Jam and Jerusalem

I recently joined a Women’s Institute group which has just been set up in my local town.  Now before you groan and assume its really boring and full of old women,( no offence to old women, I hopefully will be one for a  long time, but not just yet…) its a really cool and funky group.  We’re all aged between 30 and 45ish and there are a lot of crafters in the group already and some very stylish women, I feel very out of place sometimes!  Anyway this week we had a knitting workshop run by Caroline who owns the cutest little wool shop you’ve ever seen.  She divided us up into beginners and intermediate knitters and we set to.  My mother taught me to knit when I was a kid and although she was a fantastic knitter (I remember cable and fair isle featuring in her knitting) the yarn gene didn’t pass down to be me.  I spent 6 years knitting her a tea cosy, so long in fact that the kitchen was redecorated with a different colour so by the time it was finished it didn’t match!!  I remember knitting as being very labour intensive and I ended up with very inconsistent stitches and random stitches!  So I went to the beginners group!  We did some simple stitches including ribbing and here’s what I did!

How cute its that, look how consistent the stitches are?!  You can’t see terrible well but there's really neat ribbing at the top and shock horror, I ended with the same number of stitches as I started!!!!!   Is it wrong to be incredible proud of such a little piece of knitting! 

I showed to the girls and Miss M said ‘Oh that would fit Barbie!’  So I sewed the edges together and ta-da…….

Barbie has a new top! Or Skirt, multi functional garment!  Its a little snug going over her hips (tell me about it sister!) but it works!  Now I’m knitting something else…..  I can’t actually tell you what it is as I have no idea, I did think I would knit myself  a scarf but I don’t think I have enough yarn (might have to visit the shop and get some more) but at the moment I’m just enjoying sitting and knitting.  I really enjoy sewing but I don’t enjoy that I go off in private to do it whereas with knitting I can sit and watch TV and spend time with kids and still produce something.  I don’t think I’ll ever become a knitter more than a sewer but at the moment I’m enjoying experimenting.