Adventures in knitting.

So. Everyone has to start somewhere - I mean when acquiring a skill. And apparently it is best to start at the beginning. With knitting that means you have to cast on. I am sure in a previous life I have done just that, but last night I couldn't remember how - I had vague recollections of my Uncle showing me how to do it using a thumb but really, who was I kidding - that was 35 years ago! I resisted the urge to "google" 'cos I knew I would just get marooned in YouTubeland and click away the evening. Instead, I turned to my trusty Readers Digest book "How To Do Just About Anything" and sure enough, between those esteemed pages I found my salvation.

 

The actual click-clack process came back to me in a great flood of remembering. Sadly, so did the fact that I really don't "get" the tension thing. How can each row look so different? Despite having a generally firm "no-unpicking-like-EVER" rule which I apply to all manner of making, I spent the evening unraveling and re-knitting. It took me half of  'So You Think You Can Dance' and ALL of 'Burn Notice' ( which I might add was fun, has some nice scenery and an emaciated chick toting an implausibly large gun but appears to have forgotten to provide an actual plot?) to achieve my small piece of knitting wonderment. Of course I had to refer back to H.T.D.J.A.E ("How To Do Just About Anything"- you try making an acronym for that!) in order to cast off , which was more or less successfully completed - only one stitch seemed to disappear into the ether. Oh joy, oh bliss. I had made a SQUARE. It was ever so slightly wonky ( not quite a trapezium ) but definite evidence that cutting up t-shirts is a valid craft pursuit. A square is a square is a square. Obviously this newly created piece of rainbow knitting could not simply remain a damn square! Oh no, it needed to be created into something that would celebrate the complexity of its colours, the intrigue of its construction and the sheer bloody-mindedness of its creator. And so I give you ....

... can you guess?

 

Oh yeah, that's right - BEHOLD the Thrifty Soap Saver. 

Good thing you were sitting down huh?  

I am sure there will be further "Adventures in Knitting" but for the moment I am content to gaze lovingly upon my new creation. Did I mention it used up all my t-shirt yarn? What a shame - now I will have to nip off to the oppie - AGAIN. Ah well, no sacrifice is too great in the pursuit of creativity is it? Just gotta grab my purse ...