needles.

many, many years ago my mother tried to teach me to knit.  it was a lesson that required much patience.  looking back, i'm very lucky that i was not strangled with yarn or blinded by knitting needles.

last november, i asked my mother to teach me how to knit...again.  she obliged.  but, maybe she only said yes because she was visiting for the weekend & knew her teaching time would be limited.  so, she taught me...in about twenty minutes.  my first attempt at knitting {again} was not pretty.  by the time my mother visited again {my parents live 2.5 hours away & visit us frequently}, she took great joy in taking apart the wannabe scarf i was so proud of.  somehow, i had managed to add double the amount of stitches that i originally casted on.  did i also mention that there were about eight holes in the scarf, too, thanks to dropped stitches?  whoa.

so, i started over.  this time we had more time.  my mom sat with me to make sure i was knitting correctly.  she was there to help me pick up dropped stitches, fix my mistakes and cheer me on.  by the end of her visit, i had made my very first scarf.  the day after she left, i had already knitted a second scarf.


i was on a roll.

during my first successful week as a novice knitter, i taught myself how to bind off my stitches & how to perfect the garter stitch {a.k.a. the knit stitch}.  i was experimenting with different sized needles & different textures of yarn.

just a few weeks into my knitting frenzy, i taught myself how to purl & how to knit with two different colors of  yarn.  my personal style of knitting is not what might be considered standard.  i'm not a fast knitter, but i'm certainly an entertaining one.  adam & the kids like to sit and watch me knit.  either they are entranced by the "swish, swish" of my metal knitting needles or they take sick pleasure in watching me undo projects i had once worked so diligently on.

so far, i've made ten scarves and i currently have four more scarves "in the works."  well, i call them scarves.  perhaps they are more like neck warmers.  infinity scarf, circle scarf...whatever.  my next project will be arm warmers. before the kids & i went on our mini vacation, all i did was knit.  i haven't done much knitting since, but i'm gradually getting back into it because it really is relaxing {and i have a shit ton of yarn to use}.  oh, one other thing:  i have been encouraged to sell my scarves.  

what do you think?  

i have some lofty knitting goals for myself {like knitting on the round, learning more stitches, making a dog sweater}, but the idea of trying to sell my knit creations makes me nervous.  we'll see what happens.  if this whole knitting thing turns out to be THE opportunity for me, then wonderful.  if not, well, now you know what everyone will be receiving for christmas for many years to come!