What I've learned & what I haven't learned

Knitting back backwards.

Knitting back backwards enables you to not have to turn your work in order to purl back. This technique is very useful when knitting short rows, doing entrelac, knitting something narrow that requires constant turning or knitting something massive and huge that you don't want to have to turn and readjust at the end of the row. Therefore - this would be very handy when you are knitting a Log Cabin Blanket!

Actually, I am practicing the technique on the Log Cabin Blanket because I want to get started knitting Lizard Ridge from the latest Knitty - yep, another blanket. It's a sickness. Also, I have tons of Kureyon and Silk Garden in the stash (remember the all Noro shelf?) - that's right! I'm going to use stash yarn!!

Knitty has an excellent tutorial on Knitting Back Backwards so I am not even going to attempt to explain it, I'll just say it's really easy to learn. However, I think it would take me awhile to master because I found that it really altered my tension, making it quite a bit tighter. So I went back to knitting the usual way since I didn't want such a huge change in tension halfway through knitting my Log Cabin. Maybe it won't have so much effect when I try it for short rows rather than an entire, massive row.

So that's what I learned. Here's what I didn't learn:

Swatching. When oh when will I learn my lesson with swatching? The sad answer is probably never. I'm stubborn and lazy I guess.

I took a break from knitting the Log Cabin and started the baby blanket I'm designing. It has a simple lace pattern and so far has been very fun to knit. Except for the fact that I had to frog and cast on for it a total of three times before I got it right. Once because of gauge issues (should have swatched) and once because I miscounted the cast on stitches (shouldn't have been trying to watch tv at the same time. But I think I have it now and it's zipping right along. I need some more yarn so I will probably knit up to the end of the skein I have and then go back to the Log Cabin while I wait for the other skeins to come. Maybe I'll get lucky and the yarn will arrive quickly!

Hope everyone else is enjoying the cooler weather bringing thoughts lovely wooly winter knitting!