A brief history

It's fall. This time of year always reminds me of knitting.

Every fall, my mother would tuck back into her knitting projects. She was fond of blankets and scarves. I still have two blankets she knit for me, one of them I still use regularly and I wear the scarves every winter. She liked knitting blankets the best because the project kept her warm as she worked.

In the fall of 1997, I decided to try knitting. I was unemployed at the time and unbearably bored. I bought size 10 needles and a skein of really nasty seafoam green acrylic yarn and tried to knit with directions I found on the Internet. It alleviated at least some of my angst, until I found a job, then I put it aside.

In the fall of 2002 that I picked up needles again. This time, I was at my newly-deceased grandmother's house, feeling ill at ease and sad and very, very bored. To break up the days before the funeral, my mother and I drove around, exploring her childhood town. We ended up at a knitting store and I picked up a book, needles and enough wool to knit a scarf. Mom helped me get started. I knitted my first scarf.

I knitted my way through the rest of that winter. I was miserable at my job, so I knitted on my breaks. My boss was a fat, nasty little man who had it in for me. I knitted as an alternative to punching him in the face. I knitted my way out of that job and into a new career that I loved. Then I got busy. Very busy. And sick of scarves.

Fall, 2009: I missed knitting. My angst, such as it was, was beginning to accumulate. 'Knit a hat' had been an item on my 'life list' for months. I spontaneously checked the class schedule at a local knit shop one evening and discovered that the class on 'Basic Hat Knitting' was starting in an hour. I hopped on my bicycle and went.

And that's how I simultaneously knit my first hat and developed a yen for stupidly expensive wool.

I'm still knitting hats.

Socks are next.

Stay tuned...