Everyone comes to knitting in his or her own way. Mine included an almost 25 year hiatus before I became obsessed with knitting. I was around 16 when I expressed an interest in knitting to my mother. She was encouraging and signed me up for a beginning class in my hometown. Although she doesn’t knit, she is a crafty woman and always tried to encourage that in me. Immediately after finishing the beginning course, I decided to knit a sweater as my first project. Then I picked out some cotton yarn that screamed 80s.
I started out the project and it went ok for a bit, but I suffered from a syndrome that I now know often plagues new knitters…super tight knitting. That, on top of the fact that I was using cotton yarn, which does not have the nice springy action of wool, made my hands and head ache. I remember throwing the sweater down in frustration with just the neck completed. I don’t think I ever picked up needles again until the fall of 2009. Surprisingly, my mother still had the yarn from 25 years ago!
Once I was reintroduced to knitting, how I wished I had stuck it out as a teenager! I could just imagine how skilled I would be now, but when I was honest with myself, I realized that even if I had picked an easier first project or some more friendly yarn, I just didn’t have the stick-to-it-ness needed to complete any project as a teen. My closet was full of different craft projects I had started and never finished. I think I had a lot of growing up to do to before I would get over that problem.
Now that I have rediscovered my love of knitting, I want to do what I can to encourage other new knitters out there or those who just can’t finish a project to give it a try!
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