The Why and the How | July 10, 2007 @ 10:02 am |
This is for the Sock-It-To-Me Sock Swap questionnaire. I need to say why and how I learned how to knit. I know I’ve written something very similar to this, but I have to post it again if I want to win that gift certificate for STR yarn!!!
I was 20 years old and working for the Space Sciences Lab at UC Berkeley. I was just a lowly old “Principal Clerk” doing various administration tasks like answering phones, making copies, typing email, letters, faxes, etc. One of the women who worked there (KathB) was my idol. She was really smart and nice and worked her way into a programming job from an administrative position. She had 2 boys who were the most well behaved and smart boys I ever met, and basically I just wanted to be her. I tried my best. Now, 16 years later (gasp!) I also got a programming job at Microsoft, although now I’m a stay-at-home-mom of 2 year old twin BOYS! I don’t have her beautiful blond hair, blue eyes, fair skin, and thinness though. Damn. I hear cosmetic surgery is coming along though. Look at what they’ve done with Michael Jackson! ;)
Anyways, she brought in her knitting one day. I remember exactly what she was making. She was making afghan squares for a friend and it was of various San Francisco landmarks. I particularly remember one of the Golden Gate Bridge. I thought it was really neat and I liked watching her knit, it was mesmerising. Do I sound like a stalker yet?
That didn’t get me to start knitting though. Another day, she brought in some dishcloths or maybe I saw it at her house. I thought they were the coolest thing ever. I don’t know why. They were just dishcloths. She had a huge pile of them and she always gave them as Christmas presents. Well, that just made me squeal with delight and I immediately bought a book, yarn, needles, whatever and started to learn how to knit.
I got really serious about knitting then and hammered out a sweater in a week. I was quite impressed with myself. I still knit the dishcloths though and give them as Christmas presents. A lot of the people I knit them for usually has raggedy earlier versions of ones I gave them and felt too bad to ask for more. That makes me happy! I like useful knitting.
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