Part #1: There's a First for EVERYTHING!

Hey guys! I went shopping on Friday (9/14/12) and was extremely excited! As seen in the picture below, I picked up my first pair of (blue) 6 mm knitting needles, my (blue) 3.5 mm crochet hook, and my aruba sea and gold worsted yarn. The yarn colors doesn't have any significance except that I just loved the colors. Anyway, in this post I am going to talk about the shopping experience I had and the new information I learned about the items I purchased.

These items were the very first supplies I selected because as a member of the knitting community Knitting Daily, one of the gifts for signing up was an eBook titled "How to Knit for Beginners." The eBook outlined the basic suplies needed to get started which included yarn, needles (that correlate with the size yarn), measuring tape (which I did not buy), the crochet hook for correcting any mistakes, pen and paper for documenting progress, and a bag to hold the supplies.

Walking into the store to retrieve these items, my thoughts were to get some yarn, a pair of knitting needles, the crochet hook and be on my merry way. That idea was VERY wrong! I had no idea there was a correlation between the yarn and the needle size until after I REALLY took a look at the "How to Knit for Beginners" eBook. I slid by this time because surprisingly, the needles that I chose were almost the correct size for the yarn I picked up. The key concept here is that reading is very fundamental.

From my first experience at the store, I realized that paying attention to the labels on the yarn, on the knitting needles, anything I am buying for that matter is imperative when starting a knitting project. The loads of information on the labels are very important when it comes down to it. In the picture collage to the above right, the top picture shows the label that was on the yarn, the picture below shows the label that was on the knitting needles and the third strip shows the label located on the crochet hook. In the top strip, the symbol of the yarn with the 4 on it refers to the yarn weight, medium, and the category, 4, that it is found in. The "How to Knit for Beginners" eBook actually has a chart that breaks down what is recommended for each category of yarn, such as what can be made and the size needle that should be used. In the same top strip, the symbol in the middle indicates the knitting information such as the size needle that should be used, 5 mm (US 8), the number of stitches, 17 and rows, 23, to make a 4x4 in square or a 10x10 cm square. And the third box in the top strip is the crocheting information which I am not going to go into detail about because our focus is knitting. The middle strip shows the measurements for the knitting needles I bought which is 6 mm or US 10, the size range that the United States go by, and 14 inches in length. Now, for the last strip shows the size of the crochet hook which is 3.5 mm or the US standard E. Again, I am not too focused on the crochet hook at this point in my journey.

As you can tell, I am learning so much already about knitting just from my very first experience and there is so much more to be learned. This is ONLY the beginning and in part two of this post, I will be telling you about my first slipknot, my first few cast ons, and my first few rows of knit stitches! I cannot wait to give you the details of that rollercoaster ride. Stay tuned and stay encouraged! 

[Until we meet again]