Knit one, drop one...

Rob is late home tonight so I raced home and jumped in the bath. Bliss. After toast and marmite (single girls tea) and the lighting of delicious vanilla scented candles the plan was/ still is to crack on with my scarf. This is a newly taken up hobby from a LONG time ago. When I was about 12 years old I was in a knitting club at school. A tiny group of us would squirrel ourselves away every Tuesday lunchtime in the attic rooms of the school with Mrs Grinnel, the maths teacher. I could not stand the woman as a teacher (cue cold sweats before any maths lesson) but she turned almost human in the quiet secret of the knitting club and had much patience with clumsy wannabe knitters. I knitted an amazing yellow teddy which I was most proud of at the time, but think I became more interested in boys after that...

So fast forward several years. I spend a lot of time reading in amazement some fabulous blogs of proper crafty people (as opposed to pretend ones like me) who dedicate hours to knitting, sewing, cooking, making things in general. It is no secret that I am appallingly bad with a needle and thread. It would not be an exaggeration to admit that I struggle to sew on a button. (I am great with a hot iron and wonderweb though- and have been known to sellotape up stray hems before work in the morning...shhh!) So although I am extremely pleased with the cooking and jewellery making side of things I felt the need to branch out. On my day off last week I went to the local knitting establishment and begged for help from a very lovely lady who advised me on all things woolly. When I got home I realised that although I remembered how to knit in a basic roundabout fashion, I couldn't actually remember how to cast on the stitches. Hmm. The free leaflet in my shopping bag was useless. What to do?

Utube is a wonderful thing. I googled 'casting on' and found an amazing video from an american girl who explained in idiot proof language, just for me, what to do. RESULT! two minutes later I was raring to go.

I am now nearly at the end of my three balls of wool and the scarf is still very short. I decided that I knew better than the very expert knitting shop lady, and instead of casting on her suggested 20 stitches, decided to opt for a greedy 30 instead. (my neck is quite chubby). I will have to buy more wool on Sunday but until then I shall plod on until I reach the end...is it wrong that I now have 32 stitches?Hmmm....