Knitting Before Youtube

Level I of the TKGA Master Hand Knitting program would be a breeze, I thought.  After all I have been knitting for 40+ years.  Boy do I have a lot to learn! Mind you, when I learned to knit at the age of 8 there was no internet- no youtube.  I learned the basics from mom, sister, and grandmothers, books and magazines but I do consider myself a self-taught knitter.  My earliest memory of knitting is sitting in our livingroom, my mom in the kitchen and her yelling out the next set of instructions for the simple slippers I would make.  I think today the simple first project of choice is a dishcloth in cotton yarn.  I have actually never made a dishcloth!  My first garment project was completed during a family cross country road trip from Florida to California when I was 12. 

Yes, that would be the 70's!  My needles were really beaten up by the end of that trip! Everytime I would get out of the car one of my needles would fall onto the floorboard and land halfway out of the car so that when I got out and slammed the door shut I would dent the aluminum needle.  Eventually all of my needles were dented because I took my knitting everywhere.  In those early days I also remember knitting all of my Barbie's clothes and even some of my school projects.  I remember knitting a project for a middle school social studies class.  It was a pillow cube depicting a different department of government on each side.  Anything to feed my knitting addiction I guess! Growing up in South Florida, my sisters and I were the only ones wearing ponchos and heavy hats and scarves during the winter.  So years of knitting and never a class until I discovered "Stitches", a knitting expo in Atlanta.  The first year  Stitches came to Atlanta in 2010 I decided to take some classes, the first knitting classes I had ever taken.  A whole new world of knitting has opened up to me.  With the technology available and the resurgence of knitting going on the possibilities seem endless.  So much to learn and to perfect.  So much yarn, so little time! as they say.  So many opportunities out there.  Through this blog I hope to spread my passion for knitting and pass on some of my learning experiences for those of you that want to challenge yourselves.  I will be offering some original designs and patterns and sharing my journey through the TKGA Master Hand Knitting Program as I begin Level 2.  I hope to teach, to learn, to create! Places my knitting has gone with me:  the beach, jury duty and the trial, on a cruise ship at our muster station during our drill, a baseball game, the movies, Dr.'s offices, restaurants, airplanes, cross country train trip, camping, tennis matches, France, Italy, Germany, Canada, Mexico, Aruba........ to be continued.