I can trace my original fascination with knitting back to age 6. That’s when my big sister, Bets, came for her very last Christmas visit home – because she was engaged, and would be married in April. (Bets and I are at either end of a large family – there are 17 years between us).

And she was knitting a sweater for her fiance.

I was enthralled. It was dark blue, and I think maybe she was using a circular needle, although she isn’t too sure about that. But it was definitely the coolest thing I had ever seen.

I stood by her chair, with my head practically in her lap, staring fixedly while she tried to knit. It was probably a little creepy for her, actually.

I insisted on trying to learn to knit right away, and my mom found some nice lady at the local library who agreed to teach me. I can remember pink acrylic yarn, and red aluminum needles, and a sort of grotty pink garter st rag hanging off them. I can remember that I must have put it down in the middle of a row, and then when I picked it up again I didn’t know which way I was going. I think I can remember that I got very frustrated and mad, and threw it on the floor. Someone picked it up and put it away, and that was the end of that.

A year later, my grandmother taught me to crochet. It was easier: only one implement, and it had a handy hook on the end. (Although my grandmother’s idea of a “large” hook for a kid to learn on was a size 7 steel hook. Which I still have.) I got fairly good at it, so I stuck to that for the next 10 years…

…then I figured out that crocheted clothes look, well, mostly strange.

Sorry, but it’s true. At least, they definitely looked strange back in the late 80’s in Iowa.

And for me, knitting has always, always been about the clothes. So – I figured I was stuck learning to knit. Thus, I sat myself down with

  • the Reader’s Digest Guide to Needlework (a cherished Xmas present from older brother Joe),
  • some acrylic yarn (pretty much all that was available to a 17-year old kid in a mid-sized town in Iowa),
  • and a couple of pencils (remember, I wasn’t too terribly sure this was going to work, and I wasn’t going to spend my cash on a pair of needles if it was going to be like last time).

I opened up the book to the (gasp) knitting section; looked askance carefully at the pictures; and may the knitting gods forever smile graciously on the RD people, because they included instructions and pictures for both American and Continental style knitting.

I decided that Continental looked a fair bit like crocheting: I already knew how to tension the yarn over my left index finger. And away I went.

I had no idea at the time, but I am now so grateful I learned Continental style!  Eventually I learned American style too, for teaching purposes, but for personal knitting, give me Continental all the way.