I had always wanted to learn knitting in the casual way I thought learning archery might be fun. I still haven’t learned archery. Knitting always looked difficult and intimidating. I was really scared to ever learn.
When I moved to a new place, my new commute route took me past a yarn shop. All that colorful yarn in the window looked more delicious than candy. That was it! It was finally time to learn. The class was two Saturdays in a row.
The first week I took to knitting like breathing! I was completely in love! The day after the first class I went with a couple of friends to Lapham Peak State Park to hike around. We decided to sit in the pine woods and I had my scarf I was knitting and I sat there happily knitting as we chatted.
That first week before the second class I could hardly put the needles down, but then the night before the second class tragedy struck! When I was heading into the grocery store, I tripped and fell over nothing. Just like me to have something goofy like that happen. I did my grocery shopping, but I could tell not all was right with the world. I went to urgent care and sure enough I fractured my wrist. I had to have this big cast on my arm that covered my hand but not the fingers and went all the way up my upper arms. I wasn’t going to be able to knit for 6 weeks. I just about died. It also meant missing the second week of knitting class. In hind sight I should have gone and watched, but that didn’t matter. When the cast went off I binge watched videos on knittinghelp.com. It is still out there with excellent videos.
Shortly after I found craftster.com which unfortunately is no more. It was a crafting forum. I spent most of my time at the knitting forum, but it was fun to explore the other craft forums.
Eventually I got the courage to do craft swaps. Those were a lot of fun and I made some life long friends that way! There was usually a theme that we would craft around. It might fiction, or animals, or maybe even supply swaps. I was jealous of the people that would get hand spun yarn from their partners. It never happened for me! So I had to make it happen for myself. I learned how to spin yarn on a drop spindle. The following picture is yarn I spun and knitted into a hat. The leftover yarn I used to knit a choker necklace!
Over the years I have knitted mostly dishcloths and hats and a few other odds and ends. I have even taught it some out of my apartment. I have yet to knit a sweater for myself, that is still a goal. I work a full time job and am a slow pokey knitter. So I don’t really take requests anymore, rather I might surprise someone out of the blue with something. Arthritis in my right dominant hand makes knitting some things difficult. I learned English style, so I still need to learn continental to see if that helps.
One of the first gifts I received was a needle roll for my knitting needles and a project bag from my sister. I later received another needle roll in a craft swap. I rarely use straight needles anymore, but I still use both needle rolls for the straight needles I still have left.
In the needle roll you will see 5 large dark brown needles. They are DPNs aka double pointed needles used for knitting in the round. I had a hat I really wanted to knit using super bulky yarn and it is hard to find needles for that kind of project. I was visiting a couple of friends in Minocqua WI and there was a knitting store there. Sadly it is no longer around. They were able to order me specially made wood DPNs hand made by a man in his 90s. I had to wait a few weeks, but they mailed them to me! What a treasure! They are very special!
I later learned that my mom and aunts learned knitting growing up, but I was never raised around it. I come from a family of crafters, but I am the only one person who ever really took to knitting. A couple of nieces have dabbles in it. I have done some crochet but never really took to it. It is like reading a cryptic alien language. Only stuff I can do is from Attic 24 because she has really detailed photos to accompany her instructions. I really love doing the ripple afghan.
I don’t know what will happen to my stuff when it is my turn to leave this world. It would be nice if it got donated to a charity or nursing home. Not sure if others will treasure my hand made wood DPNs like I do, but whatever happens, happens. Maybe one of my great nieces or nephews will get into knitting. One can hope!
Rainy Saturday Creative 