Thursday, March 29, 2007

When did I grow so many thumbs?

Tonight my mom and I took a Fair Isle knitting class at Drop A Stitch in Boise. I'm decidedly an English knitter. So for me, it was a lesson in Continental knitting as well as Fair Isle. And apparently I hold the yarn all weird in my right hand too. So tonight I'm trying to learn:

1) a new way of holding the needles and yarn that's in my right hand
2) to knit Continental
3) to work with 2 colors at once, all the while...
4) doing all this using both hands at the same time.

Good Lord! I haven't felt that uncoordinated in years. Hence the "thumb" title above.

After 2 hours, I had this


And a close up.I started out with a pattern, but couldn't even master the technique. So I simply proceeded to alternating back and forth between the two colors...every other stitch one row, every two stitches the next, etc.

I think I might like knitting Continental. I've decided to try and master that first, then move on to more than one strand. But it was fun. This is going to open up a whole new world of knitting for me!!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm an English knitter too and I've been dying to learn continental so that I, too, can fair isle. I've seen a video - it seems so confusing! I really must just sit down and practice. Are you catching on quickly? Or am I going to go nuts?

Cape Cod Mary

Anonymous said...

Very cool!! While in Salt Lake I bought a little finger thimble that holds two strands for color work--I'll have to show it to you, it's very cool. I can knit Continental, but it's sloooow going!

Anonymous said...

Good post.