Knitting Inspiration Turned Frustration

Blogging has reawakened my desire to knit. When I graduated from college 15 years ago (OMG!!), the first thing I did was take a knitting class. I wanted to do something meaningful but required no brain power. I wanted to use my hands.

The class I took was great--the instructor was a woman in her sixty's from the former Eastern Soviet Bloc. She was a knitting dynamo. At one point during the class, when I was turning the yarn into knots, she took my needles and knitted at least 2 inches in 30 minutes--no easy feat.

So began my knitting journey. Unfortunately, my desire to create beautiful knitted garments didn't amount to much, mainly because I didn't have the staying power to finish a project. I'd see a great pattern, buy the yarn for it and go at it for about a third of the project. Then I'd get bored and would deep six the project into a convienent plastic tub.

Imagine my shame when I come across A Friend To Knit With's blog. This woman is a profressional knitter. She creates several beautiful sweaters a year for friends and family, and expertly photographs them. She had me drooling.

She posted a pattern for fingerless gloves. She said it was her "go to" pattern for something mindless to do. I pictured myself slipping on these gloves every morning when I walked Ethan to school. It would add a chic element to my sweat pants/sweater/flip flops attire. The thought of knitting these gloves went from wimsy to obsession in a matter of seconds.

So I hauled out some great yarn--Classic Elite wool I bought 15 years ago (OMG!!)--and some double pointed kneedles and cast on. I was a little nervous because I had never used double pointed kneedles before. I had reason to be nervous. These buggers are tricky because if you don't pay attention, the tube you're knitting becomes twisted. I managed to keep that from happening, and was feeling pretty damn proud. But one thing I overlooked was creating extra stitches when I went from one needle to the next. I didn't realize was adding extra stiches until I was four rows into the project. Once I realized that, it was rip-out time, baby.

It's ok to start over once, but when you screw up a second time, you're patience wears thin. I was humming along, doing the rib pattern correctly, and then had to switch to a stockingnette pattern. When knitting in the round, you do the purl stitch continously to make the stockingnette stitch. Well, I forgot that, and did a few rows in the knit stitch instead. I didn't realize that my fingerless glove looked like a sweater turned inside out until I was at least 10 rows into the pattern. I wanted to just keep going with this wrong stitch because I was tired of starting over. But the worst fear any knitter faces is pullling a finished garment off the needles only to find it doesn't fit, doesn't look right, etc. Who really wants to wear a knitted garment that looks homemade? The zenith is to knit something that looks like it was bought in a boutique.

I'm at the crossroads I've found myself throughout my knitting career--do I deep six this project, or perservere until I get it right? At this point, I'm still holding onto the dream--to have some fingerless gloves that will do a cute job of keeping my hands warm. Hey, if I get them done in May, they'll be ready for next fall, right?