Ok, if you read a few posts back, you would know that I am beginning to knit. I will go into detail about the likes and dislikes with comparison to crochet in the days ahead, but first a vent and warning to anyone else that will attempt this craft.
I bought a little kit that has a book and yarn included to knit up a cute little scarf. Thankfully I bought other books including the wonderful
Knit Fix by Lisa Kartus and do not have to rely on this horrid book in the kit for knitting instruction. Lack of pictures, clear instructions, and too many confusing written visuals make this book worthless for learning to knit in my opinion. It also doesn't include the continental method of knit, which, because I am a crocheter find it an easier way to hold my yarn (it is held in the left hand just like crochet). I mostly got the kit because it had a few cute patterns in the book that I would like to try.
So moving on to my first scarf using the yarn provided in the kit...
Let me stop here and stress to anyone who is learning to knit. DO NOT USE ONE PLY YARN TO LEARN TO KNIT!!! One ply, for anyone who is not familiar, is a super loose looking yarn (almost like roving or wool that has not been spun yet). Guess what was in my kit? 4 super small skeins of one ply variegated blue yarn. I didn't think about it being one ply before starting the project. With crochet, I can handle one ply easily without splitting the yarn at all. Not quite the same outcome with knitting.
Since you have to insert a pointy needle in between a loop of untwisted yarn, it is extremely difficult to get in there without splitting the yarn and ending up with a lopsided loop that won't give because your yarn is stuck on itself .
Needless to say, I got into the third row and gave up. I feel sorry for any one who is using this kit to learn to knit for the first time. They will inevitably give up and never try again, because that is exactly what I would do had I not received hands on teaching. I have tinked (frogged for us crocheters, tink is knit spelled backwards and means the same thing) the yarn and rewound it to use at a later day in either a crochet project or once I learn the nuaunces of knitting with one ply. Now I am off to try the scarf with a skein of Bernat Alpaca. I'll take a picture if I make it throught. Wish me luck.
Oh and for any of you crocheters who want to give knitting a try, the difficult kit is by Astor Tsang and is called
Introduction to Knitting ~ A Simple-to-Use Guide to Creating Hip Knits. I recommend the book for the cute patterns and the yarn is actually quite nice, but be warned, don't combine the yarn with the knit instructions or tears and cursing will ensue.
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