What’s The First Thing You Ever Knitted?
So, I have officially finished my first knitting project! Woohoo! (And no it wasn’t a scarf, a sock or jumper) I have knitted a mini baby blanket, take a look below…
Not bad for my first knitting make, right? This is a sample of Peach Unicorn Designs ‘Simple Triangles’ Baby Blanket knitting pattern, how absolutely stunning is this pattern? I would have loved to make up the full size blanket but right now I am testing my skills and gaining confidence therefore making mini samples is perfect for me. One day I will make a full sized blanket.
I can’t actually believe I have made it though. I remember looking at this ‘Simple Triangles’ baby blanket that Vivienne had knitted up about a year ago and being in awe of how gorgeous the pattern was and thinking how skilled you would need to be to make something like that. I thought it would take me years to get to that point however, a year later and I have just made up a sample! It's not perfect and you can definitely see the blemishes but at the end of the day I can knit and purl and actually make something useful out of it! (and it hasn’t fallen apart) I keep imagining what my knitting will look like in another year's time if it looks like this now? (That is a very exciting thought)
MISTAKES
I did make lots of mistakes on this blanket and Vivienne has rescued me quite a bit. If you look closely at the blanket you can see some purls that should be knits and you can see places where my tension has not been equal, especially at the border. I don’t have any holes or anything so that's a win! I am not sure it would have actually looked this good had Vivienne not been around to help fix it. Anyway, here are some of the mistakes I made…
1. Garter stitch drop (that's the knit stitch around the border, I dropped a stitch right at the end of the row). Because I had other mistakes along the row and the whole thing looked wrong we ended up unravelling 4 rows to where the dropped stitch was then we picked it back up and carried on.
2. I missed a row - this ended up reversing the pattern. It looked very strange, you can see at the top by the needle that the pattern doesn't look quite right.
3. Dropped stitches, luckily I realised I had made the mistake so I managed to unpick to that point and pick it back up. (I did this several times)
4. Did purls instead of knits! Vivienne did show me how to correct these and I think we corrected two of them but as you can see from the photo below I did do quite a few. Ooops!
I can say that after knitting this mini baby blanket I am not frustrated with my knitting anymore. I can see my mistakes, recognise some of them and I can make an effort to fix them. Everything seems easier all of a sudden and a lot more exciting. I am officially a knitter!
SO, WHAT’S NEXT?
If it was up to me I would have just chosen another one of Vivienne’s ‘knit and purl baby blanket patterns’ to make up; however, Vivienne has other ideas! I currently have a knitted pumpkin on the go and I am about to ‘cast on’ to make a sample of the ‘Easy Lace Baby Blanket’ as well. Not only am I going to be learning how to increase and decrease in knitting, I also need to learn lace knitting! There’s no stopping me now!
USEFUL LINKS
Easy Beginner Baby Blanket Knitting Patterns