Expanding My Repertoire

So, last week, Jason brought me bamboo knitting needles.  He would have brought me crochet hooks (after all, he is a very intelligent guy who knows darn well I don’t know the first thing about knitting and will argue such with women who insist that “Oh, no, that beautiful hat your wife made you must be knit!”*), but the Stitch ‘n Pitch people at the Mariners’ Fan Fest only had free knitting needles.  Being a very intelligent guy, he knows I don’t turn down free.  And I don’t turn down crafting supplies of any sort.

Since then, the needles have been taunting me.

And then, the Yarn Harlot has to go and do this.  The challenge is on.  I am going to knit something for the Knitting Olympics.  Cast on during the Opening Ceremonies and commit to knitting something that will be a challenge for me to finish during the Games.  Part One, finding something to knit that will be a challenge to finish, shouldn’t be too hard, since pretty much anything would fall into that category for a non-knitter.  Part Two, casting on…well.

Enter the internet.  (Ooh, that’s kind of fun to say: enter the internet, enter the internet, Moses supposes his toeses are roses…)  Last night, I watched this about five times.  I read this nearly as many times.  I already knew I was going to use the Continental method, because (a) it’s supposed to be easier for crocheters to learn, since the yarn is held in the same way, and (b) it’s supposed to be faster and more efficient.  I cast on a couple of times.  I knit a few rows.  I frogged.  I repeated.  I finally ended up with this:

I know, it’s nothing to write home about, just a few rows of garter stitch.  However.  Knitting has always seemed complicated to me, so I’m quite excited.  I am still not comfortable enough to be able to count the stitches, but if my crochet experience is applicable here, that will come with time.  (My first few crochet projects were all kinds of wavy along the edges until I learned to recognize how the stitches flowed.)

So, here we go.  You’ll notice my category cloud has a new entry.  Tonight I’ll settle in and learn to purl.  Perhaps with a less splitty yarn.

Which reminds me…I’ve heard many times that knitters don’t recommend certain yarns to crocheters because they’re so splitty, but hello!!  I find it so much easier to crochet with a splitty yarn than to knit with it.  My hook has never had the problems with Caron Simply Soft that the needles did last night.  In fact, I’ve never experienced SS splitting at all before.  This leads me to believe that splitty yarn is more difficult to deal with in whichever craft is more difficult for the stitcher.  It stands to reason…if your hands are moving more awkwardly, you’ll likely have less control over the yarn.  Thoughts?

*The implication of which, of course, is that a hat that beautiful could not have been made using such a backward craft as crochet, which never fails to tick me off.  If I’m honest, I’ll admit that this sort of snobbery is what’s kept me from trying knitting for so long.