I joined the Football-a-long because I like to watch football, and I tend to knit while I'm watching. The first project is for the charity Cubs for Kids. You're supposed to make a sweater for a bear. I can't make the sweater. Why not? I'm a knitter, I should be able to knit. Here are my list of pathetic reasons:
1. I lack the correct size dpns, and I've already spent my knitting budget for the month.
2. A sweater would require a lot of effort and help, and since I don't belong to a knitting group, I have to get my mom to help me. She lives 450 miles away.
3. I don't know how to pick up stitches.
It's #3 that's really the most problematic. I could probably move some money around and come up with $3-4 to buy some needles with a coupon at A.C. Moore. I could talk to my mom on the phone and send pictures through email. But, I'm reluctant to learn to pick up stitches on such a small sweater. At the same time, I've joined the fall felted bag exchange, and will need to learn to pick up stitches to make most of the bags that I've seen.
When I started knitting, I purposely planned every project so that I learned a new skill - knitting in the round, following a pattern, knitting cables, felting. That's been lost recently because I've just been knitting things I want to knit. But, I'm limiting myself. There are 4 full months left in the year, and I'm going to learn one new technique each week. Here's the list:
September: Picking up stitches
October: Following a lace chart
November: Fair Isle knitting
December: Socks
I would like to get to the point where I'm not afraid of a project, just excited to learn something new.
In the meantime, I'm sending my Cubs for Kids project without a sweater. Hopefully, some child will love the bear wearing the scarf and hat because it's not fancy work, and not in spite of it.
Happy Knitting!
4 comments:
You might find these sites helpful in learning how to pick-up stitches.
http://knitting.about.com/od/knittingskills/ss/pick_stitches.htm
http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEwinter04/FEATwin04TT.html
Now that I'm watching football too, maybe I should join! Don't worry, you should definitely be able to learn what you need from the internets.... kati posted some great sites. Good luck!
I have yet to have to pick up stitches yet myself, but I hear that a crochet hook can be very helpful in that respect should you have one lying around. I'm glad that everyone's gotten better. Doctor's with weekend hours and definitely a god-send. As for me...I don't really have a specialty planned at this point...I'm trying to keep an open mind about it and see where my learning takes me. At this point I'm definitely interested in all things neurological and surgery has caught my eye. I'm sure whichever child is lucky enough to get your bear will love it, after all someone made it just for them!
Picking up stitches sounds tough - but it's easy peasy, really!! check out the links Kati left, but really, all you're doing is sliding your knitting needle through the hole where you're picking up (say on the border of the bottom of a bag) and use it to pull the yarn back through the hole and onto the knitting needle - it REALLY is much easier than it'd seem :-)
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