needlework weekend

I've spent most of this weekend refreshing my knitting and crocheting skills. I first learned to knit about 10 years ago, and knitted some nice wool hats and scarves in the first few years after I learned, but then I learned to crochet and found it even easier and faster. Since then, I crocheted some (more) hats and scarves, and a baby blanket or 2, but gradually lost interest in that as well.

So I've been wanting to get back into either or both of those crafts, because even though I very much enjoy paper craftinga and scrapbooking it's not a very portable hobby and I want something I can work on during those down-time moments outside the house. Last week I ventured into the walk-in closet in our bedroom, although with all the piles and boxes of stuff in there it involves more climbing and balancing than actual walking. I eventually found my needlecrafting stuff, a few balls of yarn that I had left from my last projects and a few random crochet hooks.

With a little trial-and-error I was able to remember the basics of crochet, and made a kind of wobbly round washcloth as my refresher project.

Knitting is a lot harder to pick back up, for me anyway. I stopped at Goodwill on Friday and got a large collection (about 12 or probably 13, lol!) of knitting needles for 1.99, but once I got home and sat down with yarn and needles I couldn't for the life of me remember how to cast-on.

And once again, let's hear it for the internet, where I promptly found this wonderful site full of excellent little how-to videos. Perfect!

So far I've knitted a short, lop-sided swatch, but the point is I'm knitting again! Now it's just a matter of narrowing down the number of wonderful projects I want to try, picking one and finding the perfect yarn for it. Lilly has requested a knitted puppy dog, but I don't think I'm there yet. Scarves and dishclothes are probably my forte right now, but despite that I feel proud of myself and happy to be sitting cozy on the couch with needles/hook and yarn in hand.