Katia - is it cheating?

For those not familiar with Katia  these are the balls of wool that come with a pattern - most popular are the patterns where its one ball of wool per scarf.

I have done a couple of these scarves - the most recent of which was a christmas present from my mother-in-law.

 

 

The idea is that through some simple garter stitch you get a fantastic effect through the wool. The silver scarf on the left was only five stitches. The pattern went as follows; "cast on 5 stitches. work 6 rows in Garter st working 1 stitch in each hole. Continue working 1 stitch in every 2 holes until skein runs out and blind off". Certainly not the most complicated of instructions.

 

You don't have to cast on as such, as the wool provides its own "holes". As you can see - great result with very little effort. But is it honest knitting?

 

Both of these took less than an afternoon to knit. They were a nice easy project to complete and you end up with something quite useful at the end. But it is the wool, not my knitting, that is the magician here. It is the ready-meal of the yarn world.

 

So what's better - blending ingredients to produce a home-made sauce or buying  a jar from Tesco? With other projects I feel like I've learnt something along the way - the cabling on my hand warmers, the bobble effect on the daleks, following a graph pattern with the TARDIS, or simple sheer perseverance and stamina with the mice. You feel that you have achieved something or have mastered a skill on the successful completion of your project. This all feels a bit easy to me.

 

Maybe it is cheating but maybe it acts as a good introduction to the wider world of knitting.