Check Out My WIP

I'll be honest, I didn't know what a WIP was until about 5 minutes ago when the Knitting Gal told me that people wanted to see my work-in-progress, or "WIP." On that note, a huge thank you to everyone who has already commented, it really made me smile and feel good about starting this. Before I get to the rest of the pictures, I think the story of my foray into the world of K1...K1, rpt.

The Knitting Gal and I took off one beautiful mid-May-ish weekend morning to the glorious state of New Hampshire for some sort of yarn fair. To be honest, I could look up the name for this festival but, to me, it'll always be "that yarn festival in New Hampshire," so I think it'll stay that way here. Also on the honesty track, I was in a fairly pissy mood as we pulled into the fairgrounds, convinced that I was going to be extremely bored and not expecting much to capture my attention. As we passed through the gates, my spirits perked up slightly at the sight of fresh-made baked goods, at least the day wouldn't be a total waste.

In a stroke of luck, we came across a booth of people selling tea in the first barn/exhibition room. I contented myself with trying many varieties of green tea as the Knitting Gal oohed and aahed over alpaca "hanks." That's right, I know what a hank is (although I'm not quite sure when a hank becomes a skein becomes a ball). As we strolled through the grounds, I started to let myself at least feel the yarn the Knitting Gal was looking at, noticing the different textures and "weights." I started asking questions. What's DK weight mean? What would you use bulky yarn for? What the hell does variegated mean??

Finally, I made a decision. I was going to knit something, and it was going to be something I could be proud of. Rather than the usual scarf, I decided on a blanket. All that I needed now was "yarn." OK, I knew what "yarn" was before the Knitting Gal, but not much more. A few hours into the day, I found it. As luck would have it, a vendor had a fair amount of blue and brown hanks of bulky yarn, 16 total and enough to do 2 blue for every 1 brown. Initially, I balked at how much it would cost to purchase them all at once. However, I learned that I was getting a fantastic deal and that I should go with these colors if I loved them. Brown and Blue being the colors of Tufts University, I thought if I didn't take this chance then I might never start a project. Knowing that the vendor wanted to get rid of all 16 balls, I offered a discounted price for the whole lot, which she gladly accepted. I never would have guessed at the beginning of the day that I'd be leaving with a garbage bag full of yarn, but I did.

I cast on that night. No, I didn't. I went and played poker with some buddies that night. I cast on the next night, 137 stitches total. I decided on a "garter" stitch for the whole thing, mainly because I didn't know how to "purl" and wasn't quite ready to learn. At first, it was terribly slow going, taking upwards of 45 minutes per row. My stitches were tight, the yarn and needles were getting twisted, and I was getting frustrated. I also realized early on that I had made the blanket too wide and would not get much length out of the yarn I had. Still, I pressed on, determined to stupidly carry on. Bear in mind that I had done about 10 rows of 20 stitches before taking on the blanket. Eventually though, I found my groove and got down to about 25 minutes per row. Then, mid-way through my fifth ball, I decided to rip it all out, cut down on the stitches, and start from scratch, this time with 100 stitches.

Working at a much faster pace now, things have been coming around rather nicely. And so, without ado, here are some pictures of my WIP:



I've gotta say, I'm damned proud of what I've done so far, and I couldn't have done it without the Knitting Gal's constant encouragement (and fixing of my mistakes). I've even taken it out in front of her family now, hoping her father won't laugh every time he passes by (we happen to have a great relationship so I don't think that would happen anyway).

It's now been a solid 2.5 hours since I finished the last sentence of the last paragraph and a dinner of excellent steak and BBQ chicken (with my homemade BBQ sauce) plus some delicious wine has left me pretty sleepy and the keys dancing. On that note, I'm off for the night. As always, can't wait for your comments!