Progress...

I was looking for roving for felted beads, when I came across a few skeins of yarn that I absolutely fell in love with.  The colors were a blend of faded reds, rust, and claret.  Plus, they were on sale… so who was I to pass them up?

I'm not the best knitter out there.  I learned last year and with how busy my schedule has been, I put it down for several months (and actually forgot how to purl).  But I wanted to make something out of the lovely yarn I picked up and decided to sneak a few minutes here and there to work on it.  (To be completely honest, I kind of feel guilty for working on my knitting.  I know it'll be helpful in the future when it comes to answering questions about incorporating beads into knitted pieces, but it's not high up on my priority list and I always feel like I should be doing something else.)

My first attempt was pretty terrible.  I kept dropping stitches and it was super tight.  It felt like I was wrestling the piece!  So, I took it all apart.  And instead of mixing the stitches, I stepped back.  I focused on just knitting and just working with the yarn.  I relaxed a little and tried to not think about all the things that I wasn't doing and should be doing, and concentrated on building the piece one stitch at a time.

While this is far from perfect, I can feel the progress that has been made.  (I even bound off the edge and it doesn't look awful.)  Besides being practice, it really isn't "anything".  It's too long to be a hot pad and too short to be scarf.  I guess I could always make a shawl pin and use it as a cowl.  Or maybe I could stitch it together with other practice pieces in the future to make "something" down the road.  In theory, I could have added more yarn, but I'll save that lesson for another day.

I've picked up the second skein of yarn and am working with knitting and purling, alternating rows.  It is much improved over my first attempt.  I've also cut the width down by half.  So, when I'm finished I can also use it as a scarf.