Knitting! It's not my forte. But I am trying to make a little Blythe hat and my knitter friend I told me she would help me through the pattern, so I got some janky baby yarn to do a test run with, since the pattern required 3/"light"-weight. So far I've restarted three times, but I seem to be on a roll right now, knock on wood. I need to YouTube how to "undo" a stitch when I do it wrong (Friend I says they call it "tinking" -- how cute). I mess up so frequently and don't know how to fix it that it's easy to become discouraged.
But I treasure the fact that friends across the country have taught me how to do everything yarn-crafty that I do.
My online friend A taught me how to crochet in 2001 when we got together for a visit. It was the week of Christmas. We sat at her family get-togethers crocheting, me on old purple acrylic yarn with a rectangle that kept mysteriously getting thinner, as I was dropping stitches off the ends like crazy. We went to a Meijer (they don't have Meijers in my state!) and got me my own yarn and hook, and she helped me out every time I got stuck. Later she described to me in an email, not by pattern terminology but strictly in her own words (which I could understand), how to crochet in the round for a hat. She has no clue that she gave me a hobby that I have stuck with and done somewhat regularly for ten years! I never did really learn how to read crochet patterns and rely on YouTube a lot, but I'd like to get better at this.
Another online friend, K, taught me to cast on and the knit stitch when I was visiting her in 2006. Later, in 2010, my RL BFF E's mom re-taught me those lost skills and also taught me how to purl. Since, I have been practicing but sort of been unceasingly poor at it, and now here is my friend I, helping me figure out a pattern and new skills long-distance with videos!!
Some people learn from their mothers or grandmothers... some people learn from books or classes... I pretty much learned from people I met on the internet! It's a new generation of handing down skills, don't you think?
Jane for a beginner your tension looks great ... you'll be a master in no time at all! It's a very pretty colour that you're using.
ReplyDeleteWow, thank you so much!! :)
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