Adventures in Knitting, or How I Gave Myself Arthritis

Last night my friend Sarah hosted the first annual (monthly, recurring) Stitch and B*tch night. Festivities included knitting, crocheting, baking, and w(h)ining. The night was a great success, with some guests (yours truly) persisting until midnight. Not only did I finish my potholder (shout out to Sarah and Katie for supplying me with materials), my friend Tina was able to effectively figure out how to drink wine while using both hands to accomplish a task.

I begin my knitting journey

I used to knit as a child. My grandmother taught me, and I spent a lot of time scouting out her various tools and yarns. I loved the yarn store, because much like every craft store, it's full of hope and possibility. And much like every other craft project, it inevitably ends with me spending too much money, enjoying about a second of it, and then quitting or producing a mediocre project based on my need to finish and move on to the next thing.

The dishcloth pattern

The best example of this in knitting was when I decided I was going to actually make a scarf I would wear. I walked into the local yarn store and promptly picked out the most expensive yarn ball in existence (that might be an exaggeration, but it was $25 and as many of you who knit will know, there are few projects that only require one ball of yarn). After discussing with the woman and settling on a knitting needle size, I begged my mother to let me have the ridiculously expensive yarn. She gave in, and I went home and promptly began to butcher another art project. Three balls of $25 yarn later, I had an hourglass shaped scarf, that went from large at one end to small in the middle and large at the other end. I was not impressed. Not only was the workmanship shoddy, but the insanely expensive designer yarn left black pieces everywhere. However, my mother was able to effectively guilt me into wearing this $75+ scarf at least once, and I can honestly say I have no idea what became of its fate.

It has an eyelet pattern. Not well pictured here. 

Needless to say, I'm not a knitter.

Woah...I'm halfway there...Woah - Oh

But a few years ago my mom took it up, and I have two lovely scarves from her that are not misshapen and utilize different patterns than just knit.

So last night I decided to start up again, with an insanely hard project for someone who hasn't held needles in 10 years. The night was off to an immediate bad start when I went to the knitting store and it was closed. So Sarah suggested I make this potholder, and after a few lessons (yarn on...that one was new to me) I was knitting away as if no time had passed.

The finished product

I finished the potholder (really it's not a potholder, it's more of a thing to set warm dishes down on) and I notice it's still uneven (counting stitches aside). However, I'm proud of it and I'm excited about this new tradition that will hopefully continue with my friends.

It works!

Tonight it will be holding Superbowl dip (to be described in a future blog post). Go Broncos!