Below is a video I made to show the store to my daughters (who were already knitting). I was in fiber heaven…

Isadora Popper is one of the coolest shops I have ever been in…art and gifts and cards and kitchen stuff, hand-made truffles, and ice cream…it truly is a bit of everything. But the yarn! The yarn!

I decided to make this poncho as my first project. I know. Ambitious, right? Probably not smart, but I couldn’t help myself. It is so beautiful! You can buy the pattern on Ravelry.

When we got back to the cabin, Karen showed me how to cast on and get started. She patiently fixed hundreds of my mistakes that first weekend and showed me how to use YouTube to find help. I didn’t bother with YouTube until I went home, and then it was invaluable because she wasn’t around to bail me out of knitting jail!

So, I learned how to knit and purl. And how to count stitches and drop stitches (by accident) and mark stitches. How to yarn over  and make holes (by accident), how to tink back (that’s knit backwards to pull out mistakes), how to rip out (I ripped out more than I knit…in fact, I knit an entire panel on this poncho and ripped it all out once I realized how to stop yarning over by accident).

I knit and knit and ripped out and knit and ripped out some more. It’s a journey!

I went back to Isadora Popper the next month and talked to Dana and other several other knitters who were there, and they were all so encouraging. One lady said, “Honey, I’ve ripped out more than I’ve knit. It’s nothing to be ashamed of!” I told Dana I wanted to start using a lifeline so when I ripped back it was easier to pick it all back up onto the needle…that helped.

So, I kept knitting. And ripping out. I was proud. And every time I talked to Karen, she was too. And maybe a little surprised that I was (am!) still knitting…

It was the next time we got together and went back to Isadora Popper when Karen told me (in front of Dana who agreed with her) that I needed to work on smaller projects at the same time as I was working on my big project.

And that’s when it happened.

I walked out with a big bag of yarn, including this gorgeous yarn for a Sophie scarf. (Karen bought some too, and we Sophie’d together.)

Dana encouraged me to not buy some of the things I had in my pile because I didn’t have a project in mind. She said, “You don’t want to wind up like the rest of us with a closet full of yarn we don’t have plans for…” I relented and put a few things back. Except for one gorgeous single skein of yarn with hues of orange and purple. I had to have it. I would find a project for it. (And I did.)

By now, I wasn’t hopeless…Karen and I sat and knit together without me getting into any real trouble…at least knitting trouble. We made our Sophies. Oh, how I love this pattern and how I love this scarf! I love that it is cool enough now to wear it!

Sophie taught me how to make an icord edge, and how to add stitches and subtract stitches to create a tapered edge. Somewhere in there, I went to Michael’s for something and walked out with more yarn. Nothing like Dana’s, but I was interested in experimenting with different types of yarn.

I started a second Sophie scarf on the way to Indiana to see my brother, Richard and sister-in-law, Katie. I had picked up a garnet-colored wool-acrylic blend at Michaels and paired it with the same gray mohair. I was going for a Carolina Gamecocks look because I was making it for my husband, Michael. But once I got about halfway through it, he admitted he wasn’t crazy about the tapered look. At which point, Rich piped up and said, “Well, I like it…” And suddenly, Rich had a scarf!

Then I started another one with a squishy blue acrylic and bigger needles. I got almost finished with it, decided it was ridiculous, and ripped it out. It was the wrong yarn for that pattern. (And besides, there was a hole right in the middle of it that I couldn’t fix.)

So that scarf got turned back into a ball of yarn and reborn as (Ta DA!) this ribbed scarf. I figured it was perfect for a grandkid, namely, Martin, who loves Mario. So I put the leftover garnet on the ends as fringe and he will love it for Christmas.

And then I went looking for a pattern to use a single skein of yarn and found this for free on….

This was my first experience knitting in the round, which sent me to YouTube to learn how to get started. Once I did, it was so easy. You cast on 81 or 83 or 93 stitches (an odd number to get the size you want) and then proceed to knit four and purl four until you get the width you want. Then you bind off. Because you are knitting an even number of stitches on an odd number, this creates a one-stitch offset as you work that makes this cool pattern.

I have made three of these. So far.

And then I went back to Isadora Popper and bought more yarn…

About the Patterns

My first two projects (the Discovery poncho and the Sophie scarves were from patterns I found on Ravelry, a great site for finding and purchasing patterns, and supporting the creators of those patterns. You can set up an account there to keep track of all of the stuff you like and might want to make as well as to keep track of your purchased patterns.

The ribbed scarf pattern came from PurlSoho.com, another great site for patterns and yarn. This pattern was free (and very easy)!

The Squishy Soft Cowl pattern was also a freebie and also from Ravelry.  This is so easy and knits up so fast.

One word of caution about knitting in the round though. When you buy your circular needles, get the length recommended by the pattern. I went to Michael’s for my needles and bought what they had in stock, which was too long. It made knitting much harder. So, let my mistake teach you to follow directions!