Well I guess starting a blog in the begining (as close to the begining as I can get that is) is better than going back and trying to remember it all.
I started knitting a while ago, I tried picking it up after my paternal grandmother died. I was never really as close to her as my maternal grandmother whom I lived with, because she lived so far away in Ohio. She use to send me letters (via snail mail) and call me when she was able to, but we didn’t really connect until I finally went to Ohio. I had loads of fun while I was there, I got to meet up with my fathers side of the family talk and play with cousins, uncles, and aunts that I had only seen in pictures and I spent some quality time with my grandmother. We made cookies together and she talked to me about her past and I remember that she always had one dog and it was always the same kind of dog (the white ones that snort and have the hair in thier face and the droopy eyes) named BB. Though I only spent a very limited time with her I felt very close, and eventually I had to return to Arizona but even then we read the Harry Potter series together and after reading each of the books she would call me and we would talk about everything that happend in them and what we thought. My grandmother was having thyroid problems, I didn’t think they were bad and not even sure what a thyroid was. I just remember her joking that now she had finally lost all that weight she was trying to get rid of. She was having surgury to fix the problem but some complication happened with the anesthesia and she ended up with dementia. It took me a while to realize that my grandmother would never be the same. I had tried many times to try and call her but it was never the right time or she was too tired. My mother explained it the best to me. She told me that some times my grandma was the same person she had always been but that most times she thought she was someone else. A couple years after this she finally passed away. It hit me the most because it was Christmas time, and in years past I remember going to See’s to pick out a 2lb box of chocolate with my mother and then sending it off weeks before Christmas so it would get there in time. I was depressed for a long time there were so many things I wanted to tell her wanted her to know, I had gotten pregnant a year earlier and I wanted her to meet my daughter. One day soon after my mom took me to The Phoenix Art Museum while I was in the gift shop I saw one of those kits for knitting your own scarf, it stood out for me flooding me with memories of watching my grandmother knit, asking her if it was as hard as it looked to click the kneedles together. I asked my mom if I could get it and she gave me one of those mom looks and then reminded me of all my half finished projects at home and then pointed out that I didn’t know how and if I learned she would buy one. So I taught myself and the rest is history.
I have been knitting for about 5 years now but I still consider myself a beginer because I have only been seriously knitting for the past year, and I am only now getting comfortable with things that are not flat. (scarves, pot holders ect.)
As of now I have only finished a washcloth and I am in the middle of making two scarves and my first pair of socks. At one point I made a juggling ball but because it came undone and the beans started to pop out I don’t consider it one of my finished projects anymore.
Much better than the other one!