Firsts...

First blog, first blog post, first time I have picked up knitting needles since primary school...

I must admit that I don't really know what possessed me to see if I could remember how to knit, probably a number of factors but I think it would be fair to mainly blame my Norwegian friend.  First off I was admiring her knitting when we met up for a few days and had an interesting conversation about taking knitting needles on planes.  It seems like some you can and some you can't.   I think that's a great basis for the next hollywood plane blockbuster...or an Agatha Christie murder mystery!  Secondly, the same friend emailed me just after I had a (fantastically liberating!) operation on my back and was looking at 6 weeks of not being able to do much so one of the things she suggested was taking up knitting...

I went to a well know retail park craft store which I like to go to at lot.  Whilst we were buying lots of craft supplies for the kids Christmas presents, I had a chat with one of the ladies there who recommended the most marvellous shop tucked into a small industrial unit for someone starting out on a new knitting hobby.  I finally managed to go on Friday after work as we finished early - no I didn't manage to do it whilst I was off post op!

I had previously raided my Mum's loft and got a whole bag of needles that are a mix of hers, her Mum's and her great Nan's.   So I am guessing that some of these needles are 60 years old or even more.  If anyone can date needles let me know!!  I then spent a marvellous afternoon pairing and measuring and writing down an inventory of what I now own.  It was very therapeutic and appealed to my occasional sense of order.

So here I am.  It took me an age to remember the casting on (firstly with the aid of a book and then with the aid of the internet!) but finally it suddenly clicked and I used the 'knit cast' method.  It was so easy I ended up with 60 stitches and proceeded to try the old knit knit method, I.e. garter stitch, and after the first couple of rows being a bit slow, steamed off a total of 6 rows.  Hmm, this really is a bit wide for a scarf, and quite time consuming and the casting on wasn't terribly neat, so with a brave face I pulled it apart and started agin, this time with the 40 stitches that the lady in the shop recommended on size 5 needles....its looking a bit more neat now and I have progressed to garter stitch. Why is pearl harder than knit?