I learned to knit when I was 18 in order to make a “Doctor Who” scarf for my brother. I was pregnant with my first child at the time, and he was followed by a brother just under two years later, and their father left a year after that. I did continue knitting during that time, but anyone who has kids knows that when they are little, there isn’t a lot of time for much “extra.” A lot happened in those years, but not a lot of creating, mostly it was just trying to keep it all together on my own. I developed severe carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands, and in 2011 had to stop knitting altogether. I had surgery to fix my hands and in 2019, I was able to pick it back up again. At that time, I also discovered online knitting communities. Having people I could easily talk to about my crafting, and just life in general, greatly enhanced my enjoyment of my craft. It was also the most social involvement I’d had in years since an accident in my late 20s left me disabled and eventually, practically a hermit. Due to the encouragement I got from the people in my online knitting communities, I developed the courage to try new things, not only in my crafting, but in my life in general. I am now knitting things I never would have dreamed of 26 years ago when I made that first incredibly long but entirely garter stitch scarf, or even 3 years ago when I picked up those needles again. I am also participating more in the world around me. I have been the secretary of a community watch organization for 18 months and now have an offer for a paying job from someone I met through that group. He actually created the job for me because he was so impressed with my work there that he wanted me working with him. If it weren’t for those first needles I picked up 26 years ago, I would never have met the people who have encouraged me to move outside myself, in a time when I felt I wasn’t useful to anyone for any reason, and found that I still had a lot to offer people. Crafting has given me my life back.
I have been saying “I really want to learn to crochet” for quite some time now (3 years at the very least!) , so my goal for Crafting Month is to actually grab a hook (I already have quite a few), some yarn, find a good YouTube video on how to crochet and actually DO IT already!
I’m the same. I don’t think I’ve watched much on the TV in the past 3 years when I haven’t been knitting at the same time. I’ve been a multitasker all my life, so just sitting and watching TV and not doing anything else makes me antsy!
I had much the same experience. I love coloring, but in the end, I just have a pretty page in a coloring book that I will eventually throw away, so it served no purpose. Being pretty is a service, but I want my pretty things to actually serve some function as well. Knitting gives me much more of a sense of satisfaction than coloring or puzzles or that sort of thing does because I create a beautiful hat, sweater, blanket, or dishcloth that also serves a purpose, and that makes me very happy!
There MUST be! I look at my family and I see the creativity “gene” in each of them. My mom ran a bakery and candy story for many years, so her creativity was obvious. She made beautiful cakes and candies just about every day of her life. My dad was a mechanic, but he also wrote music and poems and sang beautifully. My brothers are both IT guys, but one loves to decorate the house and yard for holidays and makes movies, and is an AMAZING candy maker, the other also sings and writes and LOVES to create things in the kitchen. My sister was an EMT most of her adult life, but she also creates beautiful decorations and learned cakes and candy at our mother’s feet and still makes beautiful things in that area. I knit and sing and love to bake and create new recipes to try out on my family and friends. Each of our creativity has different flavors, but it is there in all of us!
I always tell my family that knitting is my yoga. Especially a good, mindless project like a scarf, hat, or blanket, just calms and centers me. I love it! But I also get a charge out of learning and conquering a new stitch or technique, it’s better than any drug high could be to me!
I recently taught three ladies how to crochet. We started with a single color granny square. No row or stitch counting, stitching in holes. You might start there.
I taught myself how to crochet (pre-internet days!) - I could have used a better teacher for sure.
What did I make first? A lace table cloth. I only got about a dozen circles made. At the rate I was going it would have taken me a lifetime to finish, so I gave up.
I heartily agree with the granny squares. They are fun to make and can be smaller projects like pet blankets, etc.
My great grandma learned to crochet in Indian school (both my maternal great Gran and my paternal gran were orphaned during relocation and ended up in “Indian school” which was a hellish residential school back then.) Side note, paternal gran ended up in the Okmulgee Oklahoma orphanage after her family died. She was adopted and taken to California where I was eventually born. I didn’t know this til deep diving my geneology in my 40s as she NEVER spoke of it. She had already passed by then and I had relocated to… Okmulgee Oklahoma. How crazy is that?
Anyway … my great gran, Gran and mom were all crocheters. I learned as a child and made lots of granny squares and a few scarves. Then I asked to learn to knit. Mom taught me to knit and I made a few simple things but I just want one to sit still for long back then. I didn’t really get into it until I was pregnant with my first child. I made her a few little things but I was still not one to sit still much as I was only 18. I would knit a couple of things per year and occasionally crochet something. My mom knit beautiful things for the baby but I didn’t really get heavily into it until I started developing health problems. Didn’t know at the time as it took over a decade to get an accurate diagnosis but it was autoimmune disease. Over the course of about 5 years in the early 90s I went from someone who worked and homeschooled my kids and worked outside a LOT to being someone who has to learn to budget my energy very carefully. I was still a homeschooler and a youth leader at church but I could no longer work full time and fence building and mowing etc had to be delegated. I started knitting again with a vengeance. Depression was always hovering and when I say knitting kept me sane I’m not kidding. It’s a rare day that I don’t have yarn in my hands at some point in the day. Even now that I’ve learned to manage the diseases and can do a lot most of the time, “If I’m sitting, I’m knitting.” In the car, the movies, my “resting between projects chair” by the barn … I ALWAYS have a yarn project on hand. It’s still my therapy but I really have just come to love the process, like @Hellokitten mentioned, but I also love the products. People ask if you’re a process knitter or a product knitter and I say BOTH!
Crochet and knitting run in my family (on my mum’s side, that is), and I also enjoy trying other things - I do a lot of embroidery, the odd bit of origami, and so on. What I think I like most is making things that make people happy, whether it’s for me or someone else. I also get a kick out of taking a pile of yarn balls and turning out a gnome, or a shawl, or a throw or whatever. I feel like a wizard in the Harry Potter world, only my wand has a hook on the end…
That is such a wonderful coincidence! In. researching my husband’s geneology I found his family had moved similarly and we had followed the same path back unknowingly. so funny. My husband has several lines of NA, making him 1/8. I love geneology. Me, I’m basically a viking who ended up in Scotland.
@Nyssareen that would be
insane! I was told that people with MG are often initially misdiagnosed with a more “common” AI disease. I suppose it makes a difference to some degree in treatment and which systems are affected the most etc but I’ve come to think of it as one big disease of Autoimmune dysfunction. It’s also really common for people with one “big” AI disease to develop one or more “smaller” ones. I was diagnosed with Hashimotos and RA which are also AI. But I refused most treatments and focused on just helping my immune system in general. That’s a big old, long, and probably crazy to most people sorry for another time and place. Hopefully we can meet Sunday because my gosh we would have a LOT to talk about! FYI I probably will be in Utah and Arizona some this spring or summer.
@Hellokitten That’s so cool! So perhaps not as rare as people think? I know there are a lot of us with NA blood who are not on the rolls. I was told that with the info I have I could probably petition to have our family added back but I have mixed feelings about it.
My maternal grandfather has Dutch, Scottish and African heritage. I was raised in a church that really stressed genealogy so my aunt did my maternal line back to the 1700s. I never really got into it because I thought, oh well, Aunt Jean already did it all. But when I was 15 and visiting my dad in California, his Aunt was there and wrote down all she knew so I could do his line. She said someone had made an attempt and couldn’t find much. I didn’t attempt until I was in my 30s and had become a pretty decent researcher. I used to be a researcher for a big corporate law firm in Fresno. Once I started looking I was hooked! Genealogy really is fascinating.
@KnitsWithHorses Yeah, I have a couple of “secondary” AI issues as well, and the rheumy told me that wasn’t uncommon. What part of Utah are you going to be in? I am all the way down in the southwest corner, so if you’re going to be in this area, that would be a blast!
I did a first for me the other day–I had left my crocheting project on my desk and when I thought I was grabbing a pen to quickly write something down, I looked down and saw I had my crochet hook in my hand! For a few short seconds I was having a time getting it to write! I guess I have too many yarn projects going on!:p:yarn:
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