Crazy, mad skills (3KCBWDAY6)

The first hat I ever made

I confessed earlier this week that I have been knitting for almost 20 years.  It's true, shocking but true. I enjoyed it in the early onset of my knitting adventure but I didn't fall head-over-heels, would-die-without-a-project-working in love with it until about eight years ago.  I know that sounds odd but it's the truth.

My first original design

When I was younger and attempting to learn how to knit, I had a newborn baby at home and a crafty mother to look to for inspiration and education. All I wanted to do was make cute things that my own daughter could look back at and gush with pride because her mother made it... after all, it's what I still do to this day.  Alas, knitting and I didn't hit it off like I had hoped. It was fiddly and awkward and amazingly ugly when it came off of my needles.  Nothing at all like the Smithsonian quality pieces produced by my mother... knitting wasn't a genetic thing and I was gutted.

My first fingerless gloves

My needles and I didn't speak for several years but then one day, I sat down and we had a heart to heart.  I realized that I was my own knitter, not my mother.  Yes, she's still the one whom I hold all my projects in comparison to but in the end, I am unique just like my finished objects. I studied on my own, gathering all the knitting reference material I could find from the library and set out on this journey once again. I learned how to cast on... then I ripped it all out and cast on again - repeating this process a million times over until I had it down.  Then I made what most new knitters make, a garter stitch scarf.  I had a friend who was moving away and I wanted to make something for her so I sat down with some beautiful yarn that reminded me of a Florida sunset and got to work.  I sat and knit during every free moment I had that week.  I even took my knitting to work - when knitting in public was not cool like it is today - and knit on my breaks.  By the end of the week, I had produced a simple scarf. I'm sure that if I saw it today, I would be horrified but at the time, it was gorgeous... and that is when I became an actual knitter.

My only socks

From that point on, nothing seemed impossible. I have approached every new technique with confidence that I could do it and if I couldn't, I could visit my mama and she could show me. I was, and still am, fearless. It might take me some time to gear up and do it - we all remember The Great Sock Journey of 2011 - but I will ultimately do it... like learning to crochet - I have been wanting to learn how to do it for years so when it was time, I sat down and learned.  Now I can make a granny square like it's nobody's business - I even have ventured into amigurumi and it's not been a year since I first picked up a hook.

I think I will always consider myself a simple knitter. Yes, I can do all the advanced techniques but a simple knitter, to me, is one who makes things for the joy of it all... for the one word response when your project is first seen - that "wow" factor. The difference, as far as I'm concerned, between an intricate lace scarf and that simple garter stitch number that I first made is nothing but time - because once that final stitch is bound off and the ends are weaved in, I look at both with the same amount of pride and wonderment... all the while thinking one simple thought ~

Just sampling of my many adventures from simply making some knots in some beautiful string.

I can't believe I just made that... wow.

3KCBWDAY6