A Bitter Knitter

Hello, Blog!  It's been a while.  Like, almost a year.  We bought a house last year!  I can't believe we'e been homeowners for a year!  In the move, though, our laptop screen got cracked and the left couple inches of the screen are black and line-y.  That and now-three-year-old loves  to use the computer. Since the move, I just haven't spent much time on the laptop to write blog posts, but I'm here to resurrect the blog! Here's my most recently finished project: The pattern is Josh Ryks " Mystik Sprial Socks " which incorporate short rows to give some fun shaping: My yarn is more subtle than the self-striping yarns other people generally choose for this pattern and I think I'm going to knit this pattern again eventually using a more obviously self-striping yarn, but I still think these are fun.  (I used 330 yards of Schachenmayr Regia Digipix Color: PC Color which I received as a gift from a Ravelry swap.) These are my first...

I first tried knitting in 2002 or 2003.  I'm not sure which--I was sixteen or seventeen at the time.  I learned how to do a long-tail cast on and how to knit and purl.  As a result, I knitted a piece about eighteen inches wide and four inches tall in 2x2 rib.  And then the royal blue yarn and the aluminum size 9 needles sat abandoned in my closet.  And then I moved, and they sat abandoned in my new closet. Eleven months ago today, 22 September, I walked into the yarn store near my university and bought yarn and knitting needles.  I had seen a pattern online for a Hogwarts scarf and wanted to make one for my little sister for Christmas, so I purchased yellow and black yarn (Hufflepuff colours) and a size 7 circular needle and, with the help of YouTube and half a dozen knitting sites, I cast on again, some seven or eight years after I first attempted knitting, and began knitting again. Just knitting.  Solid knitting.  Solid stockinette...