My history with knitting

My grandmother taught me to knit when I was a child, on a car trip, but I was impatient with anything I wasn't instantly good at. Both my mother and my other grandmother were/are cham-peen knitters of the cables/bobbles, fancy edging, duplicate stitch, etc. school, and there was no competing with that, either.

In the early 90s, my MIL was visiting and working a sweater for a friend's grandson, and I got the hankering, but with no other needles save the ones she was using, I was stuck. I realized I did have some yarn that my daughters had been using for crafts and "finger weaving," so I pulled a pair of lacquered chopsticks out of the buffet and put them to better use as knitting needles, at least for that first night. I made a few dolly blankets for the girls (Rachel used to call things like this "softs") and then signed up to take a knitting class at a LYS now closed. The ladies were all business about teaching, and some were pretty impatient actually, but I learned Continental and started to get pretty good. After making the girls some small dolls and animals, and one very rudimentary vest for the baby, I drifted away.

Cut to two years ago, and I don't know what bit me, but I was knitting again, and BIGTIME. This time I didn't take a class but I have been learning steadily, all sorts of techniques, and while I am not an advanced knitter, I can see real progress since I got back into it. I love visiting my newest LYS, Purlescence, because when the yarn is so inspiring it pushes me to try new things.

Here are the latest things I've done
successfully: pick up stitches and knit them from the edge; a simple "cable" pattern that just involves knitting two stitches in reverse order and then slipping them off together; I-cord that looks right and works for various purposes; increasing and decreasing (still somewhat rudimentary on the increases but great oaks . . .); and felting various projects. Things that seemed impossibly beyond me just stop seeming so after a while, and I go at again and find that I can do it.

So that's me and knitting, a match made in heaven. Now I'm about to proclaim my love in traffic:

♥KNITNG! ~Stacie

4 comments:

Connie said...

Hi Staci, I couldn't find your email anywhere to email you what I sent, so I'm posting a comment instead. I got a box off today (or will at lunch) with some full skeins of DK cotton (reynolds, I think) a giant skein of beige acrylic (not great, but good for practice) and some oddballs of mohair. Included two circs and one pair of straights. Thanks for putting together such a great prize!

Regenia said...

I'm so glad I'm not the only one that can't find your email address. I also got a box off this afternoon and you can read (and see) its contents on my blog!

Bells said...

oh a history of knitting post. I love it. I might do one too. How very resourceful, using chopsticks!!! I love it! Keep growing. Sounds like you're doing great!

Stacie said...

Sorry all, about the lack of email. Somehow I thought it showed up in my profile, but just as it does NOT, your email addies don't show up in your profiles either. Could you email me again with your real email address, so I can keep that with my list of contestants??? If YOU win, I want to be able to email you directly right away. And you want that too! :^) ~Stacie