Knitting… most people imagine an old lady, with short gray curly hair, sitting in a rocking chair with a basket of yarn next to her as she rocks and knits away.
Yeah… something like that. Well, that isn’t always true. I know several knitters, including myself. Yep, I knit! It’s something my younger sister actually taught me years ago (at least the basic stitches), although back then I never really picked it up as a hobby. Then a few years ago, my friend Megan and I started doing weekly get-togethers to watch different shows. She introduced me to her knitting hobby. She had a whole room full of different yarns, with tons of different projects going, from sweaters to socks and hats. She even joined a knitting website and a knitting group. I checked out the knitting site (http://www.ravelry.com) and joined in the fun. I tried starting to knit again, but it just didn’t stick. When I moved away, my weekly visits with Megan stopped, and so did the knitting.
Fast forward to last year. My older sister, Becky, had a baby at the beginning of the year. She knew how to crochet, so she made a few hats for her new daughter, my niece, Nora.
She then decided that she wanted to learn to knit so she could make other things, like sweaters, hats, and socks. So she went online and quickly learned to knit. During one of our many phone conversations, she mentioned that she started knitting and had joined Ravelry. I remembered my basket of yarn in the back of my closet and decided to pull it out. I began with a basic dishcloth and actually finished my first real project. I was pretty darn proud of my dishcloth, but I was still having issues with knitting correctly. Becky showed me a few more sites that had tips and tricks for knitting and after watching a few of their videos, I was ready to tackle my next project… a scarf.
Recently, I found out that four of my friends are pregnant (something is in the water, apparently). Three of those girls are part of my Girls Night In (GNI) group that I attend. The other one is Megan… the one who helped introduce me to knitting. I knew that I wanted to knit little baby blankets for all of these girls, so I started as soon as I found out! So far, I’ve finished Megan’s blanket (her shower is in a couple of weeks). This is a close up of Megan’s blanket. She doesn’t know the sex of the baby, so I picked out a neutral blue-green.
The three girls from GNI aren’t due until May, June, and July… so I’ve got a little time left still. So far, I’ve finished half of two of them. I’m still waiting to find out the sex of the third baby so I can pick out an appropriate color and pattern.
As I finish different projects, I’ll be adding blogs about them and why I knit them. I really enjoy my knitting, and a lot of evenings, after the gym and dinner, I sit down in front of the TV with my ball of yarn and knit away. It’s very relaxing and a great way to just empty my mind. Since this is such a large part of my time, I felt as though I should introduce my blog world to my addiction… so welcome to my crazy world of string!
