Knitting...

I was taught to knit by a friend (http://www.lydialark.blogspot.com/) when I was between even and eight. Her mom owned a knitting shop, and I wanted to knit a scarf.

Too frustrating, too time consuming... I didn't know patience. Put the yarn and needles down for a couple years, and mom taught me again when I was around eleven. It nearly took. A soft scarf with gold and blue eyelash peeking from between the jet black velvet looking rows of yarn. Despite the pretty colors, the scarf was had quite a few holes in it. Again, I put knitting down, and swore it off forever.

 

About a year before cosmetology school, mom helped me start, and complete a red wool scarf. It too had quite a few holes in it, and I decided I didn't care, tore it out and put the wool back into the blue plastic tub of yarn skein in the attic.

At the beginning of the year, three-quarters of the way through beauty school, I decided I was going to knit and finish a scarf, if it was the last thing I did! Mom had given me three beautiful skein of deep purple, soft alpaca wool.

Knit one row, purl a row; knit a row, purl a row; knit row, purl row... For six feet and four inches...

It starts as something you do while you're at home, just chilling', or watching a movie. Finished the scarf, pretty much just knitting at home.

My second project was the potato chip scarf, using a creamy, fine yarn. On this project, I discovered (how brilliant) that, really, you can knit just about anywhere, and you get a lot more accomplished when you take your knitting everywhere with you. Not only do you get eight more rows completed while waiting in the doctor’s office, but it also starts up great conversation with fellow patience, the receptionist and nurses (destroying that horrible, awkward silence that you always find in waiting rooms). This one I finished within a matter of months (three months on a scarf... okay, getting a little bit faster)...

Third project is a pretty pink scarf. I don't have a clue what the yarn is, but it's obviously some kind of wool. Wonderfully soft, cheerfully bright, and quite warm. Down to a month of knitting :) Much, much faster...

Now a hat.. Never knitted a hat. I finally have the casting-on down, and am starting to understand pattern directions.

For the hat, I found a cute pattern on https://www.ravelry.com/account/login, which I started and was almost finished with. But then I found a cuter pattern in a book I found in a down town resale book shop (the cutest, funnest place ever. Love the smell, the look and the library lady that works there is quite helpful - and looks the part, grey knit skirt, bun and all). I've only been working on it for a day, but I'm hoping I can finish within the next week and a half (and then I can start on a matching scarf on my flight to Cincinnati in October)...

Part of the joy of knitting is that you have to sit still in one place for a period of time, and you're working simply with your hands. Before cosmetology school, I never had the patience to do this. To start a knit project, and continue knitting in a consistent manner until the project was completed. But, I suppose, putting hundreds of foils in a person’s head, with about four different types of hair color, and having to remember each, taking approximately an hour to finish foiling, then having to sit 45 minutes to process, will, in fact, teach you patience - whether you want to learn it or not. And I'm quite thankful I learned at least a little bit more patience :)