As a gift for Christmas this year, I received a subscription to Annie’s Kit Club for their Meadow Lane Sampler Afghan. Each month, they send me the yarn and pattern instructions to create three different blocks that will be used to construct an afghan. The subscription also includes videos that help to clarify the stitch patterns and provide tips for general and specific construction.
I’d learned the basic knit and purl stitches prior to this kit. I even reviewed that knowledge prior to the kit arriving by working on a simple scarf. It brought back memories of my two main teachers: my mother-in-law and my friend Kaileen. The latter of which who’s so talented she has her own business with Shanahan Fibers. I’ve spent more than 15 years watching my mother-in-law knitting various projects for various events, recipients, or seasons. She took time to show me the basics, but I have to admit that Kaileen was the teacher who made it stick.
Kaileen showed me the combination of knitting and purling on a road trip to her sister’s wedding. It was roughly a four-hour drive one way. We were in the middle of a minivan. She was working on a project. I was next to her slowly working on a small purple swatch that had an unknown purpose. She was a very patient teacher who truly encourage my attempt at a new skill. I’ll admit that nothing ever came of that swatch. Between “dropping a stitch” and not knowing how to cast off, I decided to leave this hobby to those with a bit more talent than me.
Over the past 5 years, I’ve picked up the needles from time to time. I can confidently knit a scarf and correct some of those common errors like adding or dropping a stitch. The advertising for Annie’s Kits finally persuaded me to try either a crochet or knit kit, and my in-laws gifted the Meadow Lane Afghan block-of-the-month kit for Christmas.
I was surprised that my first kit didn’t come with any of the tools that were recommended. In my experience, and past reviews, when you subscribe to a new kit, they usually send tools as part of the first month. In this case, I expected to see the knitting needles, stitch markers, and a darning needle. I received yarn and the pattern guide.
The first and second blocks were simple enough. I think the most enjoyable discovery was learning the different names for the stitch patterns. Like when you knit a row back and forth, that’s a garter stitch. When you knit a row and then purl a row (and alternate back-and forth), that’s a stockinette stitch.
There was additional nostalgia and reverence in this process as it made me think about all the hand-made gifts I’ve been given. Even the vanilla colored yarn of this first month drew my attention to the blanket that my aunt Sharon had made and given as a wedding gift. I know that she made another for my sister as well. I believe she made blankets for many family members. Hours of her time, energy, patience, and love going into these projects. But I digress.
So, blocks 1 and 2 are finished and I’m feeling pretty good about myself. That third block, however, gave me a run for my money and made me question my future with this afghan. No lie, I spent four hours just trying to get to the third row. I started by watching the video instructions. “Oh, this is simple enough.” In my attempt, however, what appeared on my needled looked like a knotted mess. My husband could see the frustration building and offered his help. He was no help. “I can’t even tell what a stitch is? Is this the stitch or is this the stitch?! Let alone if it’s a knit or a purl stitch!” He backed away quickly and left me to my troubleshooting. I frogged my work – Frog is a term used to describe the process of tearing apart your work. Think along the sounds of someone muttering “rip it, rip it” as they pull the yarn out of their project—no less than 8 times. I casted on a brand new first row over and over again to have a clean start. Finally, I went back to the video guide.
I found my issue. Well, actually, there were two of them. One: I was double wrapping my yarn. This reveal was almost comforting because I knew where it stemmed from. My favorite scarf knit pattern calls for making a double-wide knit loop, and I think I was just on autopilot as I was stitching. Two: I didn’t move my working yarn. Working yarn is the yarn attached to the ball of yarn (opposed to the tail that just hangs off your initial cast-on row). By watching the video again with the determined intensity of someone who had spent FOUR HOURS trying to get this started, I was able to see and hear the instruction of moving that working yarn forward and/or backward between the knit and the purl stitches.
(Skip this paragraph if you don’t know the difference between knitting and purling – because this will NOT help you understand.) When you create a knit stitch, the working yarn needs to be behind the needle where the stitch is created, and then you pull the new loop forward through the original stitch and off onto the right-hand needle. When you purl, the working yarn is in front of the project, the needle slides in front of the left-hand needle, you wrap the yarn and pull it through to the right-hand needle. I wasn’t paying attention to where my working yarn was placed when I was making my stitches. So that was day one. After about 5 hours of working on the project I had five rows completed and I put Block 3 down for a couple of days.
Over the course of two weeks, I would pick up the project again and knit a few rows. I did frog the entire block again about three more times. My pattern just didn’t look how it was supposed to. In the last five days, I finally got it down. Revelations came in bits and pieces. I finally started using stitch markers. One marker never moved. It was a placeholder for myself that if I were to rip out my work, that row was where I would go back to and restart. There was a day that I knitted a solid eight rows, reviewed my work, and found an error in the block about 10 rows back. That one I reached out to a fellow knitting friend to confirm if I really cared or not. Was it worth ripping out all that work? The answer – yes. So, rip rip rip goes the yarn. Returning to the eye squinting and finger pinching stitches, masterfully rethreading the needle through the open loops, and trying not to drop or pick up anything extra.
Don’t be fooled, I am no stranger to imperfection. Both blocks 1 and 2 have missed stitches or weird bumps where a mistake was made, but I found that it gave my work character. This is a new experience, after all. Even today, as I celebrate the completion of block 3, there are two or three rows of errors that are just going to live there and remind me of this time. I joked with the husband that I should do a row incorrectly on purpose, as my other errors were roughly spaced at the first and second third of the block I was knitting. If I added a third ‘off’ row, it might look intentional.
So, at the end of my first month, what are my thoughts? Pay attention to the videos. They’re there for a reason. However, I do wish they had a small separate clip of how to cast on and how to cast off. It’s included in the first video, but it’d be nice if it was its own, since that process is repeated for each and every block of the afghan. Knowing that learning a new stitch pattern could take me weeks to master, I’m not going to waste any time getting started on next month’s kit.
