton washcloth. This was the first "real" project (that is, one where I followed a pattern) that I did. I was so excited to actually finish something! I have countless counted cross stitch projects that are not finished...and the scrapbook that I start for my daughter 6 years ago only has about 10 pages finished and we won't even discuss the Christmas cards I was going to make and send out last year...so to actually finish something was so empowering. I felt like I was ready to knit ANYTHING!!

So I started knitting...and buying yarn. I was at my local arts & crafts store every week (with coupons in hand!), buying yarn...and needles. Straight needles, several sizes. Then I moved onto the circular needles. And of course, I had to get various sizes of those! I now even have (the very scary!) double-pointed needles...in fact, I now have so many knitting needles I have decided to make a felted needle case (free pattern from Paton's, using Paton's Classic Merino).

I've knitted alot of scarves. Fun Fur. Fancy Fur. Paton's Bohemian. Worsted weight yarn. Then I saw a link to the Irish Hiking Scarf Knit-A-Long on Nancy's blog (BronxGirlKnits). I LOVED that scarf. So I took it to the next Nutty Knitters meeting. I showed it to some of the "expert" knitters. They explained the whole "cable" thing...I was ready to get started! I'm still working on that scarf. I love the pattern. I love the yarn I bought for it (a Merino,Alpaca,Silk blend in a color that just matches my coat). But, it's Christmastime...and now I have Christmas knitting to do. So things that I'm knitting for myself will just have to wait. :o(

Another pattern I found in the knitting blogs, is the Booga Bag. I'd been wanting to do a felted bag (I LOVE bags!) since I learned about felting. I have made one. Sadly (for me), I'm giving it to my cousin, who's birthday is the day before Christmas. The good thing is: now I NEED to make another one (for me!).

Eventually, I'll learn how to work this blog thing...and how to add pictures and links and buttons and stuff like that! ((so if anyone knows that kind of stuff & can give me some pointers, I'd be eternally grateful!! )) Until then, you'll have to settle for text.

MAKE it a great day!