My mother was a crocheter (everyone in my family and anyone she knew who had a baby got at least one handmade blanket. When I was pregnant with my daughter, my mom crocheted three different blankets for her, in neutral shades and different grades of wool. The Girl is now 12 and she still uses those blankets.)
When I was a kid, Mom taught me how to crochet as well. However, I'm sorry to report that I'm terrible at it. I could do a basic chain, but anything more than that, and I pulled the stitches too tight and the piece curled. Boo. Hiss.
Fast forward to 2008. For some reason, I just decided I wanted to learn how to knit. Trouble was, I didn't know any knitters. No problem, right? There's got to be some sort of learn-to-knit book out there. So, the next time I went to Michael's, I bought myself a book on learning to knit. And as luck would have it, turns out I knit right-handed (My left hand is the dominant one, but I'd say I'm ambidextrous as I can write equally with both hands and there are things I can't do left handed.) After a few missteps, I figured out how to cast on, and learned to knit and to purl, and the stitches.
And now? I've lost count of how many afghans I've knitted. I've taken my mother's role in baby-blanket knitting (my 2 year old nephew finally received his blanket for Christmas this year.) My most complicated afghan was one I made for my mother in law a few years ago - in the Irish Fisherman pattern. It took me nearly a year, but it's one of my favorites. I'm working on one for me, but I only work on it here and there, so I don't plan on it being finished any time soon.
I love to knit. It's relaxing (although I did hurt my wrist a few years back, pushing to get a project done in time for my other nephew's birth. I made it, but ow.) It's relatively inexpensive as far as hobbies go. And it isn't nearly as difficult as it looks. But I haven't attempted anything too complicated, like a sweater - at least not yet. I have been coveting a pair of alpaca wool socks, so I'm thinking that might be my next project. I just need to find a place that sells alpaca wool We have a few farms near where I live, so I'll be haunting them sometime in the near future.
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