I did it, I actually knitted a few stitches!!!!

As I mentioned before, I've been trying to take a bit of a break here lately, to let my shoulder/arm rest. Shoulder is still stiff & gives me a good twang of pain if I move it in the wrong direction, but it's eased up tremendously from the way it was.

But of course, it's driven me nuts, so I've had to do a wee bit of stitching off-and-on!! I've added a few tidbits onto the background piece for my ocean wallhanging - that seems to be the easiest way to crochet & let my arm still rest, as I only do a tiny bit at a time, then stop to decide on another color/yarn/etc. Unlike getting in the middle of a solid project where I could stitch non-stop for an extended period of time....

BUT - what I'm so excited about -- as some of you might know, I've tried & tried to learn to knit, to no avail. I knew how the stitches were supposed to be done - but I just could not seem to manuever the yarn to DO it when I tried. Well, today I discovered that I was using the wrong method for me! I had heard & read repeatedly, that crocheters should use the Continental method of knitting, that it came much easier for crocheters than the English method. HOGWASH!!!! I could never manage to move a stitch from one needle to the other using the Continental method!

Yesterday, dear sweet hubby took me by Hobby Lobby, and encouraged me to get one of those "Learn to Knit" kits. I was hesitant, but as he pointed out, a majority of the do-dads included in the kit were items I could use anyway -- a needle guage (which can be used for crochet hooks as well...), stitch markers, stitch holders, a row/stitch counter, yarn needles etc. Almost everything in the kit could be utilized in my crocheting, other than the knitting needles & book of course.

Then I spotted two different sizes of BIG acrylic knitting needles on clearance for $1.25 / set. I thought perhaps a nice chunky fat needle might be easier to practice on, so I grabbed those as well.

Today, I sat down with the book, got some cast-on done, and with a rather skeptical frame of mind, tried to follow the instructions for doing the knit stitch (the book showed the English method) Much to my total surprise & delight, I actually did several rows of stitches!!! Very sloppy uneven stitches, to be sure - but they were STITCHES, nonetheless!!! I was SOOOO surprised & so happy! It is obviously going to take a *lot* of practice to get even tension & nice neat stitches, but at least I managed to move the yarn from one needle to the other, which I could never manage to do before, trying the Continental method! I think the big fat needles really helped too, rather than using normal skinny aluminum needles.

So, it's a *start*!!! At least now I feel that maybe I CAN learn to knit after all, it will just take a lot of practice before my stitches are nice enough to do a project at all. And I haven't even tried the purl stitch just yet - I only did a few rows of knit. I still need to practice at my cast-on, as it's still a bit uneven. But I am happy that I FINALLY managed to actually do some stitches, regardless of how sloppy they were! Practice, practice, practice..... and hopefully I'll be able to actually make something...