For those who don’t know…I taught myself to crochet with books, some help from Stitch Guide and a little help from my snl and her. I have been doing it for a couple years now…I love doing it because I can buy yarn…and I love me yarn.

My lovely and thoughtful mother found a Learn-To-Knit kit geared towards children at a book fair for the grammar school where she works and bought it for me because I have mentioned wanting to learn to knit. My snl showed me a bit how to cast on and how to knit probably about 6 months ago…I knitted a gorgeous green scarf…that unraveled because I cast off wrong. Frustrated I had given up.

The kit my mom bought me has these lovely wood knitting needles that I love the feel of. They just feel good. So I sat down this afternoon bound and determined to once and for all conquer the knitting monster. First I tried to cast on with the two needle method which I couldn’t figure out for the life of me…so I did the one needle method- which I caught on to very quickly…but do not be impressed because that is the way my snl showed me- I am pretty sure.

Once casted on I began to make the recommended practice swatch of 10 knitted rows, 10 purled rows. So I started. I was proud because I was remembering everything my snl taught me about knitting. I did good. My little 10 row swatch was looking great. Then I went to purl. That is where it all went awry. I tried purling that first stitch of the first row of purl for about 30 minutes and gave up…walked around got some air played with the dog etc. Then I went back to it…and I tried and tried and tried. Then suddenly it worked and three rows of purl appeared and look just like they did in the book. Ahhh I was vindicated and proud again. No problem. I put some cookies in the over…and sat back down to purl away…and watch tv. And I did. Then I looked down at my knitting only to find that even though I am 99% sure I am doing the same thing that I was doing before…my purling has turned into the knit stitch and I have 10 knit rows, 3 purl rows, and 7 more knit rows. Urg….I consulted two books, the internet and my mother…none of which where able to figure out what I did wrong. I continued- following the directions step by step in the book…and still my swatch looks like one big knitted square. Frustrated I tired to figure out what I was doing wrong and in paying more attention to the book than the knitted ended up pulling my needle out of half of the knitting..and then unraveled a bunch of it to try to put the needle back in it. My purls STILL looked like the knit stitch and NOT like the purl stitch. Frustrated…I finally just took my needles out of the swatched. Unraveled it…and rolled my yarn back up onto my yarn ball…and then…being the good sportsman I am…THREW the ball across the room and down the hall. I think I might hate knitting.