The Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: 4/26-2/5 2010

Thought this would be a fun thing to participate in. Here's the mother post, at eskimimi knits.


Day One Topic:

Starting Out

How and when did you begin knitting/crocheting? was it a skill passed down through generations of your family, or something you learned from Knitting For Dummies? What or who made you pick up the needles/hook for the first time? Was it the celebrity knitting ‘trend’ or your great aunt Hilda? TAGGING CODE: knitcroblo1

I sort of stumbled into the world of knitting and crocheting when I was about seven or eight years old. I came across a skinny pair of knitting needles and a ball of string in a box of my mother's old things and asked her if I could give it a go. She never did learn how to knit or crochet, even though she came from a family of fabulous needlewomen. One day not long after that my grandmother's sister came to visit and brought her knitting along. I was fascinated by the whole process of turning balls of yarn into things that were usable or wearable. My great-aunt gave me some instruction on the spot, and a ratty old how-to book. Every once in a while I'd get a skein of yarn from the dimestore and attempt to learn a new pattern or make something for my dolls. The book also had crocheting instructions. I had no crochet hook, so bent a bobby pin into one and taught myself how to crochet from the book's pictures. Got good enough to make potholders and such for selling at the school PTA bazaar. Stopped both knitting and crocheting for many years because I was inundated with crocheted fishnet vests and shawls from various aunts and ripple and granny square afghans from my grandmother. Picked it up again in college as a meditative hobby, and that's when I started making my first sweaters, big simple garter stitch sweaters without much shaping and in stripes of bright colors. Have pretty much never stopped knitting ever since. Crocheting fell by the wayside until this past winter, when I used it along with knitting in a great big free-form afghan. Most recently I crocheted a Market Bag designed by my daughter-in-law Amy Maxwell, a very talented professional crocheter and pattern designer. Her site is at Strand Over Fist. I used medium weight cotton twine from Ace hardware and the result is a bag sturdy enough for my laptop!