Did you learn as a child or adult? I learned due to my love of reading. I got hooked on The Blossom Street books by Debbie Macomber. The main character knits in most of her novels. The Blossom Street series all had a knitting pattern in them, and I was fascinated. Just curious:teehee:
I made one hat as a kid; my mom taught me how. I still have the hat, and it actually isn’t hideous! Still, I wasn’t interested in knitting anything after that. Too sedentary, I was athletic and had a horse, just more into doing outside stuff.
Flash forward about 40 years, 3 knee surgeries, a shoulder surgery, and arthritic joints, and sitting still knitting seems like a good idea, suddenly. Before that, I was needle-felting little animals, and when I was on Etsy looking for wool, I kept seeing all this beautiful yarn. Then, with websites like Knittinghelp, Ravelry, and YouTube, it was easy to reteach myself.
All these years I was beating myself up skiing, running and getting thrown from horses, and I could’ve been KNITTING!
I learned to knit while working as the late shift cashier at Mannings Cafeteria Restaurant in downtown Seattle in 1970. Our Night Manager knit during the last few slow hours before 1 am closing. She sat at the cubby counter around the corner behind me out of customer’s view. I was curious. She showed me how to knit with two sharp pencils and a little ball of yarn.
The rest is history!
My first project was tri-color garter stitch scarf that was prolly a foot wide and 5-6 feet long, not counting the fringe! Quite the monstrosity, but I was very proud of it! Not one stitch amiss. But I knew nothing about proportions! :teehee:
It was mostly white, with a 5 ridges red stripe and 5 ridges blue stripe at each end.
I’ve forgotten a lot of what I’ve knit over the past 43 years, but not that doggone scarf! And I’ve never forgotten my patient old teacher, Winifred!
I did simple crochet from the time I was a kid when I’d make Barbie clothes and then baby blankets and hair ties for my daughters. I’d always wanted to knit though so 8 yrs ago when I was about 52 I learned and I’m mostly self taught. 
I also love knitting novels and knitting mysteries! Authors for you or others to try…thank goodness for Kindle or I’d never remember what and whom I’ve read!!
Anne Canadeo
Sally Goldenbaum
Gil McNeil
Maggie Sefton
Ann Hood
Terri DuLong
Beth Patillo
Mary Kruger
As a kid, I was visiting a friend at the shore and her mother bought us needles and yarn and taught us to knit. I’m a lefty and all she could teach was right-handed so I learned to knit righty. The Mom was a saint! Knitting occupied us all the rest of the summer.
Jan, thanks for the recommendations.
I learned as an adult. I knew how to crochet, but I wanted a knitted – not crocheted – scarf and decided to learn to make my own. :knitting:
I learned to knit around Christmas 2006. I made a scarf for my son, then one for my daughter, then a bigger one for my son, and another one for him when he lost the second one, a bigger scarf for my daughter, a third scarf for my son who complained his scarf was itchy, and I finished one for me in January of this year (2013). :roflhard:
I have yarn for two more scarves to be just like the last one that I made for my oldest son, one each for my daughter and youngest son, if I can remember how I made that one. :doh: I think it’s just a standard rib stitch – I’ll have to look at it again. I wanted it quick, simple, and scrunchable.
I’m still wearing my scarf, by the way. 
I’ve read two audiobooks of the Blossom Street series and I have the knitting book that goes with the one I liked. (I didn’t like the reader on one of the books; the book was good, the narrator was awful.) Very good series and I’ve been thinking about getting the other books to see what I’ve missed, but the narrators are all different and I’m kind of scared of who I’ll get. :think:
My grandmother tried to teach me when I was a wee bairn, but I never got the hang of it. In the Depression, she and her sister knit for their family and she hated it as an adult. But she wanted to pass it and sewing along. Unfortunately she never learned that she really did pass on the knitting.
I learned to knit as an adult on a business trip in Q4 of 2010 (I think) that had a weekend stay over with clearance yarn, needles, and booklet from a local WalMart. I was looking for an inexpensive way to kill some time, and figured for about $6 I could frustrate myself for the whole weekend. I did, and a yarn monster was born. :roflhard:
I still use that first ugly stockinette square as a coaster.
About a year ago, our local library offered a knitting class which my mom, my sister, a few of our nearby friends, and I took. How could we pass it up…the cost per class was $1!
I didn’t really care for it much in the beginning, but a friend of mine (who happens to be subscribed on this forum ) convinced me to knit baby hats and a cardigan for a charity. After that, I couldn’t stop! One of my favorite things about knitting is trying a new item every project.
Thank you for sharing your stories, everyone! :waving:
The diversity of the stories is awesome. I put off learning for years because I am left handed. I thought I had to learn left handed knitting and I personally don’t know anyone that knits. For Mothers day this year my SO got me a “Teach yourself to knit” kit from Wal-Mart. It said it had instructions for lefties. I learned from the booklet, DVD, and YouTube. I knit like right handed people do though. I need to be more adventurous in my patterns though! Thank you to everyone for sharing.
Also thanks, Jan, for the author list.
Thanks, Jan, 
for the list. I have Death by Cashmere by Sally Goldenbaum on my Kindle now. I was so glad to see titles for the Kindle available at my library. :happydance:
My first and only knitting lesson was a three to four hour session from a woman who owned a LYS in Santa Fe. I had wanted to learn for years, and when a friend suggested we do the class together, well, I was in.
The woman who owns the store is Eastern European and seemed quite strict to me. At the time, it had been about a year since I had been involved in an automobile crash and I suffered from a closed brain injury as a result; due to the nature of the injury, I was unaware of it for a number of years.
I still look back and have a bit of a chuckle, this woman was soooo impatient with me. My short term memory was quite impacted, and it did make it difficult to learn; to this day I still struggle with it, but fortunately DH has finally realized that I have an issue.
My first project was a seed stitch scarf, an excellent way to learn the knit and purl stitches, I would recommend this to any beginner. I used Noro Kureyon and knitted it with Clover bamboo straights, size 9.
You know, I remember that I did take a class with the parks and recreation dept. when I first started. I didn’t learn much there. The instructor insisted we do things [I]her[/I] way, that [I]her[/I] way was the right way. If you’ve known me awhile you know how I feel about that, right? 
Do what works for you!
Also…you’re welcome for the authors! I read a LOT! I really should look into the library since I know they do kindle now, too. As for audio books…never cared for them
I remember my grandma teaching me to knit AND crochet…but for the longest time I stuck with crochet. I had one of those books with about 100 stitch patterns for crochet. I remember grabbing a hook and a ball of yarn and starting with Pattern #1. Did that one, ripped it out and then…on to #2. And so on, and so on…
THEN about 9 years ago I decided I wanted my finished pieces to look like knitted ones. So I picked up knitting again. Since then I’ve taught a knitting/crochet class in a homeschool group and at my church. I knit continental style but I’ve taught all my students to knit English, since I haven’t a clue how to teach Continental. I guess because I learned English…not sure.
But, all that to say that I’ve enjoyed knitting and crochet. My focus is on knitting at the moment.
Happy Knitting!!!
knitcindy
I learned at the LYS, with the owner, and she was perplexed with what I was doing because it wasn’t quite what she was teaching me, but she said that fabric looked good so it must have been okay and she let me continue that way. I asked what I was doing differently, but she couldn’t (or wouldn’t) say. 
I learned to crochet from my grandmother as a kid and crocheted for years. I think I taught myself to knit in my 20’s and made one of those big bulky double stranded wrap around sweaters with a belt. I got as far as the front and neck band and never finished it. It was in those wonderful 70’s colors. The main part was an off white with dark green, orange, and dark brown. I think the only other thing I knit was a sweater for my husband. Went back to crocheting until a couple of years ago when I decided that as a leftie I was tired of transposing the fancier, more complicated, stitches and started knitting again. Now it seems weird to pick up a crochet hook.
Like a lot of people I remember both my mam and my Gran knitting and crocheting when I was a kid. My Gran especially made the most intricate crocheted doilies that I’d ever seen, she used what looked like sewing thread, it was so fine. I was taught to knit but never took to it, riding bikes and falling out of trees was more my style!
Fast forward about 30+ years and I was a mission to simplify. I was growing summer veggies, de-cluttering and looking at ways to reduce our footprint on the earth. On another forum, someone mentioned knitted dishcloths and wash cloths, and I realized that I could break our reliance on paper towels for everything if I knitted my own cloths! The paper towels had become my latest target in my simplification quest!
About a month later my mam and brother visited from England. She’d hardly stepped through the front door before I presented her with needles and cotton and asked to be taught how to knit again! I, and she, were amazed by how much I remembered once I got going. I knit a lot of dishcloths that year!
Naturally I moved on, I still knit the cloths when the old ones wear out but I now also knit other small things like gloves, hats and socks. I’m determined to improve and I’m working on my first cabled project at the moment, I’m also working up to a bigger item, like a vest or jumper perhaps.
I’m so glad I did all of that decluttering about four years ago… I must have been subconsciously making space for all the yarn I didn’t know I’d be needing!! :roflhard:
Oh, and I don’t fall out of trees any more but I do still do a lot of bike riding!!
I learned to knit as a teenager when my English teacher was expecting. Al the girls inmy class decide to give her a baby shower in class.The few boys in the class helped with the decoration and drinks and chips. I bought yellow yarn and Learn to Knit booklet and needles.
I picked the easiest item in the booklet and started. It was a baby blanket with a stockinette background with purled outline boxes in graduated sizes going from large to small in center and going from small to large at the other end of the blanket. After she had the baby, I got a card from her, saying that her little boy enjoyed laying on the blanket and feeling the texture of the purl stitches on the smooth stockinette background.
Many years later I picked up my needles again and had to relearn how to cast on again but it all came back after I found this forum and Knitting paradise forum.
Now I have branched out into making gloves with a circular needle using the Magic Loop.
Daylily, that is the sweetest story! What a great memory for you and an heirloom for the child!
I learned when I was 22…self taught via youtube. I decided that I needed something to do while my fiance (then boyfriend) was watching football, playing xbox, etc!
Congratulations! I just read your post, ten days and counting down. :cheering: :cheering: :cheering: