The new stuff you learn

It's always nice to learn something new about people you've known you entire life.

Take last Saturday for example. I saw the mother of one of my oldest friends. I don't see her as often as I used to since she recently got remarried and I splitting the time she has with nursing job and her husband who lives in the US. When she saw me today, she quickly went to her bag and pulled out a set of metallic pink Boye straight needles and a ball of fashion yarn to show me the scarf she was knitting. This woman has known my parents since before I was born. I have seen her do the embroidery kits that Avon will sell every once in awhile but I have never seen her knit or crochet. She told me she used to knit from back in England but she can't do the fancy things like I do.

It gave me pause. I do fancy things? I never really considered my knitting fancy. I've always been a creative individual. I used to draw and I enjoyed it while I did it. I even envisioned myself going to school for fashion design but I dropped out. And since I don't have a reason to draw anymore, the skill has fallen into disuse. I have kind of morphed into design. I like to say that I like to make things look pretty. I love to look at architecture, the way an interior designer can change a space to make a room so much more inviting. I love mixing and matching colours together and see how they go together. I wish I knew how to do some kind of house building. I've always thought the idea of buying a rundown house, renovating it and selling it back would be cool to do but without the money to buy a house to begin with, that idea has fallen flat. Maybe one day.

I personally don't think I'm fancy at all, not even in regards to knitting. I've seen my knitting as more of a progression of skill learning. I learned how to cast on and knit. I'm not sure what happened but I stopped. I don't even remember if I learned to purl yet. The concept always confused me, especially when I was told that it was knitting backwards. Not helpful.

I picked up knitting again when my best friend's mother decided the young ladies from my church needed to learn some domestic skills. There was cooking and embroidery and liked. I didn't have much use for embroidery and was quite a bit more excited when she said we'd try crochet and knitting.I stopped at a Walmart on the way home and picked up a set of bamboo 8US straight needles and a big ball of green acrylic yarn (which I still have some of to this day). I casted on and started knitting a very wide scarf. I finished the row and then ran into a problem. I had no idea how to purl. So I turned my needles and started to knit again. Imagine the grin on my face when I discovered the popcorn stitch. That is not the proper name but its what I called it. I continued to knit away and the green scarf grew.

I started to get sick of the green scarf. That meant I had to figure out how to finish the thing. I went to the public library (first visit since I moved to the city) and found a book about knitting, convinced that if it showed how to start knitting then it should show how to finish it. At the check out, met my biggest sock knitting inspiration who told me about the knitting circle at that library every Thursday. I didn't go that first week, thinking "why would I want to hang out with a bunch of old people" completely disregarding that the woman who told me about the group seemed as if she's the same age as me. I went the next week and I never looked back.

I learned the long tail cast on (which is now my go to cast on), I knew how to knit already. I finally learned how to purl (yay!) and the proper name of the "popcorn" stitch is the garter stitch.

And then the challenge came. We had a group knit along of Delores Park Cowl. It was my first foray into circular needles. That meant another trip to the craft area of Walmart. This time I got a chocolate swirly looking cotton yarn. It was either that or acrylic, especially since I didn't want to spend a lot of money on yarn. I was still a beginner. This time I learned how 'make one', 'knit 2 together' and how to use circular needles. See? My skill set was expanding!

The next project was a Felicity hat. I had to buy another set of circular needles. I used the same chocolate swirl yarn. I was so proud of the progress of the hat. The problem came when I compared my hat to everyone else's. Mine looked like it was meant for a Rastafarian with dreads down his back. It took awhile to realize that I had a 7mm, not a 7US. I learned to double check the needle sizes carefully before knitting.

My inspiration for sock knitting, encouraged me to try a pair of socks. That was intimidation. I had used straight and circular needles the idea of knitting with little toothpicks scared the crap out of me. Walmart couldn't help me this time. They didn't sell any needles smaller then a 3US. I made my first visit to one of the biggest yarn stores in Toronto, Romni Wools at Bathurst and Queen St W. I bought my first ball of sock yarn by Regia and a set of metal DPNs.

I couldn't cast on. I never understood why the yarn didn't just fall off the other side. One of the ladies in my knitting circle took the needle and yarn home with her, casted it on and did the cuff and 1 pattern repeat of the Monkey's by Cookie A. It was a slow process since in was new to me but I learned how to do yarn overs; the holes if design elements. The needles kept slipping out and it annoyed me to no end. I have never been good with picking up stitches. I never had this problem with my bigger bamboo needles. I got a set of bamboo needles. I didn't occur to me that bamboo that thin could break more easily. I was informed about the KnitPicks Harmony Wood Needles. I put in my first order. With this entire project I learned patience, why metal needles don't work for me as DPNs, why I don't like bamboo needles and Harmony Wood DPNS are great! And of course the basics of sock making.

I enjoyed making the socks so much, and I only had the one pattern, that I decided to make another pair. I food another...craft shop close to my house, The Enchanted Needle. I got 2 skeins of Pace yarn and plugged away at it. Then my hands started to itch. I quickly realized that if it was scratching the palms of my hands as I worked on the socks, then there was no way I could wear them myself on my feet. I put out a plea on Facebook for who had a foot my size. The only person I could think of way my friend in Atlanta and she came through. I was willing to suffer itchy hands to make a pair of socks for my friend. She loved them . I learned I really don't like doing the same socks twice in a row and Pace sock yarn is not for me.

I had purchased my first sock book, Knit. Sock. Love. by Cookie A. I found a pattern in the book called Mona. That has been my nickname for as long as I can remember that I had to make them. I had purchased a skein of Springtime Stroll Tonal from Knit Picks. I was originally stumped when I saw the skein. How in the world was I supposed to take this swirly thing and turn it into a usable ball of yarn? Enter someone with a skein winder and a skein holder umbrella thingy. It was so cool to see the finished yarn cake. I made sure to add the skein winder to my next order from Knitpicks. I also wanted to try magic loop so I went researching on Ravelry and decided on ChiaoGoo Red Lace Needles. It came just as I was working on the leg of my second sock. I switched over and never looked back. I learned how to 'predict' a pattern based on the previous row and how to magic loop.

The next project I worked on was for my 12 socks in 2012, the Ricks by Cookie the pattern was working well until I made it to the foot. It started doing this twisty thing and I couldn't figure out why for the life of me. I frogged it 3 weeks into the project. I didn't realize until months later when I was flipping through the book that I realized there was a page I hadn't noticed before; there was a separate pattern for the foot. I felt so stupid but I haven't attempted then again yet. I learned about travelling stitches and making sure I photocopy all the pages of the pattern.

One of the ladies from the knitting circle was making the BFF socks. I wanted to make them too. There was only one problem. I couldn't understand how cables worked. I made my first trip to the Purple Purl at Jones and Queen St E and signed up for a class on cables. It was much simpler than it seems. I started on my BFF socks, using yarn from an Indie Dyer for the first time (shout out to Springtree Road!). I learned how to cable and that I love Springtree Road yarn.

My aunt looked at my knitting progress and demanded that I knit her a pair of socks. I gave her my 2 Cookie A. books and told her to pick one. She picked out the yarn out of my stash (luckily it was yarn that I had purchased but was not happy with-I hate sparkles). She picked the Wanida's and I came to loathe the socks. Not because I was knitting 2 socks at 1 time, but because of my Aunt constantly asking "are you done yet? Why haven't you finished it yet?" I seriously put down the socks for a month and a half and didn't touch it. The only reason I managed to finish it was because I told myself I wasn't allowed to knit myself anymore socks until I finished her socks. I learned how to do 2aat (which I enjoyed), and that I don't like it when I have to make anything for anyone.

Next project with the Lissajous. First time doing knee high socks. I had actually come to a problem. Even though I had 150g of yarn it was not going to be enough so I tried to purchase another skein of Nazar Boncugu. It wasn't until I had both skeins in my possession and looked at them, I realized they were 2 different shades of blue. One skein was not going to be enough so I alternated the colours every 4 rows which have me a nice stripped effect. I learned how to do a heel flap with a design and converting a pattern in the round to flat.

So I said all that to say that I've just been building on what I've previously learned. Nothing fancy. I guess it just comes off as fancy to someone who never learned beyond the straight knitting of a plain scarf.