coming up roses

 Several years ago, I sat down and taught myself to knit on circular needles in the round.  I made a neckwarmer.  Then I didn't knit again til this past weekend.

I felt like I wasn't doing it right.  So I when I saw that there was an intensive class focused on the basics of knitting, I sent an eMail to ask about it.  Since I am right~handed, I learned to crochet with the hook in my right hand and the yarn feeding thru my left.  In knitting, left~handed yarn~holding is called "continental" and the vast majority of knitters I've met are either first knitters then crocheters or only knitters and they knit by throwing the yarn with their right hands.  Most yarn stores are devoted to knitters with crochet being a poor second at best.

Well, the folks at Knit1 Oxford are super friendly and welcome any fiber~freak, no matter if you knit, crochet, loom, weave, wrap, needlepoint, quilt, etc.  The owner, Patsy, does continental, so was very willing to sit with me on Friday and I could watch her do her knitting.  There is a major difference in the way I hold my yarn.  I tend to keep my index finger extended up, so that when I crochet I can pick the yarn with the hook.  Turns out that's what I do with the needles too.  This makes my stitches a bit looser than most new knitters {which actually may be a good thing}.

I returned on Saturday for the intensive knitting class.  I knew more than I thought I did, but lacked the confidence.  So Saturday morning was perfect for me!  Also, since I like the anatomy of stitches and examining the hows and whys of methods and techniques and not just the do this that way and this is correct; I could better understand that if I did this instead, it would result in this look.  Way cool!

I really enjoyed meeting the ladies there and felt very comfortable.  So it might be a treat for me to go up every other month or so and spend a Saturday there.  I met a fellow crocheter too and it'd be great to spend more time with her, comparing notes and tips and such.

Saturday, Jerry and I ate lunch at "Rice and Spice", a Thai kitchen in Oxford and then drove home.  It was a wonderful weekend.  Sunday, I was practicing my knitting and discovered something...a style of my very own.  And it's not wrong.  It's different.  My new~found friends gave me the confidence to know that just cuz it's not what they would do, or what I've ever seen anyone else do, it's still a good way as long as it gets me to where I wanna be.

The above flat piece on circular needles is a bit of that technique.  It yields the stockinette stitch.  I just started messing with it this evening.

The roses are from my husband.  He's so sweet ta me!  And I put them right in front of me on my table so that I can enjoy them all the time.

Hope everyone is having a great week!