Tell me your Knitting Stories!

Cafe Society
1

I started knitting last February, teaching myself on my grandmother’s old needles from a book (with a few tips from my coworker).

I’m hopelessly addicted to this now.

So, tell me your stories. How did you get started? Who taught you? What was your favorite/least favorite project? Do you still knit?

This is my knitting projects page.

I started out auspiciously on a baby blanket for my new nephew. I got it done in time for the shower, but since I didn’t do a gauge swatch it was completely not to pattern. I switched to scarves after that (and I’m proud to say that all of my christmas presents have been done for three weeks) along with a hat for the newborn.

2

Started knitting in my 20’s because several women at work were avid knitters and they taught me. I still have and occasionally wear two of the sweaters I made.

I did lots of baby things but my favorite was an adult cardigan sweater that was made in a single piece on a round needle. All you had to do was to stitch up the sleeves. I’m an impatient person so I hated doing things with fine yarn on small needles. I particularly liked doing cables.

It’s been at least 25 years since I last knitted but I still have all my needles, etc. Maybe I’ll take it up again when I retire.

3

I tried to teach myself to knit. Gave it up because it hurt my hands. I couldn’t seem to relax my death grip on the needles.

It took me about 2 weeks to knit a potholder. It was going to be something else but I gave up. Sigh.

4

I took up knitting this spring/summer. My mom had taught me to knit when I was like 7 years old. I got about 2 inches into a scarf and hated it. I made her bind it off and it was then a Barbie scarf, haha.

Anyways, I was thinking if I had something to do with my hands it would help me cut down on my drinking so I took it up again, and got really good at knitting while I was drinking. HA! I started with one of those “Learn to knit” booklets and some cheap acrylic and hated what I was trying to make, so I just kept knitting it anyways and it ended up being this: http://home.comcast.net/~joeythegirl/babyhat.JPG

Pretty good, eh?

I bought “Stitch & Bitch” by Debbie Stoller and absorbed it like a sponge and tried to do something a little more complicated with each project and now I’m a knitting machine. You can see all I’ve done since at my knitting page here: http://www.livejournal.com/users/knittinvixin/
(Most recent is a “sully monster hat” complete with horns for my nephew. It turned out soooo awesome!)

I can’t wait until Xmas is over so I can go back to knitting for myself!

5

When I was in college, I decided I was going to knit a sweater for my baby nephew, having never knitted before. I hied myself down to the local yarn shop and signed myself up for lessons with the absolutely ancient woman who worked there. She was from somewhere in Eastern Europe, spoke very broken English, was very cranky, and was left-handed. Therefore, I have a very wonky style of knitting, although it turns out pretty well.

So, my very first project was a sweater that I knitted for a child who is now captain of his high school volleyball team. My sister-in-law gave the sweater back to me this year so that my own son could wear it. Very cool.

I didn’t knit another thing after that until about a year ago. My friend mentioned to me that she wanted to take up knitting, so I pulled my needles out (that had moved with me countless times without ever being used) and we started meeting once a week for coffee and creating. Since then, I’ve started about a dozen projects, finished most of them, gave up on a few, and experimented with lots of different stuff. I’ve made a baby blanket, a gazillion infant hats (some worked, some didn’t), socks, a cool pink purse for me, a few vests for my boy, and a teddy bear (asleep, dressed in a lamb suit…this is a very cute Debbie Bliss pattern).

Right now, I have a cable-knit cardigan going for my son and I’m working on a purse that I’m going to felt. The purse was started because I tried to do one for my sister-in-law for Christmas, but when I felted it, the yarn actually tore and it became a huge mess. It made me determined to try again, so I’m using a wool/mohair blend that I just happened to have (I’m a yarn hoarder, too). I was going to do a Christmas stocking for my son, but I don’t think I have enough time.

I love cabling and I’m scared of intarsia. I’ve never tried it before, but I think I’ll have to tackle it next.

6

I don’t get the yarn hoarding thing. I know lots of people do it (and I’m guilty of doing it with art/drawing supplies) but I can’t do it. I have to buy yarn for a specific project and I don’t buy anymore until it’s done.

7

Can a crochet-er jump in here. Hope my experiences won’t count for 50% because I use only one needle, instead of two. Several women in my quilt guild who are avid needleworkers[and like to have a handwork project as a respite from using a sewing machine all the time] were trying to teach me how to crochet[they said it was easier than knitting] and it just wasn’t happening. Took me a year to finally get the hang of it, and I am totally consumed with it. Can do only single crochet, but I use big hooks and am very fast. Have done a big afghan for me,a LONGGGGGGG scarf for my goddaughter, and am hoping to complete another one in time for a pollyanna exchange. Just finished my 40th baby blanket since July, they are donated to a local hospital. I use a Q-hook and two skeins of yarn, one of which weighs 6 ounces. Make a chain of 36 stitches, and crochet until the 6 ounce skein is used up. It comes out rectangular most times, depends on the yarn. If pressed, I can do one in a day. Have tried to do double crochet, but I can’t quite get it. Hope it doesn’t take another year to learn. As for yarn hoarding, some things best left unsaid[coupons are BAD, BAD, BAD]

8

My mom taught me how to crochet when I was a kid. Either I didn’t sit still for her to teach me, or I forgot how, but I didn’t know to chain a stitch when you turn a row, so I could only crochet round things or things that got narrower and narrower as you go up. :slight_smile:

Mom did some knitting, too, but I didn’t have the patience to learn that. Shortly after I started grads school I got a book on how to knit and taught myself.

A couple of friends and I were knitting well before it was cool, and we’ve aquired a couple of knitting buddies who picked it up because it’s trendy. We like to get together at social occasions, compare projects, and coo over yarn and baby clothes patterns.

I am just finishing up my first raglan sweater, which I’m making for my nephew. It alternates stripes of dark blue and Redheart “Beach”, which is a blue-to-lime-green varigated. It came out pretty cute.

The coolest project I ever made were my awesome super-warm wool mittens which I knitted from Lopi. Bill Nye the Science Guy borrowed them and used them to handle dry ice. :cool:

9

My sister, who used to be a very prolific knitter, tried to teach me when I was about 14, but I refused to do anything she told me to, so you can probably guess how successful that was.

Now I’m 47, and became quite envious of all the really cool scarves the women of my church’s bell choir were making, so I asked Lillith Fair to teach me. I dragged out this wastebasket full of needles from a friend of my mom’s who had died, and bought some acrylic (the wrong kind…it stretched like crazy) and some fun fur and started knitting. With the help of Lillith Fair, the CD/ROM “Knitting Made Easy” and the “Stitch 'n Bitch” book, I made a very lumpy, holey, stretchy scarf that jumps from 15 stitches to 20 to 25 and back down to 18. My daughter loved it and stole it from me, so I made a few more, without any accidental increases or dropped stitches.

I currently am working on a scarf for my daughter that combines light gray Wool-Ease worsted weight and Allure pink quartz fun fur. The gray, white and pink are so pretty, and then my daughter goes and buys a red winter coat! She also wants mittens, so I’m going to attempt some Two-Needle mittens, and I’m making her the Kittyville hat from “Stitch 'n Bitch” in the gray wool. I will buy her a new coat.

I have made some cute cat toys in the shape of goldfish from a kid’s knitting book my niece bought, and I’m working on a dishcloth to hone my pattern-following skills. I’m also working on the Alien Illusion scarf from “Stitch 'n Bitch”, but since I recently got dumped by the guy who asked me to make it for his son, I’m in no hurry to finish. I’ve bought some of the Magic Stripe yarn, and am debating between making a man’s tie (I have no one to give this to!) or sleeves for a denim jacket. I’m not ready for socks yet, but I hope to try those in the spring.

I have one ball of pure white yarn I bought just because it felt so good and looks like a Tribble…it’s an Italian eyelash yarn called Posh. Don’t know if I’ll knit something from it or just keep it to fondle! I asked for some Trendsetter’s Shadow eyelash yarn for Christmas to make the Coney Island Fireworks Scarf from “Stitch 'n Bitch”, and I want to make the Big Bad Baby Blanket too, but the yarn they used is sooooo expensive, so I’m collecting skeins of a variegated acrylic when it’s on sale, though I really wish I could afford the wool.

But I’m not addicted, really. I’m still quilting…putting the binding on a baby quilt tonight, in fact, and appliqueing wheels on a racecar quilt on Saturday. Not addicted at all…but definitely hooked.

10

I have a friend who initiated me into knitting this summer. The woman could knit during a hurricane. She knits at stop lights. She knits while she reads. Me, I knit when there’s nothing else going on, sometimes when I’m subbing, and the kids are busy on individual work.

I’ve knitted at least six scarves, two dishrags, a potholder, and two and a half hats. For my brthday, my friend got me a gorgeous alpaca sportweight of variegated purple/red/blue yarn that I will make into a shawl. I’ve also promised mittens to a friend.

I like it. It keeps my hands busy, and I have a pretty thing when I’m done. It took me a couple of months to get to the point where I could see and understand what I was doing, so I’m no longer going over to my friend and holding out my needles with big, hopeful eyes that she can unswcrew whatever I’ve screwed up.

11

I got into knitting from the back end:

Bought a farmhouse attached to a farm (oops)
Had to get some animals, chose sheep.
Chose a wool breed (Rambouillet) 'cause I wasn’t too keen on the meat market aspect of farming (got over that in year 2)
Bought a spinning wheel and learned to spin because I had all this lux fleece laying around.
Started knitting because I had all this lux, handspun yarn laying around.

Two years ago, while on bedrest for a difficult pregnancy, I started to knit in earnest. Everyone got socks for Christmas that year.

I just finished a scarf & mitten set for myself today, and started on a poncho for my SIL tonight. Must be finished by Friday.

::puts down the wine and picks up the needles::

12

See, I knit smilies into my posts as well!

13

Norwegians knit. They all (boys and girls) have to learn how to do it in school, and enough keep it up that it’s not the least bit surprising to see someone knitting on the streetcar, provided they’ve got a couple inches of elbow room.

I arrived ignorant of the ways of yarn. After living here for about twelve years, much of that time feeling vaguely jealous of the skills of the knitters I saw around me, I joined a craft group fully intending to use the time to sew. But the people there mostly knitted, and at some point one of them loaned me needles and some leftover yarn, and I started learning.

It took a while, though, before I was finished with my samples and such to actually finish a project. I have made hats for both my sons and several pairs of felted slippers, and have a half-finished mitten lying at the bottom of my knitting bag. At the moment I’m working on a baby blanket in cotton for a dear friend’s bump, and I have the yarn for a hat, scarf, and mitten set for me.

14

I started about ten years ago. I don’t remember why. I spool-knitted as a child and well into adulthood, and then I decided to “graduate.”

I’ve done pillows, mosaic potholders (ask FairyChatMom), a shawl and blankets. I’m afraid of gauge, and I’ve only knitted one thing remotely close to a measurement…I knitted a cover for our electric grill. It fits fine, and one of these days I’m going to have to grow a pair and knit a sweater, but I’m afraid of screwing it up. I don’t do mistakes well.

I’m currently working on a fairly simple blanket for my daughter, then I owe my MIL two more armrest covers for her loveseat in mosaic knitting, and my folks want a new pillow to match the decor in their new RV. My step-mom gave me a whole slew of yarn from an estate sale…I must have six or seven bags in the attic, sorted by color, along with three or four big Rubbermaid tubs of yarn.

15

I’ve been knitting for, what, seventeen years now? My bubbe (that’s grandmother for you non-Yids) taught me when I was nine. I have problems reading patterns, so I usually make simple things, like hats and scarves, although I just got a mitten pattern on Sunday and am determined to figure it out. (It’s kind of embarrassing, I’ve seen beginning knitters tackle stuff I’d be afraid to try, because I have a nice even stitch, can knit fast, and without looking, you’d think I could make anything, but I’m so intimidated by patterns.) I’m making a scarf for my cousin right now, and it is turning out absolutely GORGEOUS, but it’s on size 4 needles and is taking approximately forever to do. I will never work with yarn so small again!

16

My mum knits like a fiend - she’s been doing it for nigh on 45 years. She can knit sweaters from pictures - take her a picture and say, “Mom, I like that,” and she can create it for you. She bought a knitting machine but never uses it anymore because she can do it better and faster. She’s the coolest.

Me? Can’t knit to save my life.

17

Slightly tangential question… I really want to learn to knit, and have been told that this is the best beginner book out there for people who have never knit before. I learn a lot better from real-life instruction, instead of books, but I don’t know anyone IRL that knits. Would I be able to learn from scratch with this book? Or would it just be confusing for someone who is a hands-on learner? I’ve looked at how-to-knit sites on the internet, so if it’s no better than online instructions I don’t want to waste any time with it.

18

I started knitting last Thanksgiving and haven’t stopped since. I knit fancy frilly scarves and felted bags mostly. Many of my projects don’t have patterns. I also use a round knitting loom for socks because I detest dpns. But I’m all about circular needles. I also crochet. I was devestated this weekend because I finished a pair of crocheted slippers to be felted and my 100% wool ebay yarn turned out to be acrylic. I threw them out. I just love the miracle of felting so much. Currently I am looming some socks in Lion Brand Magic Stripes, knitting some booties to be felted just to use up some scraps and looming a tube scarf in some chenille someone got out of the garbage in the textiles department at the art school where I work.

19

A little nun taught us girls to knit in elementary school. . . maybe 6th or 7th grade. We made these hideous shrugs. I don’t know what a 6th or 7th grader was supposed to do with a shrug like this back in the day, but I suppose it would be very fashionable now that I’m nearly 63. At any rate, that started my knitting addiction. I made all sorts of things through my teen, college and early married years. Perhaps my most favorite thing I made was a dolman sleeve sweater for my daughter. It was made of cotton yarn, purple background, with the skyline of New York knitted in. It even had a yellow NY taxi. She still has it (and she’s 35 now). At any rate, I stopped knitting. I don’t know why.
But last year, when my daughter and I were in Cork, Ireland, we wandered into a yarn shop. . . and I got hooked again. I found a pattern for an Irish knit sweater, bought some wonderful wool tweed spun in Cork and I haven’t stopped knitting yet. I am currently working on a vest from the Knitter’s Magazine book of Arans and Celtics. It’s almost a sampler. No two rows are alike. The fronts are not alike. Sounds awful but it’s really spectacular. It’s in an off-white alpaca yarn. It will be something special when it’s done.

20

Little yarn shops are like crackhouses for the knitting addicted, aren’t they?

I’m that rarity, a guy who knits. I started around June because I wanted to quit smoking and wanted something to do with my hands. I never quit smoking, but I didn’t quit knitting, either. I’ve done scarves, a few hats, a felted bag for my mom. Lately, though, I discovered Everquest and found my knitting time shrinking. I haven’t actually picked up the needles in about two weeks, and I have a baby sweater to finish soon! :eek: