terrible twos!

When I was a kid, I sort of learned to knit from Ursula von Wartburg's Workshop Book of Knitting. Which is an excellent book, but all about calculating your own sizes and inventing patterns as you go, which was not overly useful for the kind of brain I have, which doesn't do well with math or precision. I'm much better now, but as a ten-year-old I was doomed. I also for the life of me couldn't figure out how to purl, and didn't know any knitters to ask. And this was well before the internet, so it wasn't like I could find a lovely video to show me how. So I made a couple of horrible garter stitch scarves out of horrible acrylic (this was the 80's, so when I say horrible, I mean it) and moved on with life.

Two years ago this month, I decided to try the knitting again. I needed something with small repetitive squarish things to stop me from playing so much Minesweeper. (Seriously. I get obsessed with small squarish things. At least this way I get clothes and stuff.)

Second time around, I made one garter stitch scarf out of this gorgeous unlabeled blue-possibly-linen-but-maybe-silk yarn that had been picked up at a garage sale and had sat in a bin in my bedroom for at least fifteen years. The yarn is gorgeous enough, all thin-but-nubby, that garter stitch on size nine needles was all that it needed to make a scarf that still gets me compliments. And then I picked up Ursula's book again, and somehow learned to purl.

And then I figured out how to use double-points, and just to see if I could, made in quick succession a hat, a pair of mittens, and a truly horrible pink sock. This was before I knew such a thing as sock yarn existed. The sock was mostly horrible because of the yarn, but it was foot-shaped and very much a sock. I pretty much haven't turned back since. There have been sweaters and lace and cables and non-horrible socks, many hats, and lots of non-horrible, non-acrylic yarns. Oh, and two pairs of pants, because I am a clearly insane person.

Now, if I could just finish Mr Leafy Pink that's staring at me, I'd be good to go.