Long time no needle

After a long time (over 20 years) I decided to take up knitting again. I learned when I was little, my Great Aunt had the patience of a saint and taught me the basics. We also did some knitting in primary school making squares for blankets and vests to go to Ethiopia.

I still had some yarn left over from my Great Aunts stash: a baby pink which she had left over from making my baby niece a cardigan and a baby blue from making a cardigan for my nephew. These yarns have been sat in my sewing bag for 30 years. The other yarn I had was a school grey which was left over from my ex-boyfriends mum making me a very baggy and long cardigan for school. This one is over 20 years old.

So, having chosen to make the plunge I hunted for something to knit, and found the wonderful world of  Ravelry  and also another website where I found a pattern for a Slytherin scarf which I decided I must have - even though getting the right yarn was going to be a challenge. In the meantime, I would get the needles for that scarf and practise knitting with them hence my 1st project: Beginning Stitch Sampler.

• basket-weave
• garter
• rib
• seed
• stockinette
• C/O
• B/O

Now, I hate pinks, I was glad I only had a limited amount of my great aunts pink stash, and the blue which was better is still not me. So, I decided that as it's a sampler scarf, it can be stashed and have other sampler scarfs and panels/squares, which will eventually end up being made, added to it in a novel if weird log cabin effect throw. I have also realised I can over dye the yarn to make it more of my sort of thing. Will have to see if that happens.

I found the needles I needed for my Slytherin scarf in my local charity shop and made myself a basic rule - straight needles (unless super special) come from charity shops - so does random yarn. I have since brought more yarn and more needles. Though, I did treat myself to a set of crochet needles (which I have been unable to find in the charity shop) and an adjustable circular needle set (which is better sourced as a set). I also grabbed a nice needle cosy roll to store my pointy things - my long suffering partner would hate sitting on something I didn't put safely away.

After project 1 I decided to up it, as I had found my local yarn shop and this cool kit : Edina mitts. Which will need me to do more than knit and purl. So, project 2 was another sampler scarf panel which taught me more:

• bobble-or-popcorn
• cables
• chart
• chevron
• cr2f
• eyelets
• k2tog
• lace
• one-piece
• repeats
• ribbed
• skkp
• ssk
• textured
• twisted-stitches
• worked-flat
• written-pattern
• yo

Not a bad list of techniques learned or relearned for two projects which have used yarn stashed for decades.

Combining these techniques and

• in-the-round
• magic-loop

my 3rd project was born - I needed new warm slippers as my old ones were falling apart.

This time it was new yarn - well, charity shop yarn. Nice and snugly.