Introduction

I am late starter when compared to most of the knitters I know. I am 37 and just recently started knitting my first serious piece. A pair of arm warmers.

I started knitting several times.

The first time was in high school when a neighbor took me to either K-mart or Bradlees or Jo-Ann's had me buy a pair of metal needles and some acrylic yarn in purple and black sat me down taught me how to cast on and do a knit stitch. I don't remember if she taught me how to purl. I ended up making a hideous scarf that I never bound off. I'm sure if I go through some boxes at my Mom's place I will find the scarf still on the needles. Although I didn't appreciate the scarf, I do appreciate what Mickey had introduced me. It always stuck with me.

The second time was over 10 years ago, right before I met my husband. I was out of a relationship and wanted to take some time away from the whole dating thing. I went to a yarn shop, found an Adrienne Vittadini I liked, bought 7 skeins of yarn, 2 pairs of Crystal Palace needles, and the Vogue Knitting reference book from the Yarn Barn. The nice lady there showed me how to cast on. I went home and started knitting. A few months later I met my husband and somehow never went back to the knitting. That project is in a closet upstairs. The sweater is now outdated so I doubt I'm going back to it.

The third time was almost 2 years ago. A co-worker at the time showed me a project she was working on and I got a thought in the back of my head that I wanted to knit again. Then my friend showed me a scarf she made using the mistake rib and that is when I decided I would make a scarf using the mistake rib. I walked to Knit+Stich=Bliss on my lunch break and bought a pair of needles and 2 skeins which they wound for me. Then I got pregnant with my daughter and didn't feel like doing anything. But, this time it was different. In the years between my second and third attempts of knitting, content delivery took off. Between sites like knitty (awesome free patterns) and ravelry (how did we live before ravelry) I was still browsing knitting patterns and planning for the day I could make something complicated. Add to that fabulous podcasts like Sleepy Eye Knits, Manic Purl, and Cast-On I was listening to women talking about their knitting all the time. And, don't forget the yarn harlot. Weekly if not daily I was still in touch with the knitting scene.

This time I picked up the scarf from my third attempt and started knitting again. Except one thing, I forgot how to do the mistake rib and I lost the pattern. No probs, someone on ravelry had it. I started knitting again and it still looked wrong. No probs, I can just frog it and re-knit. Okay, probs, frogged yarn doesn't re-knit that well. But, I didn't let it end there, I found a free pattern for arm warmers I liked, bought some yarn from knit picks and am now close to actually completing one of the arm warmers (yay!). I even re-purposed a diaper bag as a knitting bag.