knitting
My grandmothers, auntie and probably a few other female relatives knew or know how to knit. I remember my aunt making me Postman Pat jumpers when I was around four years old. I remember my grandmother (father’s side) knitting the most but I don’t remember if she made anything for me aside from probably stuff from when I was a baby. She died in February last year and I don’t think she did much knitting in her last few years. I never got to ask her to teach me.
I wanted to learn how to knit for some time, but didn’t feel confident enough to ask anyone because a guy knitting probably makes people think I’m being creepy, strange or a fake. I eventually felt confident enough to ask my lovely work colleague, Emilie, to teach me the basics, told me how to knit cast on and knit a square. I worked out how to cast off and felt very proud of myself. I also taught myself how to purl when doing the third square.
I asked her on Wednesday to teach me how to make socks. I’ve never had real wool socks before so thats one of the reasons I want to get into knitting. I didn’t have any double pointed needles so I couldn’t start on the sock that day. We went to the Tree Shop and had a look at the things I would need, and what type of yarn to use.
I went to the fibre group the next day. Emilie was there and got me started on the first sock. I don’t know how to describe how the sock is being made. It involves something called a provisional cast on and for now, I am just knitting the tube.
Double pointed needles are fiddly to work with. I still have not gotten the hang of it after a couple of days. I am also making a lot of mistakes and at some point I added two stitches. The needles are way thinner than what I’ve used before so it’s really easy to stab through the yarn accidentally. The stitches between the needles are kind of worrying: they look very loose.
I am finding knitting to be very relaxing and rewarding. It takes a lot of time to make anything but actually having something to show after spending hours on something is a lot better than most other things I could be doing. Destroying what’s left of my brain on computer games or movies is depressing. I can make pretty socks instead.
My mother thinks its nice that I am knitting. I asked my youngest sister if she thought I am being weird by getting into this and she said no. I don’t know how other people will think and I worry. It would be really sad if their thoughts get in the way of me from trying to get better at this. I hope that never happens.
Knitting seems to be the best distraction I have right now.