Knit One?

A few months ago my friend Janet promised that she would teach me how to knit a very simple scarf. She even picked up the yarn and needles for me and said that whenever I was ready she would get me started. Month after month went by and we just never seemed to fit it in. Finally, a couple of weekends ago, at our scrapbooking retreat, I had my lesson!

I seemed to pick up the concept fairly quickly (I have knit before, but it was about 20 years ago!) and I thought I was off and running. There are only 18 stitches on the needle and it is straight knitting, nothing fancy. Plus, it is only two balls of yarn. Simple – right?

Well, here I am two weeks later, and I am really beginning to wonder if I am knitting-challenged! Poor Janet has had to fix my mistakes a number of times and even last night she graciously stopped by on her way home from work to once again remedy an ‘oops’ that I did. I am still suffering from a cold and sore throat and I thought it would be great if I could just sit and knit while I watched TV.

So there I was, feeling pretty confident as I knit my first row. Not bad – it was looking good! At the end of my second row something didn’t look quite right. As I counted the stitches, I realized I now had 19 stitches instead of 18! AAAAARRRRRGGGG! I am sure this is a very simple thing to fix if you know what you are doing, but since I don’t, down went my yarn and needles awaiting another rescue from Janet.

My ds, who saw me knitting, happened to walk by a couple of minutes later and asked, “Why is it that every time I look at your scarf it is still the same length?”

As he walked away, I wondered if an unfinished scarf could be used to strangle someone…