Knitting with a hook!

I've always wanted to knit, and I've managed to teach myself the basics but I'm a very anxious knitter -- I'm afraid of dropping stitches or having the needle fall out... plus, I'm horribly slow at knitting. After a lifetime of crocheting, a crochet hook feels natural to me while knitting needles feel foreign and clumsy. I probably need to knit exclusively for at least 3 months to build a solid base of familiarity, and maybe one day I will, but for now I decided to try the Knook.

The Knook is a specialized crochet hook that is used with a cord to hold the stitches -- the combination enables you to create actual knitted fabric. After a couple of frustrating false starts (I was trying to crochet the stitches, rather than use the Knook as a new tool!) I finally discovered some Knook videos on YouTube and figured out what I was doing wrong. I'm still slow and clumsy, but I'm faster with the Knook that I am with needles and while the cord annoys me, I like that I can easily undo stitches to fix mistakes. I even started and finished a project in one afternoon -- a simple dishcloth, but hey, it's knitted!

And it really looks like knitting:

I have to work on my tension and I need to build up speed, but I'm really excited about combining knit and crochet in the same project -- and now it seems do-able!