Where was I?

So: The first knitting post. I thought I'd share my two second efforts. (The first, an attempt at a garter stitch messenger bag without a pattern, is somewhere in the back of my friend K's car. She drunkenly complimented it and I drunkenly gave it to her. Friends are awesome.) These scarves were moments of extraordinary pride at the times they were finished; now (six or so months later) I see them as steps on a one-way path to knowledge.

This was an attempt at a horizontal rib using Red Heart acrylic yarn in "Painted Desert," which can be found at Wal-Mart, where I bought my "Teach Yourself to Knit" kit, for $2.49. It also includes a scratchy gray yarn left over from 10 years ago when a roommate tried to teach me crochet. (She later disappeared into a New Mexico rehab center and was never heard from again, unless you count her mother, who came to pack up her stuff and try to cover up the prescription drug addiction.) Knit 2 rows across, purl 2 rows across. If you look closely you can see where I screwed up because I didn't yet know how to tell when to knit and when to purl just by looking at the way the stitch sat on the needle. There's nothing to be done, but it looks great with my brown coat and from a distance it looks fine unless you're a knitter.
What I learned:
1) How to read the stitches on the needle.
2) A well-hung fringe convinces people that what you made is AWESOME.


This is my first proper stockinette stitch experiment. I was unaware of the curling effect of stockinette at the time and had a vision of a scarf that was perfectly flat and commercially-knit looking. I did it in Lion Suede Ecru, Denim, and Eggplant, which I got at Christmas Tree Shoppes in Pembroke, MA for $1.50/skein.
This one taught me:
1) Stockinette curls at the edges
2) Joining yarn makes you feel like you know what you're doing
3) Weaving in ends SUCKS.

I think that this one is salvageable. I love that it's long and skinny. What I think I'll do is pick up some stiches at the ends, put a little decrease in, stitch up the seam, and add tassels or pompoms to the ends, and it'll look like I did it on purpose.

Next time: The Winter Ensemble. I'm not including it this time because the hat is in my car and I can't be bothered to go out and get it.