I've been feeling crafty lately, and since we are in the holiday season this is really great timing. Apparently, there is this really easy craft that all the cool Portland people are doing; you finger knit a scarf/garland/necklace. All you need is some yarn and your fingers! Easy peasy, and perfect for me to make for the Christmas party we're hosting on Tuesday.
This adventure starts at the Dollar Tree. Classy, I know. The boys were looking at gloriously hideous presents to buy, and I snuck off to find yarn. Because if there is one thing I've learned about myself it is that spending the big bucks for craft material is wholly unnecessary and usually wasteful. Yarn from the Dollar Tree it is. I bought one package of rad (the boys informed me that no one says this anymore) green yarn and another package of red- turns out the red is actually called something dumb like "country dust storm rose". But, it's red enough for me.
Once home I fed the children and the husband, puttered around the house, and got to crafting.
First stop, pictorial tutorial on a blog. "Finger knitting is so easy and fun! You can even teach your kids to do it if they are bored or not paying attention!" Good sign. I stared at the pictures until my eyes bled, and it still did not work.
Next stop, youtube. "My piano teacher taught me to finger knit when I was 5!" Great! Thirty minutes and much swearing (don't worry, I was quiet so the boys couldn't hear) later, I had made no progress past starting and pulling all the loopy-loops out.
Ugh. Please make it stop. Just then, my lovely sister chatted me from Japan with some encouraging words, but only after she laughed at me for a while after I told her what I was up to. This is a picture of me and my sister- in this shot I am helping her with something she isn't thrilled about. See? We help each other out.
Take three. I found this nice video, which was made by a 9 year old or something. David and I are practically BFF's after tonight. I watched, paused, played his video about 10 times in the making of my garland. And it worked, kind of. It wasn't David's fault though.
The first six inches of my garland look completely, and I mean entirely, different than the last three feet of it. Whatever. Here's my "whatever" face, mid eye roll.
I showed the finished product to Josh, and he got this panicked look on his face then quickly recovered and told me it looked nice. He's the best.
