Beginning

When my mom taught me to knit, she didn't teach me to cast on. I mean, she did eventually, but not at first. She said it was the hardest part of knitting, and I needed to have some confidence in the knit stitch before I tackled the cast on.

She was correct.

Mom and I use the longtail cast on, but we don't hold our hands like the rest of the planet. I don't know why this is, but the result is that any cast on that builds off of the longtail is tricky for me.

Enter provisional cast on.

I've done this cast on before. Every time I do it, it involves several Internet videos and lots of cursing. Last night, it also involved trying to get Andrew to help me (a nonknitter) and The Principles of Knitting book. I threw the knitting across the room, but only once.

I'm working on a pair of socks, and they're heavily patterned and moving slowly. (They're Inlays.) In a move that's very unlike me, I decided to cast on a second project that would be easier so I could switch between them depending on my mood.

Well, theoretically easier.

I do have hope that it will be smooth(ish) sailing now that the cast on is finished. 

My Favourite Things Infinity Scarf (mine ravelled here)

I'm really excited about this project. It should be fun, and it will let me use up some random sock yarn. I'm going to use three different grays--light, medium, and dark--for the background and whatever magpie yarn I want for the fair isle motifs. It's random, but not completely random. As we all know, completely random makes me twitchy.

The beginning is always the hardest.