Yipee for Yarn!!!

Yarn is one of my favorite mediums to craft with! Thanks at least in part to one of my sisters-in-law I am having fun KNITTING (thanks, Debi!)!!! It is also exciting to be moving on to learning things I wanted to, but did not make/have time for while working on my degree the last several years.

I started learning the beginning knit stitches when I was younger, about the same time I was learning the basics of crochet. For whatever reason crocheting felt more natural to me and I took off with it, leaving my knitting needles aside and unused for a very long time...until recently!

Here is my first knitting project...

...a small purse with a shoulder strap, about right for slinging on shoulder or across shoulder to hip. I put a box of dry chicken noodle soup mixes inside to fill it out for picutres, so it's just a little bigger than that.

I just purchased an awesome stitch pattern book at Barnes & Noble yesterday, but I learned the main stitch for this project on YouTube of all places! Actually, it is a great resource for refreshing and learning techniques! I'm working on some stitches from the Knit & Purl book, but it's not very far along yet...I think I will make a shopping bag, since I've wanted to do that for a while...for shopping at farmers' markets and at the regular stores.

Here are a couple more pictures of my completed project, with close-ups of the stitches making up the bag and the shoulder strap...

So long for now...from a knitting knut!