The Beginning.... well sort of

When I was born my mother crocheted my christening gown, which then went round the family. She'd also knit lots of items for her sister, and until the needles disappeared (dad used them to mix paint!) my brother and sister. Then came the knitting machine. I can still remember my favourite jumper. It was red with a frog on a lily-pad and some rain. Then came my own introduction to knitting on pins when I was 7...

We were to knit a teddy-bear. From what I remember (was a long time ago) it was just garter stitch. One morning I decided to cast-off myself, or rather cut-off. Once the wool was cut off the needles it promptly decided to unravel. End result: no more teddy. I think I was the only pupil who didn't have a finished teddy.

Fast forward 24 years and a new weekly magazine came out - "The Art of Knitting". It looked interesting, especially as there was free yarn to knit a throw. 90 squares in all. It seemed like a mammoth task (it still does!). I started collecting it, yet still hadn't managed to knit more than a square. Fast forward one more year, this time the unfiled issues had mounted up and I decided to tackle them. Filed away issues 8-51 and decided to cast-on the 2nd square. It was to be a ladder-effect. I managed to complete half of it and made a mistake and ended up frogging the square. Instead I proceeded with the 3rd square, and have now finally cast it off.

I still like to flick through the binders looking at the patterns. Recently I went to town and found some knitting magazines. Namely "Let's Knit", "Simply Knitting", "Knit Today" and "Knitting". Lovely patterns in them, and some even had free gifts. I then decided to join the "Let's Knit" forum. It's wonderful to be talking to so many wonderful friends about knitting. I haven't met many guys who knit - yet. I'm sure I'll come across them at some stage.

So it's back to the squares for my throw. I'm even thinking of doing a few more just to make it bigger. I love flicking through the binder to see all the different squares. I'm still a bit apprehensive about intarsia. I'm sure there's nothing scary about it, but I still feel like I'm only getting to grips with one colour! I also have a habit of making stitches.

Next on the to-do list is to learn to crochet. Mum has promised to teach me. I think it will be wonderful to be able to do the two. I suppose after that will be getting to grips with the sewing machine lol. In the next few days I'll post some pics of the 2 squares I've done. Unfortunately I don't get too much time to knit as I'm a shift-worker. Hopefully I'll make better use of my time to get more knit.