There and Back

The Pattern:  There and Back by Anna Victoria
The Yarn: Wollmeise Twin (Fingering weight) / Color: Jeton
The Beads: Miyuki Round Seed Beads 6/0 Opaque Canary Yellow Picasso (MY-06-4512

The first thing I want everyone to understand – Knitting a piece like this is not like making a quilt. The only things you need to make this piece are:

1. The pattern – $6.50
2. The yarn – One skein of fingering weight yarn (383 – 459 yards). Could be anywhere from $10 to over $100. The Wollmeise Twin that I’m using feels really good. It isn’t real soft, which is good with the beads. They need a little “structure”. The Loopy Ewe even has some of the same yarn I’m using! $37
3. Needles – $10
4. Beads (optional) – $20

If you bought the same yarn and beads I bought, this project would cost about $75 unless you already have your needles and then it would be about $65. If you already have needles and use a less expensive yarn, and no beads, you could easily make this for about $30.

Another thing about knitting, that is unlike quilting . . with quilting we cut up all the fabric and then if we decide we don’t like the projects, we’re kinda out of luck. With knitting, you simply rip back, wrap it all back up and save it for another project.

If you have zero interest in knitting, I understand! But, if you halfway think you would like knitting, or you knit and think this project is too hard, please stop thinking like that and just try it.

This is the first pattern I’ve knitted by Anna Victoria and I’m very impressed. She has a list of how many stitches you should have after every row so any mistake should be easy to catch early. This pattern has a “flow” and it’s pretty easy to notice if you’ve made a mistake because things aren’t lining up.

Vince wasn’t supposed to come home for lunch today and I planned to knit like the wind all day. I piddled around half the morning, was chatting with Nicole when Vince called and said his plans had changed and he was coming home so I had to scurry to get lunch done and I still got the first two charts finished.

It will look way different once it’s blocked. I’m less than 1/4 of the way done . . probably less than 1/8 done and I’ll keep posting.

The beads are slowing me down a lot. I usually use the Super Floss method but it takes quite a bit longer than other methods and with over 800 beads to add, I need to do it as quickly as I can. I’m using the Fleegle Beader and it really speeds things up. Now that I’ve used it for a couple of hours, I’m liking it more and more.

Hopefully I can get in some more knitting time tonight.