Knit 1 purl 1... knit 2 purl 2

Before I got sick I'd gotten restless doing endless knit stitch on my purse so I figured out how to purl, and began a new row with knit 1, purl 1. After two rows of that (which I guess is a rib for two rows, LOL), I decided to knit into the purls and purl into the knits, which turns out to be seed stitch a/k/a moss stitch. I like it. I did a lot of frogging to fix mistakes during "Patton," 'cause I'd never seen the movie before and it kept me watching!

Last night I sat down for the Oscars and did a few more rows; then I switched to making blocks of four stitches: k2p2 for two rows, matching up, then p2k2 for two rows, matching up. I guess that's the checkerboard stitch. I like it, too.



I also had a suspicion that I was wrapping my purl stitches wrong, so I looked it up on the Web. Yep, had to fix that. I was practicing the correct wrap in the last few rows of seed stitch, and on from there. I'm teaching myself continental knitting because I like holding the yarn in my left hand for some reason. No, I'm not left handed. Hmm.

By the middle of the Oscars I was sort of discovering a needle "dance" as I knit and purled along -- catching the yarn with my needle, bringing it through, at the right time moving the yarn across to purl (or knit), etc. Very cool.

I think the purse is long enough to finish the second top with the handle. The garter stitch (all knit stitch) on the first side seems much stretchier; we'll see how this all turns out, but it's been fun to make the purse into my own little sampler as I learn the basic stitches!