Kaiti and I have a lot in common

Kaiti and I are learning about knitting together! I thought I was finished with my son’s soccer “flag” (the technical term for the long scarf with your team’s name on it which you wave frantically while screaming at the top of your lungs at a soccer match). However, when I tried blocking it, the edges persisted in curling inward.

Somewhere in the back of my mind when I started knitting it in stockinette stitch (one row knitting, next row purling), I remember a little warning light going on but it was kind of dim and got lost in my floodlit enthusiasm for the design part of the project. I’m sure the seasoned knitters on this blog know that straight stockinette stitch always curls at the edges and I think I once knew it too.

In desperation, I went to my favorite knitting store and asked their advice. Guess what I’m doing now? Picking up stitches along both sides of a nearly six foot long scarf and knitting a border onto it to kill the curl. (You can see the beginnings of the long and tedious process on circular needles in the photo. Thanks to Jean for explaining in terms I could understand how to get pix on the blog!)

Tell Kaiti that knitting teaches many lessons, not the least of which is the necessity for patience and perserverance. And as we all know, those two qualities are also a requirement for dealing with the publishing biz, another reason knitting and writing seem to go together.