Taking a Leap

I've been knitting for well over a year or two now but until recently was doing either nothingness or scarves. Within the past couple months, maybe six months, I've become more 'adventurous' in my knitting. Part of it is probably because I have had alot of spare time on my hands and along with that came a kind knitter soul who helped me along. I started by being more creative with my scarves, using real patterns with intricite details. Then I learned a new trick - cables. I made a purse! I got some cicular needles and make a blanket! I got double point needles, learned how to knit in the round, made a couple hats... and then some socks.

Now, I'm ready to take a big leap... I've really enjoyed knitting in the round, I like double points the most. My knitter friend said she was making a hooded lightweight sweater for the summer. I thought, that sounds good, but no way I'm committing to a whole sweater! Maybe a tank top would be nice? I started browsing patterns on my favorite sites. I got some good ideas of what I liked and what I would need and headed to the local yarn shop here in California.

Based on the pattern I found to start with I was to cast on 188 stitches but my gauge was an inch off of theirs because I didn't want to buy more needles. So I added one stitch for every 5 stitches and cast on 226. I have a set of four dpns in 7 and a circ. I started just using the dpns but that wasn't working well so I put 113 stitches on the circs and then 37, 38, 38 per. That has been going pretty good. Two circs would probably be ideal, or maybe just a shorter circ... but anyway...

I've been knitting for about three days now, a couple hours a night and the above is the fruit of that labor. I'm doing a basic pattern - R1 k; R2 k1, p1 - and repeat until you get to the armpits. I don't think I'm going to keep with the pattern beyond that. I found another pattern that had a nice front section with drop stitches that I might want to incorporate and I might want to put a little sleeve on it instead of having it be a tank top.

I'll keep you updated on my progress and post pics whenever I get around to them...