I fell in love

I have never in my life found something I was good at. I don't dance or sing, I can cook ok, but I could never think of anything my friends could say, "Oh, Mary's good at that." Until I started knitting. Maybe that's why I love it so much.

Two and a half years ago, I was hospitalized to receive some medication to help manage my latest MS attack. I sat in a room for five days feeling fine (other than the fact that I felt numb head to toe). You can imagine how bored I was. I mentioned to my husband that I wished I could knit, then I would have something to do AND the use of my fine motor skills would help my hands rehabilitate faster. You never know how much you depend on your hands till they are hard to use! So, my affair with knitting was born.

Just kidding. I actually was so busy after I got out of the hospital, that I never had time to pick it up. I kept telling myself it would happen, but it never did. I couldn't dodge it forever, though, thankfully. About three weeks ago, my mom brought home a whole bunch of knitting gear. Her friend was a big knitter (TWENTY years ago!) and wanted someone to pass it on to. My mom, being the pack rat she is, offered to take it all home.

Since it was RIGHT in front of me now, I couldn't really ignore it. So, about a week later, I grabbed a pair of size 10 aluminum needles and a skein of baby soft yarn (100% acrylic, gasp!) and sat down with a learn how to knit guide. Six grueling hours later, I successfully cast on my first row! Since that day I have dedicated at least an hour to knitting and have picked up quite a few techniques (pictures of my laborious work will soon be posted).

A friend of mine suggested I go join her knit group that is held at a LYS (Don't know what that is? Why are you reading this blog?) she used to go to when she lived here. So, a few days later, I stopped by the store, and met the most delightful woman. Though she claimed to be a crocheter, she had no problem pointing me towards the books that could help me and walking me through the store describing the different kinds of yarn in there. I couldn't wait to return the next day for their sale (every woman's four letter word).

I left the store the next day with an amazing book, Stitch 'N Bitch, by Debbie Stoller, and three skeins of chunky baby alpaca yarn. I seriously spent the next four days having everyone who came to my house pet my yarn, its that soft. Or I'm that crazy. I prefer the former to the latter. I also signed up for a class to teach me how to knit a shrug. My very first project! First class is tonight, I can't wait to put up pictures of my project!

And that's how I fell in love with knitting. After some horrible knitting puns from my husband, who has kindheartedly listened to every word I've put in on the subject, I was told to go talk to people who would not only care about what I was talking about, but actually understand my new found obsession. Since I don't really have any friends who knit, blogging about it was the next best thing. and My Knitche was born.