I'm Learning to Knit!

Jenny modeling the brioche stitch headband.

Happy girl modeling one of my favorite hats!

I actually taught myself to knit a couple of years ago. I learned how to crochet when I was a little girl, but my grandma and aunts had trouble teaching me to knit (maybe because I'm a leftie?) A couple of years ago I got kind of ticked off at myself, thinking "If everyone else can learn to knit, surely I can, too!" So I learned to do the basic knit stitch and made a few scarves.

Fast forward to this summer: my son's girlfriend wanted to learn to crochet so she could make some booties for her new little sister. I got all my knitting/crocheting stuff out, and once I'd showed her how to crochet and she was working on her booties, I picked up the knitting needles and started messing around. Then I bought Amanda Keeys' wonderful book on knitting hats for babies (see the sidebar), and I was off and running. 

Let me explain something I've discovered about myself: I don't like not knowing how to do something. I will grit my teeth and do something over and over again until I figure it out. Not sure whether this is stupidity or persistence, but it's served me well in the last ten years.

Once my dad wasn't doing as well, I felt more obliged to stay in the house, rather than spending my days down in the studio, thus the long break from blogging and painting, etc.. Knitting to the rescue! It's something I can do up at the house, during the day and in the evenings when everyone's watching tv. So in the past few months I've been knitting up a storm. I've made a small stack of newborn hats for the local hospital to put on the new babies for their trip home, and I've made hats and headbands for my own girls. I'm doing some of my own patterns now, and I'm thinking I'll start putting up some of my knitted pieces in my Etsy shop.  I'm hunting for a baby to model some of the baby hats, but luckily I have a lovely preteen model right here in the family!