Improving My Skills - KCBWDay6

I've sooooooo enjoyed writing these posts for the Knitting and Crochet Blog Week! Here we are at the penultimate post and it's all gone so quickly!!! Anway, here we go..........

The quest was this:

How far down the road to learning your craft do you believe yourself to be?
Are you comfortable with what you know or are you always striving to learn new skills and add to your knowledge base?
Take a look at a few knitting or crochet books and have a look at some of the skills mentioned in the patterns.
Can you start your amigurumi pieces with a magic circle, have you ever tried double knitting, how's your intarsia?
If you are feeling brave, make a list of some of the skills which you have not yet tried but would like to have a go at, and perhaps even set yourself a deadline of when you'd like to have tried them by.

When I first read this I thought, no there's nothing really that I want to learn, I'm happy with what I know.... But then, I started googling (there goes that old black magic again!!!) and I've now decided that there are SO many things that I could and do want to learn.

I can't remember when I first picked up a pair of knitting needles but I think I was about 6 or 7. Both my Mom and my Nan (see earlier post) are and were fantastic knitters and my Nan's craft cupboard (the cupboard under the stairs) was full - and I mean FULL - of wool, needles, fabric and all things habby!!! It didn't have a door but a curtain and I used to love pulling that curtain aside and taking a peek. Even though I didn't know what half of the things were, it all looked so tactile and touchy feely that I wanted to climb inside and snuggle up with all the lovely things!

One of my Nan's many jobs was to make tutus for the local ballet company and these she made by the hundreds! She sewed each and every sequin on by hand and they looked amazing! I can remember seeing piles of pink and white skirt netting in the cupboard and after much nagging my Nan made me a tutu - I was short and quite fat at the time but I thought I looked just like Margot Fonteyn!!!!

My Nan had the patience of a saint so I'm sure it was she that taught me to knit! I think I've inherited her craft ability because I can read very complicated patterns and can usually make up a pattern just from seeing a jersey that someone has worn! I once saw a woman on the tube in London wearing a stunning cardigan (if there is such a thing!) and subsequently went home, drew a picture, wrote up the pattern, bought the wool and had it made up by the end of the week!!! Might sound impressive but don't ask me to boil an egg cos I'll burn it!!!

Saying all that, I now realise that my ability as a knitter is actually very limited. I can do most stitches but haven't ever accomplished much in the way of fairisle and intarsia was a word I'd never heard of until recently!!!

Fabulous fairisle....

http://all4women.co.za/beauty/fashion/winter-trend-fair-isle-knits.html

Interesting intarsia ....

http://www.purl1design.co.uk

Entrelac is another method that I would LOVE to do and even sock knitting with four needles is something I've never managed to get to grips with (literally)!!!

Entrelac knitting.....

http://knittyotter.typepad.com/otterknits/2007/03/entrelac_scarf_.html

Stumbling around on the internet recently I came across the term Magic Hoop and naturally I had to find out more so one of my next projects is to knit a pair of socks using this method. There is a fantastic video tutorial here and for the first time I can see what everyone is so excited about!!!

I've made several cable jerseys and a couple of them have been pretty complicated but I'd love to make something like this just for the sheer pleasure of doing it .....

http://www.thisnext.com

On the crochet side, I've only started crocheting fairly recently so I know there's still much to learn. However, I've been thrilled with what I've done so far and although there's nothing in particular that I want to learn, I do envisage a few more blankets finding their way off my hook......

So, for someone who thought she was pretty content with her place in the
knitting and crochet world, it would seem there are more learning projects on my list than I thought!!!

What does your list look like?

Til soon.
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