In the beginning...

I have been knitting constantly for almost nine years now. I honestly can not say why I took to it like I have. Usually I dive into the next neat creative thing and abandon it sometime soon after. I still have bad feelings come up when I mention scrapbooking to my husband. That is one thing I never got into, mostly because arguments always happened...silly, I know, but knitting has stuck. It has stuck hard! It all started with a cute little stuffed bunny.

My former boss is an avid knitter, and back nine years ago, she was knitting cute sweaters for her's and other's teddy bears. I mentioned that I have this cute but naked bunny that would love a sweater...hint...hint. The next day She brought needles and yarn and thrust them in my hands. WHAT!? I wanted YOU to knit one. But she showed me the stitches, and I was doing cables the next day, and looking for my first project to knit.

My experience with knitting growing up was with crappy yarn blankets and other items I had no interest in knitting. No hats or scarves for me, thank you. I am going to knit a sweater! And what sweater did I choose for my first project? An Alice Starmore cabled sweater using the exact yarn called for in the book! Yup! I DOVE in head first!

With some help, I even altered the pattern to knit it in the round to avoid seams! I worked it all the way up to the shoulders, and then, with a sewing machine, sewed where my sleeves would go and CUT the opening. I three needle bound off my shoulders, and then picked up my sleeve stitches and worked down. I learned how to chart out my sweater using graph paper and following where I was using a post-it note. This is a lot of extra work, but so worth it in helping me know my pattern and know in advance if there are any mistakes.

You know how in patterns when it says join in the round being careful not to twist stitches? Well, since it was my decision to knit it in the round, those words were not in my pattern book, and I was not aware how important it is NOT to twist the stitches. I did realize after knitting about 3 inches that, nope, this ain't gonna fix itself when I bind off. So I did the only thing I could do. I ripped out all 3 inches of over 200 stitches of cables! OWCH!

I loved making that sweater! It took me 7 months to complete, and I wore it the following Christmas. It is super warm, and scratchy, and I wear it only when it is freezing cold, along with a long sleeved t-shirt underneath. Now I look for yarns I would wear next to my skin. This tends to be an expencive choice since usually the softest yarns are luxury yarns...but hey...I'm worth it!

Oh! About my cute but naked bunny? I eventually knit him a sweater
...and a cute little fair isle one, by the way.

I am so grateful for having been forced into knitting. It was so worth it!