Learning to Knit

In the Sticks and Strings Podcast David talked about how he learned to knit, so I figured I'd add my story to here, even though it's not to interesting.

When I was about 8 my grandma tried to teach my how to crochet, I made a Barbie skirt and promptly forgot, age 11/12 brought me to plastic canvas, then at 13/14 I learned cross-stitch, and tried to relearn crochet to no avail. At 18 I wanted to learn to sew, so at age 22(2002) my mother bought me a very nice sewing machine of my own.

In 2003/2004 I started a new job, and met a girl there I got along great with, instant best friend, we shared a lot in common. She knew how to knit, I remember in elementary school watching my then-best friend's mother knit and thinking it weird.*hey I grew up with crochet* She showed me her stitch n bitch books and I was hooked, She then showed me the basic knit and purl stitch, and I bought the SnB books and the Visually Teach yourself to Knit and Crochet book. It took me about a month to figure it out. She only showed me once, and from then on it was me and the books. Once I switched to a different yarn, BAMN I got it. I also taught myself to purl without hearing all the "it's hard" talk, so consequently I have no problem purling and find it as easy as the knit stitch. I started to make a scarf, then life hit and I put away the half finished scarf and forgot about it.

Then the happy hooker book came out, I bought it right away. Because Crochet is a family craft I really wanted to learn it. Also my mother inherited all my grandmothers patterns, and since no one in our family crochets and I'm the crafty one, I will inherit these patterns as well, so It would be nice to use them. So using that book, with minor help from my mother. *she is not a teacher and refused to teach me, but would help if i had a question* I was a little sad I was at my parents house because I had no access to my crochet needles *from when I was about 13* My mother disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a bag for me. She gave me a complete set of needles, all my grandmothers. That meant a lot to me, They were her mothers and the only grandparent I was close to.

My grandfather died 13 years before I was born, and I never was close to my dads parents, his father died when I was 11, and his mother still is alive but like I said, I'm not close to her and with her having 25+ grandkids and 10+ great grandkids, she doesn't know much about me either, those being the parents that raised my dad, his birth father died when he was 8, and the kids taken away from the mother when he was 10, her dying about a year or two after my parents were married, so about 13 years before I was born.

So with these special needles I learned to Crochet. That night when I got home, I drug out my knitting. I loved crochet, but it wasn't the same. So as I sat down and remembered how to knit, I was looking on iTunes for a podcast my brother told me about, on a whim I typed in Knitting.

WOW. There was a knitting podcast, how cool, so I downloaded a couple. I fell in love with Lime & Violet and Cast-on, then on to It's a Purl Man, and Sticks and Stings, and The Knitting Cook... and so on and so on. I can honestly say if It weren't for Lime & Violet, I would not be as hooked as I am. They also gave me the courage to try something other then scarves. Even though I've known how to knit for a couple years, I haven't been serious about it for that long.

Also as an after story I'm no longer friends with that girl who taught me, It's a long drawn out story to reminiscent of stupid high school politics that I really don't want to be a part of, I'm 26 damnit, not 16. I still have to work with her, we play nice and pretend to be friends, but I only see her about once a month. I do thank her for first showing me how to knit and teaching me. I also thank her for showing me what I don't want to be.

And that's how I learned, in probably more detail then any of you wanted to know.