when did you learn to knit, heather?

this is a question i get fairly frequently. i shall make this a semiannual linkfest.

"travis women knitting lessons: the story of an addiction"

not many people know that it is semaphoria's mom that taught me to gnit about 12 years ago. it was a cold, snowy day in park city, ut, i was on spring break and visiting the illustrious fred (semaphoria/james the chick) who had moved there, and some unspecified winterish dance was approaching. as the fredster was NOT on spring break, and I had spent a day at school with her already, i was hanging out with her mom and her doggers, and her mom started to knit a chunky black shawl for said dance. and to keep me off the streets or whatever, she taught me how to knit. we covered knit, purl, stockinette, and garter stitches, casting on and binding off. from time to time i would bust out the needles. i'd make a scarf for myself before moving to maine. i'd make a scarf to teach myself how to knit again. i'd make a scarf for mary because she loves pink.

noticing a trend here? well, this winter, i decided that i was tired of scarves and wanted to learn new things. so i started learning cables. and made a cabled scarf for my sister. (ahem)

school started in earnest and i didn't have time to knit at all. but over spring break i bought the yarn to make kyoto (i don't have time to link you to the f.o.s but you should be able to find them if you search my blog for the project titles or go to my flickr site), and used FAR too much yarn in making the sash. so i realized that i was knitting WAY too tightly. so i read the knitty article about that, and stopped knitting so tightly. now, my projects are softer, looser, and use far less yarn (read: "cheaper projects") since summer started in early june, i've been a f.o. ho, making a lelah, branching out, restarting the cable scarf, restarting it again, and again, making a minisweater, and now, working on mariah. again, i've had the basics of knitting for a long time, but just pushed myself into high gear this summer...

in other knitting news, i'm meeting with jess this weekend for a mini yarnbender and a pint and some knitting! or as she put it, a pint of yarn - yum! just what you crave on a hot summer day!