Goodies

I've had a voucher for my local craft shop Threads & More burning a hole in my pocket since November last year so I decided to redeem it today. And the redeeming of it meant that I'm now branching out into something entirely different - KNITTING!

I learnt to knit as a child and I could remember how to do plain in my head but that was it. Now I'm signed up for a two hour class next Saturday morning, I've got a bag full of wool in delicious colours (I can't think of a better adjective for them!), bamboo knitting needles and a pattern for a gorgeous blanket which is knitted and has a crocheted edge. I have never crocheted!

However part of the Mission statement for Threads & More is something about a "nurturing environment" for people to learn new things and I certainly experienced that today. I was helped with choosing my pattern then we chose some beautiful variegated wool and then matched it with plain colours. They laid it all out on the table for me so we could see how it would all go with the pattern and then a lovely lady started me off. She cast on even though I think I can do it still and knitted a couple of rows before I took over and did few more rows getting the edge right so that now I can continue on my own until next Saturday. She even showed me how to change colours even though I assured her I wouldn't possibly get that far! I'm very excited by it all - it feels different to cross stitch and a is a bit scary - because I don't have control over it yet.

From there I went to Mary Ryan's bookshop to spend $30 and bought a beautiful embroidery book because that is something else I want to delve into and it had the pattern for a bag that I have admired from afar back when I used to be able to go to craft on a Tuesday.

Should be interesting to see what dh says when I bring the knitting needles out.