The Knitting Back Story

My maternal grandma has been knitting since about 1942. She was "recruited" to knit socks for the troops when she was in college and still knits to this day. She crochets. She used to sew. Her sister, my great aunt, majored in home economics. (My dad still raves about that aunt's cooking to this day.) Crafty runs on my dad's side, too. It's deep in my genes and sometimes, I just "need" to create.

I used to think that I wasn't artistic because I couldn't draw. It wasn't until I took a class in child development focused on art for children where I began to understand that drawing was only a small part of being artistic, of being crafty.

Card making, stamping, scrapping and cross stitch have been my "addictions" of choice over the years. But lately, I've been more likely to read than to come home and create. But my mom took up knitting last year and decided that it would be an excellent mother/daughter bonding experience if I did, too. I was not a particularly enthused or excited participant. I'd tried knitting with my grandma before and it just didn't "click." I worked on the same piece for weeks. I'd only work on it near my mom so I didn't get very far.

Then, I went to a yarn store. And the plot, so they say, thickened.

I saw the most amazing scarf EVER. And I realized that if I put energy into learning how to knit I could make something THAT cool. That very night, I probably knit just as much as I had all the weeks together.

I made crazy mistakes. Still working on the gaping holes i end up with. My mom and even my expert grandma sometimes don't know how to fix what I've done. I actually have managed to pull off complex stitches without know what in the world I'm doing. But I'm slowly getting better. And more patient. I've got a stash of yarn growing and some weekends, I have to fight the urge to buy more, more, more!

This blog isn't just about knitting. But it is the newest of my craft obsessions and will most likely be the dominant feature of "Fat Cat Crafts." Well, perhaps second to my feline companions. Since I don't have children of my own to brag about...I will probably post a little more about my felines than a non-cat lover would like. ;0)