Cabled Knit Scarf

A few months ago I posted a crafting bucket list that I wanted to finish before I metaphorically kick the bucket.  Well I am working at whittling that list down little by little.  So far I have already finished one item, learning how to ombre dye.  Whoop Whoop! Yay me!

But that was an easy one.  Now I need to focus on the more daunting items on that list.  Knit a sweater that I would be proud to wear, now that one is a doozie.   Before I can even think about the sweater, I have to learn how to knit.

I might have known how to do a knit stitch when I was like seven, but it took so long to get anywhere in knitting, and it wasn’t so forgiving on mistakes so I gave it up.  I found crochet and never looked back!  But you have to admit to look of knitting is completely different from crochet and I am an absolute fool for cables! So I figured it was time.

I chose this scarf pattern and found some left over yarn to practice with.  The Lion Brand website has some amazing visuals for learning the knit stitch, the purl stitch and how to cable.  For this particular pattern each set is 8 rows and then you repeat the same 8 rows over and over until the scarf is the length you want it. 

So just to practice, I knit about 3 sets (but I un-knit about 8-10 sets before I could figure out what I was doing). Haha!  My husband, although normally very supportive of my crafting addiction, said I was a mean knitter and wanted me to go back to crocheting!  Unlike crochet, knitting took a while to get used to the counting and precision.  He would ask me a question and I would shush him and say I had 3 more purls and 6 more knits before I could answer him.

Don’t worry though, it got much easier and now I can almost hold a complete conversation while knitting. Plus after doing about 50 sets I ended up memorizing the pattern.

This is a picture of my work in progress:

I am almost out of yarn which means whether I like it or not my scarf will be at its final length.  Next step: a matching hat.  I have a pattern picked out but it is at an intermediate level.  I am not even sure what all the abbreviations mean.  I am calling in for backup on this one:  Grandma Beth – you’re up!