Back in the Saddle again

I'm back in the saddle again.  I took about 18 months off from blogging.  I didn't feel like I had anything to say.  Well, I'm back!  This time the blog will be both about knitting and crafting.  I still am very interested in knitting and well, I'm taking classes to improve my knitting skills.  My Rangers friend, Twiggy, mentioned that she was taking a couture sewing class on Craftsy.  I love sewing and I love fine finishing techniques.  So, I went over to Craftsy.com to take a look.   Craftsy.com is an online craft class website where you can take classes from well known teachers.  The classes are available 24-7 and you can access them anywhere that you have internet access.  I know, because I used my iPhone to watch some of Laura's class in the middle of the night while we were camping.  But, I digress. 

 Ok, let me start with the disclaimer that my life has been hectic the last year.  When I went to Craftsy.com, I saw that I had signed up for two knitting classes which I promptly forgot about!  I signed up for the couture sewing class and then looked at the knitting classes that I signed up for about 6 months ago. 

The first class that I have been taking is Laura Nelkins' Mastering Lace Shawls.  Go ahead, look at the intro link, I'll wait.  I learned a lot from this class.  This first shawl we knit is called Skywalker.  Yes, Laura is a Star Wars fan.  I wasn't too kean about knitting shawl called Skywalker but I had some extra sock yarn and time to knit, so off I went. 

This is Skywalker.  Laura designed this shawl using Elizabeth Zimmermann's Pi Shawl formula as her beginning.  The shawl is a semi-circle.  It starts with a very small number of stitches that are double with each increase.

I enoy knitting patterns that are repeated in the shawl.  I use stitch markers after each repeat section so that I can count my stitches.  This makes it easier for me to find a mistake and correct it in the repeat.   The hardest stitch pattern for me was this enlongated stitch.  Each stitch is wrapped a prescribed number of wraps.  I had to really concentrate and count when knitting this stitch pattern. 

Lessons learned.  I learned how to identify right leaning and left leaning increases.  I learned different centered decreases.  I am comfortable ripping back my knitting several rows within a repeat and reknitting them instead of ripping back the whole shawl.  I now use life lines and like them. 

Now, I need a picture of me wearing the shawl.  Next up, the Clarus shawl and my attempts to knit with lace weight yarn.