I believe it was Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee, a.k.a The Yarn Harlot, that I learned that knitting is as easy as only two stitches: Knit and Purl. And actually, as a friend pointed out tonight, it's not truly even two stitches, it's one stitch from two perspectives. There's the knit, where the working yarn is in back and the working needle slips through the stitch pointing toward the back; and there's the purl, where the working yarn is in the front and the working needle slips through the stitch pointing toward the front. With those two different ways of making a stitch, you can knit anything! Yes, there are variations on the theme, sometimes knitting more than one stitch at a time, or throwing the yarn over the needle before knitting, or slipping a stitch and neither knitting or purling, or maybe parking a stitch or two and knitting a few out of order, but basically everything is either a knit or a purl. When I first heard this, and after thinking about it long enough to realize how true it was, I was greatly encouraged. That this is not the impossible dream. It's not something that requires amazing talent and insight. That it is something even I could do. From then on, having mastered a knit and purl, I felt emboldened to try anything.
So that's the approach we take during our Wednesday night knitting adventures. We learn to knit. We learn to purl. We put them together and do either on command (and on purpose!) I've found the little dishcloths like the one pictured above are perfect for this. They consist of only knits and purls and the patterns we use are very straight forward and simple. They're put out by Leisure Arts and provide quick and fun projects that are perfect for learning. The one most are using comes from Garden Dischcloths to Knit by Melissa Bergland Burnham. Some are stepping up to the mysteries of the yarn over, which produces a nice eyelet or hole in the cloth, by knitting patterns from Love to Knit Dishcloths by Evelyn A. Clark. They're simple and recommended for something quick to turn around or for something to learn on. The design above sports a Bee Skep, brought to shape by carefully placing your purls amongst your knits. Kind of cool really.
Oh .. and I see Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee has a new book out Free-range Knitter: The Yarn Harlot Writes Again. If you want to read some genuinely funny stuff, check out something - anything - written by Stephanie. She's also quite the blogger: http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/
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