How I learned to Knit

Welcome to Jenny Fish Knits.
This is my blog sharing my knitting adventures.

Let me start by sharing how I originally got into knitting...

February 2007

My oldest son Caleb was in 5th grade. He was struggling at school and I had to place him in a special school for behavior issues. This school was a therapeutic school, it require parental interaction and it became very clear to me that I needed to stop working and focus on my son and his needs. After budgeting and planning I quit my day job and became a full time stay-at-home mother. After my son settled in and his behavior issues settled down I found myself with blocks of free time that I didn't know what to do with. As a young girl my Grandmother had showed me how to cross stitch, crochet and do needle work. I tried cross stitching again, but my eyes didn't seem to want to focus on the tiny holes in the Aida cloth. When I tried to crochet everything turned out like an upside down bikini bottom and I didn't seem to place my hook in the right place.

One day I was chatting with by best friend Becca, and out of no where I stated I wanted to learn how to knit. Let me take a second to introduce Becca. She is my partner in crime, the one that has always has my back, stands by my side and encourages me to be the person I am. She has amazing faith in me and always lifts me up when I'm down, and pulls me back to reality when I need a swift kick in the butt. If ever their was such a thing as a soul sister, kindred spirit or sister from another mother... That is My Becca! If you know me, you know the name Becca.

Okay, so back to me blurting out that I wanted to learn how to knit. To my surprise she said she did too! She set out looking for a knitting class and found one at a craft store in Oklahoma City. She signed us up for the class. The class cost us $20 a person and lasted two hours. We got our supplies and went to the class. Now, this class was a beginners class. By that, I mean a true beginners class. We spent two hours waiting on the rest of the class to learn how to make a slip knot.

By the time we got out of the class we were both disappointed in how slow the class moved. How the instructor didn't seem to be a fit for us. After the class we went home and I searched YouTube for videos on knitting. I found a few that seemed promising. I took out my aluminum needles and cheap acrylic yarn and set in front of the computer determined I was going to figure out how to do this Cast On sling shot looking thing. I played with the needles and yarn for hours. Eventually I got it!

I called Becca and we made plans for her to come over so I could show her my new found trick. Between Becca and I, we figure out the Cast On, the Knit stitch and after some time we learned how to purl. We mucked our way through a few dish clothes and soon we learned scarves and baby blankets.

By this time I was feeling pretty good about us knitting. Becca found a knitting group called Stitch and Bitch at a local yarn store. So we packed up our aluminum needles and acrylic yarn and joined the group. When we walked into the yarn shop it was like a light shined from above and the angles sang Halleluiah. We learned several things that day. Yarn can me made out of more than just acrylic, needles can have cords and be made out of other materials. The ladies in the group educated us. By the time we left that night we had been schooled!

We continued to visit the group and soon we learned how to make hats, gloves, sweaters and even SOCKS!