Discovery

Learning to knit involves a lot of discovery. As a case in point, my latest foray into Lace. Ah...that scary word. I fought this one for a long time. I would knit and knit, but the result looked like mud instead of lace.  I thought there was something wrong with me. All the pretty pattern had eluded me. And then I discovered, while watching Liat Gat, that I was wrapping my yarn overs the wrong way. Who knew it would make a difference! This discovery caused me to look at the way I was doing other stitches, but the most remarkable thing is that, with that one change, my lace now looks like lace! Hallelujah!!

Having discovered the solution to my problem....I got cocky. I thought I could just knit away and I would have lace. Wrong! I would get to the end of a row and have too many stitches or too few to complete the row. So I figured intense concentration was necessary. This made my head hurt and took the fun out of knitting lace, but I persevered. I could not let this beat me. I tinked and I knitted, I tinked and I knitted until I almost wore the yarn out. But I discovered something. Looking at the chart (and yes I would advise a chart over written instructions for lace all day long)  I discovered that the sea of symbols ran together and I couldn't keep my place. So, I might skip from one O or / to another and the pattern was contaminated because I had gotten the stitches out of order.

So how do I overcome this? I decided my brain didn't work well with the chart. I do not mean that there is something wrong with my brain. Recent brain studies have shown that we don't all learn the same way. I decided that not all brains deal with the "symbol sea" the same way and mine was one of them. In order to follow the pattern without losing my place I resorted to a number of solutions. One of them was to sing a song so that each word was a square on the chart. By keeping up with the song, I would know where my place was in the chart. I would not suggest this method as it did not work that well and people look at you funny.

I tried a number of things. I won't describe them all. The one that finally worked was to color 3-block columns of the pattern with alternating colors.

This way I could remember pink or green or blue and relative position (section 1, 2, or 3) and that helped tremendously.

I still get hung up sometimes, but at least I don't want to ball it up, needles and all, and throw it in the corner.

Next Newbie advice: Find out how your brain works and do what you need to facilitate knitting lace...or anything else for that matter.

Go out on a limb

Once you have become comfortable with your basic knit stitches (knit & purl), go a little further out on the limb.You can't hang onto the tree trunk forever. You'll never learn to fly that way.

Cables used to look mysterious and very difficult to me. At the first knit group I attended, one of the knitters said, "Cables are easy. You just have to knit the second group of stitches, then knit the first group." It was mind blowing for me as a newbie, but it made perfect sense. So I went a little farther out on my limb. I got a simple pattern (Irish Hiking Scarf on Ravelry) and knit a cable scarf.

I started thinking what if other things I was scared of trying were just as simple if I could stop looking at them as really difficult mysteries. Soooooooooo...I tackled Fair Isle on my own. If you read (really read) the pattern and don't assume things, you can do this. Or so I told myself. I found a small fair isle piece (one fourth of a pillow top) and jumped in. I could do this! I read the "it's very important" bits like don't go more than five stitches without crossing the yarns so that the floats on the back aren't too long.

Next was Entrelac. That didn't go so easily, but after my class with Gwen Bortner, it clicked.

Next one out on my limb is LACE!!! Yikes!

Next Newbie advice: Go out on a limb. Try something new with an open mind and a positive spirit.

Hindsight

I still say attending a conference is enlightening, educating, inspirational, and just downright fun. I took four classes over three days at Stitches. I learned a TON of new stuff:

• What to Look for in a Yarn with Lily Chin. Why do certain yarns behave the way they do? How to manage yarn problems. Fiber content and its characteristics. 
• Entre to Entrelac with Gwen Bortner. I finally mastered Entrelac and came away with a finished class project.
• Lace Basics with J. C. Briar. I learned different types of lace, fiber content for lace, basic stitches for lace, and chart reading. Came away with a class sample that will become a lace scarf.
• Picking up Stitches with Kellie Nuss. I learned how to pick up stockinette and purl edges. I learned how to pick up vertical and horizontal edges and came away with a sample of them all for future reference.

I met other well known knitters at book signings and even at breakfast! Teachers have to eat too.

A word of warning, however. When it comes time to enjoy the Market portion of your conference, be prepared.

• Find a small rolling shopping cart that is easily maneuverable in crowds. Carrying bags full of wool, especially plastic ones, will not be comfortable after awhile.
• Or don't buy yarn.....yeah, right.
• SET A BUDGET. (Really. You will thank me later.)  It's far too easy for shopping to get out of hand. Try (the operative word here is "try") not to purchase yarn without a plan. Yes, it's pretty and soft and colorful, and yes it wants to follow you home, but resist the urge to overspend.
• Do take a vendor's business card and make note of what you liked at the booth. You can always contact them later. If they will allow it, and not all do, take a picture of the booth for reference.
• Take name, address and phone on return address labels for door prize entry slips. Writing that information over and over gets boring very quickly.
• Do take a contact card (just your name, address, phone, and e-mail) in case someone wants to contact you later.

In hindsight, I would readily have taken my own advice, but this was my first conference and quite a learning experience.

Next Newbie advice: Prepare for conferences and set a yarn budget.

Take a Class

Classes are offered at LYSs (Local Yarn Shops), community centers, conferences, and guild meetings. Not only can you learn something new, but you have the opportunity to ask questions of a live person.

I took a class today called "What to Look for in Yarn." Not only did I learn tons of stuff I didn't know about yarn, but I got bonuses from the instructors knowledge. She told us in conversation stuff that wasn't in the class.

Our guild offers an educational program at every monthly meeting. I was having trouble with Magic Loop even though I had both books and a dvd. I took the class at guild and the light bulb came on.

Next Newbie advice: Take a class.

Go to a Conference/Fiber Fair/Knit Show

Once. Just once. You should go to a conference or fiber fair or knit show. It is a treasure trove of inspiration and learning.. There is more yarn than you know what to do with. There are indie dyers, commercial suppliers, vendors who deal mostly in notions, weavers, spinners, people who make buttons and shawl pins, potters who make yarn bowls, and it goes on and on.

And there is inspiration. There are kits and colors and samples. There are things you see that spark an idea. There are things that show you new methods you haven't seen. I picked up a kit today for a shawlette made in scales like entrelac. Never seen that before.

Just go. Soak it in. Ask questions. Pick things up. Pet the yarn. Listen to conversations. Take a class or two. Learn something new.

Just once and then maybe you'll go again.

Find Some Friends

After knocking around by myself for twelve years, I accidentally found friends. A friend of mine (I didn't even know that she knit until she brought it on a trip) was always talking about her "knit group." This intrigued me and I encouraged her to talk about it. One thing led to another and she invited me to attend her knit group on a visit. We don't live in the same town.

One Tuesday in October I met 9 women and 2 men who love to knit. They showed WIPs (works in progress), shared stories, traded patterns, offered advice and drank coffee at a restaurant. These people didn't have to wander about in the dark wondering what to do or trying something and failing; and then trying something else. It was wonderful!!! I wanted this!!!!! I vowed when I got home I was going to start a "knit group."

Back at home, I decided to Google knit groups in my area just to get an idea how to form one. Imagine my surprise when I found that there were six groups already in existence. Some of them were too far away, but there were two that were close enough to attend. I went to both and still do because they are different.

One group is just a bunch of ladies (and one son) who love to knit. We get together and knit, share ideas, show off our yarn and chat. On my first visit one of the ladies asked how long I had been knitting. "I've been trying for twelve years, but I'm still a newbie," I said. She asked what I could do. "I can't do cables or any of that fancy stuff," I replied. She smiled and said, "Cables are easy. All you have to do is knit the second group of stitches and then knit the first group." If we still lived in the 60s we would call this a mind blowing experience. In about 3 minutes she taught me how to do cables and even shared a link to a free pattern for a scarf. The next week I have half a cabled scarf to show. Imagine...me doing cables!!

The other group is a group of ladies who love to knit...and go to fiber fairs and conferences. They formed a guild. Some of them are certified knitting instructors. They inspired me to make my own stitch markers, my own stretchy double point holders, and how to organize my knitting. This is my artistic group and they feed my creative side. They have introduced me to Ravelry, independent yarn dyers, favorite authors (I l-o-v-e Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.)

Thanks to both of these groups I have grown twelve years in just seven months. So, my next Newbie advice it to find yourself an active "knit group" and wade in. They will teach you soooo much and be a great source of support.

The Early Days

I'm stubborn. When the boygeeks in the early days of personal computers (remember those cute little computer shops?) refused to answer my question (I only asked one before they made me angry), I taught myself how to use my first computer. Those were the DOS days so don't get the idea this was easy.

I was going to teach myself to knit. I'd been crocheting since I was this tall, how hard could this be? Twelve years later and piles of tangled, frustrated yarn in the corners of my living room, I still did not know how to knit. I had decided that once I conquered knit and purl stitches I could knit a sweater and innocently bought enough black yarn and a set of needles to do so. Ha! I don't even know where that tangled mess is today. It never became a sweater.

I used to look at patterns of beautiful things that could be knitted. I shrank from cables. I ran in fear from ssk and psso and a bunch of other strange language that wormed its way into those beautiful patterns. Back in those days there was no You Tube that you could replay a million times until you "got it." Learning some of this stuff from books was impossible for a tactile learner (I learn best by doing). It was difficult to learn it if I couldn't do it and I couldn't do it until I learned it. It was an ugly circle. I can at last thank the computer geeks I used to dislike for giving us You Tube.

I finally decided that I wasn't comfortable with knitting needles in my hands. I was used to one stick, not two. If I wanted to get comfortable I had to practice. A concept I remembered from my piano days. EEeeek! So I began to make dish cloths with cotton yarn. I still have a drawer full of those wonderfully beefy dishcloths that could attack an eggy breakfast plate without hesitation. Here's the thing: It taught me consistency and I became comfortable with knitting needles which improved my tension enormously.

So, my first Newbie advice is practice, practice, practice until it doesn't scare you any more.

I think that learning to knit is a lot like a bird learning to fly. It is approached with a lot of fear and reticence and we may need a push to get started. Our first efforts may end in disaster. But somehow we know that we must learn to do this.