Bitch Session

I got a gift today from a co-worker! Well, sort of a gift, sort of a trade-off… I gave her one of the 3 crochet-pattern-a-day calendars that I got for Christmas, and she gave me a copy of the Stitch & Bitch Knitters Handbook (which I've been debating buying for a while - they were on discount at her Beverly's). I'm so excited!

I've dabbled in the knitting arena before…the first time was very frustrating and highly unsuccessful. That was when I was trying to teach myself how to do it. My tension was way too tight, and it was too hard to slip the stitches from one needle to the other. As such, it was NOT a relaxing experience…so I went back to crochet and was happy as a little clam again…(now, how do we know clams are happy anyway?)

Then, a few years ago, my aunt took a knitting class and got hooked immediately. When she was out here visiting from Buffalo, she showed me how to do it again, and I finally caught on and figured out how not to hold the yarn so taught (which hadn't been a problem for me with the crochet…go figure). Unfortunately, I only know the absolute basics…casting on, the knit stitch, and binding off. If I drop a stitch, I'm pretty much screwed…And I appear to have a knack for increasing…as I tend to end up with more stitches on the needle than I started with. So, I made most of a scarf…and then put it down to crochet a bit more.

But, there are so many awesome patterns out there that are for knitted projects and not crocheted (though there has been a major increase in awesome crochet patterns lately). So, I've always kept the possibility of tackling knitting again in the back of my head. Then, I got the S & B Happy Hooker (their Crochet Handbook), which is awesome! And it's written with great humor (nice and cheesy/punny, like me!), with neat patterns of things I might actually make (I've made the capelet already, and am working on the short jacket/bolero). I figured that if the how-to instructions were as clear in the knitting version that I might actually be able to make some progress with my slow learning process.

Anyway, since I had decided to try to buy the original S&B, I hadn't been able to find it anywhere! :( Poor me. But, the other day I was chatting with my co-worker, who is also trying to learn how to knit, and she said she'd work out this trade for me. Yay! I'm happy now, and it's all I could do to leave it sitting untouched on my desk all day…okay, so it wasn't untouched ALL day. I may have flipped through it a few times already. Or more. And I'm telling myself that I can't delve into it until I'm done with the short lace bolero that I'm working on. Talk about motivation!

Off to yarn-ville….