The First Time
What was your first finished project? /How did you learn how to knit? /How long did it take from the time your learned how to knit, to finish your first project?
It was years after I learned how to knit that I ever heard the idea that learning to knit shouldn’t be a project instead you should just learn and not worry about making things straight and just get the basics covered.
So how did I learn to knit then? Crochet. A crochet baby blanket to be exact. I had started the blanket sometime in college, it actually belonged to a sadly increasing number of babies as showers came and went and the blanket only grew an inch or two. It was a peach colored baby yarn and I decided if I added some more interesting yarn to it thing would progress.
A few week after finishing Grad School, I was out getting things for my first trip over seas and I thought a nice project for the eight hour flight would be a good idea. So I decided, I should finally finish the blanket.
I went to a yarn store near Union Square that has since closed and they had a sandwich board outside, learn how to knit free with yarn purchase. It turned out that they has just started the program a day or two earlier and that they hadn’t had many takers yet and I was able to sign up for a class for the next day.
The next day I was handed needles, yarn, and an employee proceeded to teach me to cast on, knit, purl, and cast off. I was working on large needles and thick yarn but in the 45 or so minute lesson I learnded the basics and before I left I cast on my first project a garter scarf from malabrigo that I still wear from time to time.
This picture is actually on the couch of my friends’ apartment in London, one of the only pictures I have of this scarf. And the only one I have of it in progress. I remember knitting on my size 6 needles, and diligently counting every row to make sure I had not added or lost a stitch. Part of that was a warning from my teacher, and memories from my first crochet project which quickly became a red acrylic nacho.
This all took place in June 2008, I did not finish this scarf until November. I got a bit further than this on the trip but when I got back I started to explore my stash (from crochet), buy books on knitting, pattern books, and watch videos on how to do things. I have a pair of flip top mittens, mittens that I have made dozens of times at this point that are the same color as this scarf, sadly one of which made it into the wash.
I found a hat that I had stated with this yarn (how many skeins did I buy?) which I had to frog as it was a cabled hat with no pattern included and the yarn was held double for some reason. I know I finished projects before that but dates are more difficult to track. It’s much easier to just count this as my first FO.
The darker yarn is another hat that I frogged, made of the same Malabrigo as my Welig gloves, which tells me that hat has been lying around since late ’09 early 2010.
The blanket if you are wondering? It’s still a WIP on top of the bookshelf.
