My first knitting lesson was from my "Aunt Alice", a euphemism for the woman my grandfather lived with and probably never married. I really don't remember much about her, except she taught me to knit. This was not something my mother did and I, for unexplained or remembered reasons, wanted to do. I'm guessing I was probably around 8 years old. My first projects were knit from a skein or international orange yarn that was floating around the house. It was only the knit stitch, not the purl, so I believe there were many garter stitch products. But completely executed from my own designs. Somewhere in my early high school years I added the purl stitch and completed a vest for myself with the help of a local yarn store. I think my career continued with various projects from magazines such as Goodhouskeeping or Better Homes and Gardens. Nothing of significance. The usual hats for boyfriends in college etc. Life progressed, I took up quilting right after college, married, bought a house, etc. again. Then my husband (Mike) and I started camping and dragging around quilting projects just became unfeasible. Add in the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and a crazy commute and I took up my needles again. With a vengeance, I might add. And I've never stopped.
If I'm not knitting, it's likely you might find me like this.
Often I think I knit more like a quilter than a knitter, and I really have a hard time staying with a pattern, it's those early days of international orange projects, I seem to have a mind of my own. I've spent years though refining my basic hat pattern so at least they will fit and be useful. And I realize how much I appreciate art that is craft, and craft that is art. Knitting is meditative to me, I try to stick to patterns that have rhythm to them, the repetition leads to relaxation for me. This must work, when I do try to follow a pattern my swatching leads to going down two or three needles sizes from the suggested.