My Story

I was going to post this in a forum over on Ravelry, but it ended up being more an autobiography than an on-topic post, so I decided just to put it over here.

I learned to knit on straight metal needles, with cheap, 60's acrylic yarn. I didn't knit much after that, and didn't know there were any options until just a few years ago. Then I discovered all the incredible yarns that exist now (what are probably known as "novelty" yarns). I also discovered circular needles, which changed my mind about knitting completely. I switched over to knitting from crocheting, almost exclusively, and almost all on circs. I just discovered I could knit with DPNs a few months ago. Now that I've pretty much got the hang of that, it's okay, too.

I swatch, but don't block. Like I said, I've mainly been using acrylics. But, I might have to block some things I'm working on now. My problem is that 1) I don't iron, 2) I don't have a big enough clear, flat, cat-free surface to lay something on, and 3) I would only be willing to do it once. If something needs this blocking process every time it's washed, I might have to give it to someone who's willing to devote that much work to laundry. My idea of how to treat a hand-wash-dry-flat garment is to toss it in the machine on delicate cycle and hang it upside-down. (Tip: hanging a wet sweater upside-down, clipped at the hem, will avoid the shoulder tumors.)

I've only been inside a non-chain LYS a handful of times. I didn't even know there was a local yarn shop where I live until not long before they closed up shop. I didn't know there was such a thing as a sock-blocker, or a specific thing made just for winding yarn.

I just very recently discovered that there are books about knitting, and they aren't just learn-how-to-knit books, or books of patterns. I've never taken a class on knitting or crocheting, but I have taught many relatives and friends to crochet, and a couple to knit.

I still can't believe that a "steek" is something that people knit deliberately just so they can cut through it with scissors. That makes me want to scream and hide under the bed.

Yes, I have a knitting blog. However, it's more an old-fashioned "journal" than a blog. It's much more for my own use than for the entertainment of anyone else. I'm not sure anyone else is even looking at it. I'm using it, though, to keep track of what I'm working on, and what I want to remember about things I've learned or problems I've run into. This link thing I've created in the right frame is also extremely handy, and I use it more than I go to my bookmarks directly on del.icio.us. I do love del.icio.us, but when I specifically want to find that tutorial on the Turkish Cast-on, for example, it's just so much easier to find it here.