RESOLUTIONS!, toe-up socks and continental

RESOLUTIONS:
Happy New Year!! (Almost Chinese new year that is!) I have this thing about people making resolutions because they usually break them within the first week or two. I have really tried not to make any (resolutions ) that I can't keep. So for that very reason, I have put off on posting my resolutions until I could be sure that I would be keeping them.
here they are:
1. EXERCISE ( lose at least 50 pounds) - hence the renewed knitting to keep my hands busy so I am not eating (12.5so far)
2. LEARN NEW KNITTING TECHNIQUES - hence doing cabling again and starting my new toe up socks
3. BE DILIGENT ABOUT BLOGGING- the reason I have been on here all week. This one took a little longer to put into place. Blogging is something that will come of my tech skills up and hopefully I will be able to find some applications to classrooms.

TOE-UP SOCKS:
Knitting today:
I grabbed a pattern from Knitty Summer 2006 called Widdershins. It is toe-up ...using Judy's Magic Cast On here. WOW - not the easiest thing I've ever done. I tried it 3 different times and finally figured out that I can do it if I don't keep the yarn in my hands or on my fingers. this reminds me of something David Reidy (Sticks & Strings) just recently said " If anyone tells you there is only one way to do that (KNITTING wise) , they are wrong!" Thank goodness or I would probably never be a knitter. which leads me into my third topic today:

CONTINENTAL:
I have always knit continental style, little did I know. I learned to knit from my mom, who sat across the room from me and she was a right handed crocheter. She really didn't have too much of an idea except that she had seen her grandmother do it 50 years previous. Watching to the best of my ability, it only seemed natural that I would put the yarn in my left hand.

I didn't really realize that I was "odd" until some time later, when another knitter saw me and commented that I was knitting backwards. I've also heard that I knit "WRONG" and that I was creating my stitches "Strangely". None of it made any sense to me, everything I created always looked right when I was finished with it. It wasn't until one woman who was SERIOUS knitter, told me that I knit GERMAN style, and that many people called it Continental style. At the same time she commented on how quickly I knit - (isn't that the truth).

Over the years, I have struggled through various techniques, various stitches and patterns trying to make them work for me but now I know, it doesn't matter - because I can make it work NO MATTER WHAT!!!