Knitting and Crochet Blog Week: Day 1

How and when did you begin knitting/crocheting? was it a skill passed down through generations of your family, or something you learned from Knitting For Dummies? What or who made you pick up the needles/hook for the first time? Was it the celebrity knitting ‘trend’ or your great aunt Hilda?

Well, I started knitting right before it really became very cool on the internet- I think I was already in the livejournal knitting community before it doubled in size, and was there WELL before Ravelry existed. I was even a member of a "super secret" knitting cabal on livejournal. But rather than recap the story of how it started, i'm going to let my livejournal (I refused to "blog" back then) tell the story.
Here is my very first ever about knitting entry.
July 29, 2003
so earlier today I was going to HEB to get some groceries. I passed by hobby lobby and thought, hey maybe I could learn to cross stitch well (I have the basic idea.) I went inside, looked at cross stitch patterns, realized it required way to much detailed work and looked around. I picked up a knitting kit that had horrible instructions. So I went online and I learned how to knit today. I started by casting on backwards, but I can do it now, and I have about seven rows done and they don't look to bad. I'm so proud of myself.


The knitting kit was awful. It was for a cutesy little purse. It had teeny tiny needles and yucky blue worsted acrylic yarn. Once I figured out the basic stitch, I went back to Hobby Lobby and picked up size 13 needles (the only straights I still have besides my turkey basters) and "good" fancy yarn: Lion Brand Homespun.

Then I posted this entry:
August 4th, 2003 Interested in keeping up with my knitting? My scarf, which is now nine inches long, will be detailed in jessimary

Honestly, I don't remember even creating that journal. There are some entries in it. Certainly more than I expected from a journal I don't remember. I might need to go and catalog them now, and relearn my early knitting progress. And my regular livejournal is FULL of knitting entries too.


So there you have it- I didn't start knitting because it was trendy, I didn't start knitting because of a relative passing down an american tradition. I started knitting because I thought cross stitch looked too hard.