I'm Knitting - well at least I'm LEARNING to Knit...

I learned to knit about 20 years ago.  I made ONE vest.  It had buttons, cables, the works.  It even looked and fit pretty well.  I learned at a class at the (no longer in existence) Yarn Shop in College Park, Maryland where I held my first job as a teenager.  Then, I went out on my own and promptly forgot everything I knew about knitting.  In those years I've looked longingly at knitting projects but felt too inept to get going again.

Then, this spring, I decided to take a knitting class at our local adult school.  It's great!  The very first class the teacher, Fayne - who has been knitting for 60 years - cast on some stitches for me so I could get right to the knit stitch.  I chose an easy project for my first knitting venture.

In the past 2 weeks I have learned to cast on two ways, to knit, to purl and to bind off.  I've also learned stockinette stitch, rib stitch, garter stitch, seed stitch and moss stitch.  I chose a Lion Brand afghan pattern.

I'm using Inspiration yarn that I got at Michael's.  It's a worsted weight acrylic yarn.  I didn't want to feel guilty about not knitting well with really good and expensive yarn so I went with something inexpensive and basic.  I've chosen to use three colors in my afghan as the pattern calls for.  The pattern also calls for doing squares in 3 different patterns.  One patter per color.  I've decided to use 6 different patterns, 2 patterns per color of yarn.  I've divided the square chart to reflect that.

I have decided to use my turquoise color yarn to do garter stitch for 10 blocks and another stitch for 7 blocks - I haven't chosen that yet.  I'm using the bright sienna color for seed stitch and another undetermined stitch and the grey yarn will be done in both moss stitch and rib stitch.  So far, I've made mistakes in every square.  Ah well, I've decided to use the less than perfect blocks so that this afghan will show my knitting progress as I hopefully improve.  Here is the stitch plan.



I am open to suggestions for the other two stitch patterns.  The pattern needs to make a 9 inch block, the cast on needs to be between 32 and 37 stitches and I'd like a pattern that looks the same on both sides.

Here are some of my very less than perfect blocks and stitches.  I'll post improvements and additional blocks and patterns as I go.

Got any good knitting tips for beginners?  I'm taking all expert advice!