I have a confession...I am addicted!

In between painting and Icelandic classes I knit and on Wednesday evenings I attend a knitting group where about a dozen women get together and knit and chat, whilst I don't understand very much of what is said the group is very welcoming, inclusive and full of laughter. 

Knitting is done differently on this side of the world and is known as the continental method.  I was taught the English style which is the throwing method.  The continental method seems very fast with minimal movement of the hands, the ladies in the group seem to whip up lopapeysas (Icelandic Jumper) within a couple of days.  I thought I would give this method a go and see if I am able to retrain my brain to become accustomed to this style.  I have always been a little ambidextrous, I write and paint with my left hand but use scissors, knives, computer mouse with my right...and writing with my right hand never feels that foreign to me...I am sure if I perservered it would soon become second nature.

However I also decided to complicate the issue by learning how to knit a fancy smancy pattern for a cushion cover,  I was trying to cross two hurdles with one leap as I knew I would eventually need to know how to create these patterns when I finally make myself that lopapeysa.  I also couldn't enlarge the print out and therefore had to use a magnifying glass to count the squares and then mark with dots and crosses so I knew exactly where I was in the pattern (oh so time consuming).

 

As I had two different coloured threads that needed to be woven through on the back as I knitted, I searched the Internet and YouTube for help and came up with the two handed method.    

 My left hand with the brown thread knitted continental style and my right hand with the blue thread knitted the throwing style.  I am sure this must be good for the brain and possibly help delay the onset of Alzheimer's.  After knitting like this for so many weeks it now feels strange only having the thread in one hand.

Degree of difficulty soared with the complexity of the pattern, plus I decided to knit it in the round to  have less seams and knit stripes on the back. All this meant that this ended up being a long and tedious project...no watching TV and knitting with this baby.

So after many frustrating weeks I finally finished the thing. There are several errors where I miss counted when trying to watch TV, drink coffee, talk or do anything else simultaneously but unless you spent time specifically searching you don't notice them.

 

 Front

Back

I have become a little addicted to knitting and purchasing knitting related products.  To the visitor my home looks innocent enough but lurking beneath the surface are secret stashes of all things knitting and this is only after a couple of months...goodness knows what it will be like in a year or so.

There is nothing worse than not having the right size needles when the urge to knit comes upon you.  Ross bought Olga a set similar to this for her Birthday/Christmas gift and I must admit I coveted them...not any more!

 Innocent enough looking coffee side tables which are normally scattered around the room

 But lurking undercover are many many balls of wool

 And this old ammo box of my dad's is perfect for patterns, needles and all other required paraphernalia.

 Now onto the next knitting project which will get me in the grandma mode.