Slow Progress

I’ve wrangled, er, knitted, about 7 or 8 cm of the Blackberry, to a width of about 55 cm. It’s hard, hard work. I was going to make a hat. I got all inspired by the Bakers Boy hat pattern in the paper.

I have realised several things.

- This yarn is totally unsuitable for that pattern.

- Any detailing in such a textured, slubby yarn will be lost.

- I have only just started (re-started) knitting and I already have a UFO.

Much to my surprise, I haven’t just given up on knitting. I must confess I am not a patient person. I like quick results. When god was giving out ‘patience’, I was in the line; but it was taking too long so I left.

I shall try again, with different yarns.

I shall venture off to the yarn shop again to find something more suitable. A girl needs an excuse to shop?

A Stitch Wrangler is Born

So, off to the store to buy wool. Oh, I should not be let loose in stores like that!

I just love the feel of anything soft, or smooth or bumpy or slinky - you get the idea. I shop with my fingertips and I'm a sucker for texture.


Anyway, the photo shows one ball from the two wound from my first skein. It's the smaller ball - didn't quite get the proportions right even though I weighed the first ball.
It's a New Zealand pure wool hand-dyed, with a very slubby texture; colourway is Blackberry.

And I started knitting again.

And thus was born the name for this blog.

That heavily textured yarn was really not a good idea for a first-time knitter, even if I am a re-learner. Each stitch had to be massaged onto the needles. Each stitch had to be manipulated, poked, prodded, pulled through. Each stitch had to be wrangled into place.

Each stitch ended up being formed several times, as it was just too easy to poke the needle through the wrong 'loop' - a loop of texture, rather than a stitch.

I tell ya, it was a really bad idea to start out with a wool like that.

Just Like Riding a Bicycle ...

They say it's just like riding a bicycle. You'll remember how to do it. Fine. But it presumes you know how to ride a bicycle in the first place!

I have done something extraordinary - for me, anyway.

I have taken up knittting.

I do try lots of different hobbies and crafts. This is one I tried in the early 80s, but didn't do very well.

I can remember having to do a stitch sampler at school - first year high school. I was utterly hopeless at it. My only available mentor was my mum, who couldn't really help me learn.
She had her own unique style of knitting, as she's a left-hander, and of German background, so it's a sort of "continental" style.

She did help, though. I remember she ended up knitting most of the sampler for me! My teacher never commented on the radically different stitch style or the marked improvement in quality. I vowed I would never pick up sticks again.

Well, what happened now? I was lazing around after the mid-winter bonfire at the Collingwood Childrens Farm, and browsed through our local magazine style paper. There was a knitting pattern in it - for a Bakers Boy hat. I really liked the look of it, and I thought "how hard could that be?" It couldn't be any harder than writing a computer program, or doing 3D animation (which is what I'm doing at college at the moment)

So, off to the store to buy wool.