Your knitting story?

Lounge
1

I first learned to knit stockinette as a child in school. I didn’t really understand it at the time and didn’t really enjoy it a whole lot. It took me all year to make a basic stockinette hairband, and it wasn’t comfortable or flattering to wear, so it got chucked aside.

I’m not actually clear on what inspired me to knit again as an adult. It may have been bf’s aunt knitting us scarves and hats for xmas, or the hilarious yarn-bombing pictures going around online, or moving to my new town and wandering into the huge crafting store, finding myself nosing around the knitting aisles and running my hands over the various textures of the yarns on the shelves… but I found myself buying a pair of needles and a ball or two of some cheap acrylic to get stuck into.

I just knitted rectangles to bring back my memory of the basic knit and purl stitches. I seamed them awkwardly into poorly-fitting leg warmers and fingerless gloves, but I felt proud of my attempts anyway. I set knitting aside for a while, a little overwhelmed as to where to start. I picked up two how-to knitting books.

Then I had a really long flight coming up for summer holidays, and I was going to bring my knitting with me, but I decided not to risk having my needles confiscated. So I got a very blunt bamboo crochet hook and two how-to books on crochet, and on that plane I learned how to crochet. I tried to make a bag, but the yarn and hook were way too big, so I just turned it into a cowl. I also made a beanie, and I put a shell edging on it to make it feminine.

When I got back home, I made a flower and button for each item to match them up, and they’re sitting in a bag soon to be gifted to someone. Having learned crochet basics suddenly helped me make more sense of knitting. I was ready to pick up my needles again.

Now, I’m working on my first sweater and cami, I’m on my second pair of socks (first successful pair we hope!) and I can’t get enough of it! Knitting amazes me. Every new technique I learn, I react with a “wow” or “that’s so cool” when I see how it works. Every time I try on a work in progress, I feel proud of my progress so far. Every time I recognise and fix a mistake, I feel empowered. And when I have a finished item, I can’t wait to show it off!

But the best thing of all is that it helps me with my anxiety. I have major issues there and I’m working on them, but the problems run deep and it’s a slow process digging down. Knitting keeps me going between counseling sessions and moments of mental progress. I genuinely struggled a lot more before knitting, but now I can dive into it and I don’t even mind if I’m so head-soupy that I’m getting it wrong, because the mistakes are fascinating too.

So… what’s your knitting story?

2

This is the boring, short version- at age about 9 I decided to knit because I wanted to, so I learned from a helpful book that taught lefties.

This is the interesting version- At a young age I wanted to be like my sis and knit, but she was a righty and I was a lefty so she couldn’t teach me. So, I found the book that my sis learned from, and it had a lefty section. The first time I learned, I knitted a TERRIBLE scarf and gave it to my grandma for Christmas. I don’t know how happy she was with it:teehee:
I put it down for a while, learned again, started again, stopped again, and then the same grandma gave me a bunch of yarn and needles for another Christmas and I’ve been into it since.:slight_smile: Tada, end of stories.

3

Well, kudos to gramma! It must be awkward being a leftie knitter. Almost all the resources out there are for righties!

4

Well, I’ve sorta learned to switch things around in my head. Even videos I can watch and make it a mirror image in my head. I like to think that all lefties are strong because they have to fend for themselves in a world oriented towards rightieness.:wink:

5

I crocheted before I knit. I didn’t learn to knit till I was 52 or 53. I just like the look of knitting better so that’s why I learned. Mostly self taught with the help of Knitting Help and random online sources. I’ve since taken classes for special things like toe up socks, a sweater, etc.

6

I attempted to learn to knit first time when I was about 12 at the same time I began to try cross-stitch. I really struggled with the knitting and mum couldn’t seen to aid me much in teaching me just confused me more so I put it away and just focused on learning to cross-stitch instead at that time.

It was about last year when I move off for my first year of uni that I caught the bug for trying again when a friend I talked to a lot at one of the societies was constantly knitting things. That is when i tried to scour the internet for tips and help on even how to cast on as I had struggled right from that point before and found this website. Since I have made a couple of odd little teddy bears which didn’t turn out too great compared to how they should have, an a few other little bits. I am getting the hang of it now and looking forward to learning more.

7

I taught myself taught knitter. I used a learn to knit booklet I bought when I was in high school. My English teacher was pregnant and the class I was in threw her a baby shower. I made a yellow blanket with a pattern of purl outlined boxes in graduated sizes, add a little outfit to it and gave it to her as my gift… A few years latter I knitted a sweater for my younger sister to wear. Then made my mother a pair of black mittens using straight needles.Then as my children arrived , I set my needles aside dealing with the children and medical issues my firstborn had… Picked them back up a couple of years ago and am still knitting but now I use circular needles and use better quality yarn.

8

I had been wanting to learn to knit for awhile, so that I could make myself a scarf, and when my daughter was about a month old, my city had a winter “happening” with one night where all of the stores were open late.

My family and I (DH, 3 year old son and infant daughter) stopped in at the yarn store because I wanted to check it out and had been too shy to go in before. I talked to the owner and asked her about knitting classes. I had just missed one, but she offered to work with me one-on-one over the next two Monday nights, to teach me the basics.

She taught me the knitted cast on and the 5x5 knit/purl pattern and I made a scarf for my son. (Eventually. It took me about 8 months to finish it.) Unfortunately, the store closed a few months later, but I am glad I had the opportunity to learn before it was gone.