Valentine Initial swap...

Today was much cooler and I felt a lot more energetic than I have been these last few days. So it was time to actually start work on this swap project instead of just thinking about it! lol

Last week I dropped into my LYS and picked up the cotton yarn that I had ordered online. I bought some lovely 'Sugar and cream' cotton yarn to make a heart shaped knitted wash cloth. I had bought the Susan B Anderson pattern a few years as a download, thinking it would come in handy sometime :-) .

The next photo shows progress after I 'frogged' the first few centimetres and then reknitted on a size larger needles. Starting with one stitch and increasing every second row soon saw the heart grow, up to the section where the top was shaped.

But when I came to the shaping of the top part of the heart, I was completely flummoxed by the instructions for the abbreviation 'ssk'. I knew that others had posted 'cries for help' on my knitting group's forum about this abbreviation but I almost 'turned myself inside out' trying to follow the explanation in this pattern...so I 'googled' it and found some You Tube videos. As soon as I saw the process demonstrated, I was right! So sometimes, I guess I'm a 'visual learner'. In the process I've learned another way of getting a decrease sloping to the left unlike the usual k2tog.

So tonight I finished the washer with a crocheted picot edge, but I still have to weave in the ends, as well as work out how I'm going to do the initial of the recipient. I've got a few ideas but it still might be a bit of trial and error to get it just right.

But it feels good to know that it's closer to being ready to post off.;