I learned a lot in the process of knitting this domino knit potholder and I thank my husband for his encouragement to make use of the opportunity to exercise perseverance after so many false starts because of silly errors that I was tempted to quit. By the end, when I had bound off the last stitch and about to take that final sigh of relief at seeing the end of those picots only to realize at that exact moment that I had so many that it looked all wrong and fixing it meant unraveling all that arduous work, I frogged it without tears or frustration and knit it again. It was so much easier the second time, I might add. In fact, I suppose I have to admit that I benefited from all those false starts for the same reason - all that practice has given me a new level of confidence in my knitting overall. No longer am I afraid of dropping a stitch. The thought of knitting into a completed piece no longer intimidates me. Color changes? Just tell me where. On top of that I’m getting much better at the knit cast-on, binding off and weaving in yarn tails both while knitting and afterwards.
This isn’t just a potholder. It is a victory in personal growth.
I did finish off that skein for the bobble baby blanket and this is what I worked on tonight in preparation for my potholders.
As it turns out these squares really are easy and quick to knit. I learned so much from them too besides the basics of the domino knitting technique.
The new things I learned with just these little squares include:
- the knit cast-on - I struggled with making this too tight at first but by the second half of the cast-on for the second square I was getting the hang of it
- what it means to “slip 1 knitwise” (and, consequently, purlwise also)
- the “slip 1, knit 2 together, pass slip stitch over” double decrease
- that purling the last stitch on the end of a row creates the most convenient loops on an edge that has to be knitted into later
- striping! This was the first time I’ve worked with two different colors
I’m very happy about my squares and all that I learned particularly after such a bad day with the bobble blanket. I should probably sleep on my victory and I might just tackle my first potholder tomorrow .. or rather, later today.
Oh, and a side note, my circulars are perfect for these.
