 |
| From Knitting, etc. |
Now that I'm reflecting on things, it's almost funny that I still think of myself as a brand-new knitter... but one of the major aspects that I love about this craft is how much I still have to learn. It's sort of difficult for me to remember exactly how I began knitting - there was no inciting incident for me. Without sounding too hokey, I almost feel like I was meant to become a knitter, especially considering my favorite childhood memories.
When I was in elementary school, my neighbor Miss Vicky taught me basic crochet stitches. She gave me a beautiful granny square, in which I hand stitched a lining and turned into a crochet hook case. My mom would let me go to the craft store to get yarn and pattern books, but I don't think I ever completed one. I made little potholders for my mom when I wasn't working on rug hook kits, a lap loom, or making jewelry. Let's just say I was always a crafty kid.
But middle school came around and I quit crochet. I unfortunately don't remember much of it and haven't done it since. But my recollections of crochet in college had me thinking about starting to knit. I didn't know anyone who was an avid knitter, so I just went online looking for directions and tutorials. Being a lefty, I tried and tried to learn left-handed knitting on my own... and failed miserably!
On a whim, I decided to check out the right-handed knitting tutorials. And I got it. I made one lumpy square out of brown acrylic and finally figured out stockinette before I started work on a rugby striped scarf with that same brown and a steel blue that I gave to my boyfriend at the time for a birthday gift. The thing was pretty decent, but a little sad and misshapen, and I ill-advisedly allowed my mom to iron the thing on cool to flatten it out, since no one had informed me on the concept of wet-blocking yet. Nonetheless, he was so full of praise for me, as was my family, which really encouraged me to continue knitting away.
Even though I took a knitting hiatus for a bit - knitting just didn't seem like a summertime hobby in my mind - I still would read blogs and patterns constantly, and after getting a little involved in the knitting community, I never looked back. If you're not participating in KnitCroBloWeek, what got you interested in knitting or crochet?
To read other posts by knitters and crocheters participating in 'blog week', just google search for 'knitcroblo1' for day 1, 'knitcroblo2' for day 2, etc.
6 comments:
Lovely post! I feel like I was destined to be a knitter too-there have always been some sort of crafts present throughout my life, so it was only natural that I eventually turned to knitting.
I totally feel you about feeling like a new knitter even after quite a while knitting...
And about not knowing about wet blocking and letting your mom iron something. Oh, melted acrylic.
I love reading these posts! I learned to knit from my friends grandma who lived in the house behind me. Us neighbor girls would run to her house and she would teach us, fix mistakes, never finished anything but always loved to work with my hands. I picked it up again when I had kids - haven't stopped.
I was a crocheter first, too! Years ago, I would crochet round and round and round, and then it would be a hat. Then I dropped that for a while, eventually found knitting and fell in love.
Until I found knitting I felt like I had no crafty side none of the other things I tried really made me want to keep going back over & over. Now I feel like I was meant to be a knitter.
you know, when i first wanted to learn to knit (i think i had completed college already and was maybe in between college and grad school) i went to the library and stumbled upon a couple of old school books titled 'left-handed knitting' and left-handed crochet! they didn't work for me though-being the audio-visual learner that i am! eventually when i moved to la, my roommate's sister tried to teach me and a coworker but the one who succeeded was an online friend who did mirror imaging with me. :)
Post a Comment