Knitting Progress

I have spent a lot of time knitting the past couple of weeks or so. I guess I'm not the quickest learner. But I think I'm starting to make great progress!

Here is my practice-and-get-the-hang-of-it swatch. It's about the size of a very large dishrag. As you can see, I've circled the main problem areas. The tiny hole at the bottom happened when I "skipped" a stitch on one of the rows, and didn't realize it. You can also see where I began to knit more loosely, as the swatch became quite a bit wider.  I was knitting very tightly and then read that looser is better, so I loosened up without realized the consequences. "Tension" is an important part of knitting, and I'm still trying to get the hang of it. 

My sweet daughter thinks this swatch is the most beautiful thing and uses it with her stuffed animals. Gotta love her! But it was good practice for "casting on", "knit stitch" and "finishing" a project. 

And I think I'm doing MUCH better now!  Here is a scarf I'm working on for my daughter. I love the colorful yarn. It's totally her personality. I wanted to do more than one color without having to learn the art of switching out yarns, so I went with the multicolor. lol.  For this I am doing a combination of "knit" and "purl" stitches. Purling is just a backwards "knit" stitch, and when you do 1 knit, 1 purl over and over down each row, it gives it this "ribbed" look. I really like it.

I'm making a lot of progress, as I knit every night while I watch the Olympics or whatever. and now it's about 3 or 4 times as long as in the picture.  Still a long way to go, but I'm loving it! I would like to know why my end is curling up the sides a little. Maybe I'm doing the end stitches too tight? Anyone?