Whiteley Creek Homestead

O.K., so sometimes there are people who come into my life that just plain inspire me. Jenn, a guest from Canada who stayed at my bed and breakfast for three nights this past weekend, rose early each morning to work on her knitted sweater project in my railroad car tearoom while I prepared breakfast in my inn's kitchen. One morning she shared a sock she had completed. I fell in love with her colorful cable stitch sock and I knew instantly that I must learn to knit. I could scarcely make myself complete today's morning tasks before racing off to the yarn store.

When learning to knit, it seems that making a dishcloth is a right of passage to becoming a knitter. The shop's sales associate led me to some yarn that is appropriate weight for dishcloths, but since I chose a beginners pattern that has no stitch variation to provide interest… but an abundance of basic stitch practice, I wanted color variation. The past two days, there has been an end-of-summer feel in the air, so I chose hand-dyed yarn with predominantly golden autumn colors with a splash of sunny yellow and cosmos pink mixed in as a reminder that summer is still within our grasp. The yarn is a bit heavier weight than what would normally be used for a dishcloth, but no matter. It's the practice…  

It's easy to pull the end of yarn from the outside or center of a ball or skein of yarn, but a "hank" of yarn is twisted into a pretzel shape, and if you try to pull out a length of yarn it will get tangled. A hank must be rolled into a ball. After snipping the strings that hold the hank in its pretzel shape, the yarn can be held between someone's outstretched hands or it can be stretched over two chair backs, or… have the shop wind it for you by using two devices that simultaneously work together to wrap the yarn into a ball. The umbrella-like device that holds the hank is called a "yarn swift." One hand holds the yarn strand while the other hand cranks a device that neatly wraps the yarn into a ball. The amazing things I have learned already…

Jenn's sock and her contagious knitting passion… and these socks hanging in the shop's window are my reasons for wanting to learn to knit… and I shall.