Baby Steps -- The Sweater Sampler

I'm taking myself back to knitting infancy and teaching myself Continental style from the basics. I decided a good way to practice a variety of stitches, without losing my mind with boredom and ending up with an odd-looking scarf thingy at the end, is to go step by step through The Sweater Workshop by Jacqueline Fee. This workshop book takes you through a variety of techniques in sweater-making, and has you produce an awkward-looking sampler at the end of it all.

I bought the one thing I never ever buy -- cheap acrylic yarn -- and set to work. Here's my starting -off point:

Thousands of painfully slow stitches later, I'm about halfway through the sampler:

I think I might actually stop at this point -- I'm pretty sick of it. But it got me into the swing of knitting Continental. In contrast to British, I actually prefer purling when I'm knitting Continental. You do a funky little dip with your index finger that makes it feel acrobatic and exotic.

Now I'm going to take my newly-gained confidence and make a sweet little infant-sized hoodie. A small enough project that I can finish it quickly and have the satisfaction of finishing my first Continental garment!

My Own Tiny Yarn Shop

Ah, the dream to have my own yarn shop. Well, I've simulated the experience in miniature by setting up a glass-doored armoire in our family room containing all my stuff -- my stash, my books, my tidbits. It makes me happy every time I look at it.

Of course, it makes me think that my stash could be so much larger. Now that it's not popping out all over the house (some skeins in the coffee table, some balls in the hall closet, always stuff on the floor) and driving my husband over the edge, it seems so much more contained and manageable. And since when I have I been all about contained and manageable?

I think it could use a few new, inspiring additions...

Of course, if I never get the hang of this darned continental style, all that yarn is just going to sit there with nowhere to go -- I am so far refusing to give in and revert back to British just to get something accomplished!