skills a scholar and a gentleman should have

[rushthatspeaks]

Irrelevant to rest of post: three days till the movers, five till Thrud and weirdquark go. It's gonna be a very strange year.

Real post topic: It appears that Thrud has been successful in teaching me to knit. No casualties as of yet.

(Still not tempting Fate by attempting to crochet or anything, though. Those scars, literal and figurative, have not faded.)

At any rate, Thrud has taught me to knit and to purl, which is what she knows how to do. I have taught myself via the internet a reasonable method of casting on, k2tog and p2tog, and think I can do a yarn over unless I have the concept wrong, which is possible. I get slip stitch wrong, which seems as though it should not be possible, and yet.

So this is the post where I would like people to recommend me knitting books, and suggest things that one can knit that are not violently stupid and will teach one skills. My eventual goals are in the directions of lace, cabling, and intarsia, because I am fond of needless complexity. I am also hoping to learn to make things I can wear and/or give away without causing wincing, blushing, or dread in anyone involved, and I must say many of the knitting pattern books at the local bookstore, well, do not share my aesthetics. I mean, I want to learn intarsia so I can knit the futhark into a pair of fingerless gloves, you know?

All suggestions welcome.