yarn shopping Saturday

[juldea]

Went to Patternworks up in New Hampshire with tpau on Saturday. The $25 gift certificate she got me for my birthday several months ago paid (mostly) for the necessary yarn to make this. Not that color, though. A pretty dark turquoise, called Ocean, in fact.

Comments

[threeboy.livejournal.com]

hooray, YARN!!

[juldea.livejournal.com]

I agree!!

[brewergnome.livejournal.com]

That looks cool!

Speaking of yarn... I'm trying to learn to knit.

Book looks good. It teaches continental style (yay) and she claims in the introduction to be interested in making sure you understand WHY it works (there's even a chapter: understanding the fabric).

So here's how it's gone so far...

Casting on: Ok, I ca do that. Took me a while and some frustration to get all the mystical gesturing to actually create the right loops (was knitting the wrong strand the first time to). And then it took longer for me to get it to make SENSE and let me get the stitches not too tight (still hard).

Knitting: ARGH. I can't get enough yarn to do anything with. Trying to pull a loop through practically killed me. The loops get tighter and tighter because I have to work out at the tips but working out at the tips causes last loop I did (the one that just moved to the right needle in continental style) tighten to the point of insanity. I HAVE to be doing something wrong here because I can't get the stitches to not completely lock up no matter how many times I try this. Grr.

Any suggestions?

[juldea.livejournal.com]

As for the knitting, I'd have to see what it is you're doing. Also, I knit Combined style, which is similar but not quite Continental.

Casting on is always going to be a little tight - I often cast on over TWO needles held together, and then slide one of them out when I'm done, so that there's enough room in the loops.