It is real knitting!

Whenever I go into a yarn store I am usually greeted by the staff. They want to know what I'm working on. Then I pipe up with "I machine knit. My sister in law is the real knitter." I refer to my SIL as the real knitter, because she hand knits and makes really nice stuff like beautiful socks. BUT I do knit by hand... I just haven't taught myself to do anything other than scarves with very large knitting needles.... size 19. I tried making a scarf with size 10 needles and it's still in progress. I got so bored with it's slow progress. With size 19 needles I can usually have a really long scarf done in 4 hours.

Last summer though I was introduced to machine knitting. I knew that machine knitting existed, but I thought it was done only in factories. I had no idea that women had their own knitting machines at home. My crafty friend Julia took me to a Machine Knitting Guild meeting and I was intrigued. It looked complicated and the machines looked expensive. My 2nd thought was do I really need to start a new craft?! Then my crafty friend Julia said someone had donated a machine to the guild and she would give it to me. Well that solved one problem. Didn't have to spend money on a machine.

Julia taught me how to clean the machine and replace the sponge bar one afternoon and then the machine went home with me.

She had given me a lesson one afternoon on her machine. She taught me the e-wrap cast-on, how to do a picot edge, how to change yarn colors and how to latch hook cast-off. I did my first project.

I couldn't believe how fast this went. In 4 hours a novice knitted a baby sized blanket. That's when I started thinking it was cheating. But the more I use my machine and learn it's ins and outs the more I'm realizing that I am doing real knitting.