My Knitting Beginnings

I love knitting for so many reasons, but the primary reason is that it is the one creative thing I have ever felt like I could do and not be embarassed by my work.  I don't mean that in a self-depricating way at all.  When I was a kid, I had a few friends that were really good at drawing.  I thought it was so cool that they could draw, and it actually looked good -- recognizable.  My cousin Jeanne was brilliant at drawing.  I remember once while visiting with my Grandmother (she and Jeanne's mother were sisters) she was drawing and gave me a lesson.  She probably doesn't even remember this, but I do.  The two or three things she taught me to draw that day were the only things I could ever draw!  I tried hard too.  Even I couldn't see how what I put on the page with my pencil looked anything like my intentions.  It was ok too.  I learned early that not everyone could do everything which was a good lesson to learn so soon.  This is part of what made us unique people. I knew there was something creative I would be good at -- all I had to do was find it.

The same grandmother, Munna we called her, taught me how to knit when I was about 6 years old.  Munna and I had a special relationship.  She came to live with us after my grandfather passed away.  I was 4 and had two brothers who where not very fun for a girl of 4.  Munna and I spent lots of time together.  She had been working full-time for some time which was unique for 1968.  She was tired when she got home after a full day of retail.  After dinner, she would sit down to watch TV with us and was usually knitting.  I thought it was so cool that she could make us sweaters and blankets.  One evening when I was about 6, I was asking her all sorts of questions about her knitting so she asked me if I wanted to learn, and I jumped at the chance.  After a few nights, she saw that I had the knit stitch down, so she showed me the purl stitch.  Wow -- another stitch to learn.  My first project was a scarf --isn't everyone's first project a scarf?  My memory gets sort of burry, but I do remember sitting next to my Munna with my crooked scarf working away and thinking about how wonderful she was to me for teaching me something so cool and how much I loved her.

A few years later Munna built a small house and moved out of our house.  She was within walking distance, but it wasn't the same as having her there every night.  I would visit her often, but we didn't do much knitting. 
I would start a knitting project here and there in the following years also learned how to crochet, but it wasn't until I was in my late 30's that I really got the bug for knitting.  My mother has always been an avid knitter.  She is truly a master.  Through our teens she made us countless fisherman's sweaters with elaborate cable work and fair isle sweaters with beautiful designs -- and afghans galore!  She would get frustrated with me because all I would knit where things that were square -- scarfs and afgans -- for years.  I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to put a sweater together.  All that changed when my sister was expecting her first child.  We found out she was having a girl.  I really wanted to make the baby a sweater.  My mother was very encouraging -- "...it is small..." she said, "...it won't take long and there won't be that much sewing.  It's the perfect first sweater project."  To my delight, I made my beautiful new niece a tiny pink sweater without much frogging at all.  I was so surprised that I did it, and it was not at all as complicated as I thought it would be.  Here it is -- she was about 2 months old here.

My girl is nearly 6 today -- and there have been lots of garments produced in those 6 years - sweaters, socks, hats, mittens, gloves, you name it  -- and I love it!