Starting at the beginning...

My history of knitting goes back about one month.  My first lesson, sitting on my great friend Jo's couch, was on the second weekend of October, 2010.  My first day was a lot of mistakes, and clumsy needle dropping, but I got started.  I also learned how to rip out and start over again.  One of the most important lessons of all.  After that first evening, Jo sent me home with a skein of yarn to practice with, and the sage advice that I needed to buy the book Stitch N' Bitch. 

When I got home, I played with what I had started on a little more, before realizing that I needed bigger yarn.  I needed to see what was really happening in there!  So I went and bought the biggest, bulkiest yarn I could find, and proceeded to knit the whole ball in one afternoon.  It's still sitting at the bottom of my knitting bag...  Once I got through that, I realized that Jo had been absolutely right, I needed a reference, badly.  So off the the book store I went.  I found what I was looking for, brought it home, and read everything up to the beginning of the project section.  But knitting is one place where studying doesn't really help, you just have to jump in.  SO I wen tout and bought myself a One-Pounder of acrylic yarn, and got started.  I learned knit, purl, and stockinette in one weekend.  And then, I came to a standstill. 

I knew enough to get started, but I didn't know where I wanted to go, so my knitting bag sat abandoned next to the couch for over a week.  I finally decided that if I couldn't at least crank out a scarf, I would never get to my dream of a whole sweater.  But I didn't know much of anything about yarns, and I didn't even know where to start with searching for information online...  So I took myself back to the bookstore, and searched out a new book, one that would help me figure out where to go next.  I settled on The Complete Photo Guide to Knitting. 

So I started again, with the basics, and I made a foot long swatch of knitted fabric, using 4 different stitches.  I finally settled on seed stitch, and decided that I would use it on my first scarf.  I bought myself some yarn from a craft store (no sense in buying the really expensive stuff for my very first project, right??), and I knitted a practice swatch out of my practice yarn to find out my gauge.  I tried to make this first project as "correct" as possible, in hopes that it would help me to not get frustrated, and so that I woul not just give up halfway through my first project. 

I have started my seed stitch scarf, and it is looking pretty good so far.  I have made a few mistakes, some leading to a rip out, and some which will just have to stay where they are.  I am learning repair techniques though, like picking up a stitch when you have some how dropped one, or putting them back on the needle when you have had to rip some of the project out.  All in all, I'm feeling pretty good about it.  And I haven't given up yet!  :)