LEARNing 5

I LEARNed how to knit last night!  I've always wanted to know, but it always just seemed too hard.  I'm uncoordinated with one hand, let alone two.  It was too confusing when I tried it last (30+ years ago!).  My hand/wrist hurts when I crochet; imagine how it would hurt if I tried to knit...

There were lots of reasons why I thought I couldn't LEARN to knit.  But recently one of my favorite bloggers, Organized Jen, rediscovered her love of knitting.  (Coincidentally that link will take you to her first knitting post!)  And I decided to give it a try.  No one says I have to knit a cozy for the Taj Mahal, first time out...

I took Mom to ACMoore the other day and I bought two large skeins of wool, a pale taupe/sand color and a cream.  She suggested the shorter needles to start, in a size 7.  I bought both a size 7 and a size 8, and later this week I'll go back for longer needles.  I picked up a laminated How To flyer, but when she looked at it, Mom said they taught it the "wrong" way, that she'd teach me an easier way.

I went home and immediately looked up knitting on the internet and found a short video from CyberSeams.  It showed how to cast on and how to knit.  That's it.

So I tried it.  And I've knitted FOUR rows!!!  I'm going to get myself a how to knit and how to crochet book, and give it the old college try!

My sister P was so proud of me, and surprised that I could already pick out where I missed a stitch or made some other error.  She also told me that I'm knitting the American way, whereas she and Mom knit the Russian (?) way.  [Or was it the European way, P?]  Apparently Mom holds her yarn the other way, and they go in from the back to pick up a stitch, not from the front...  This is all beyond me.  When I'm comfortable and not dropping stitches left and right, THEN I'll try moving the yarn to another hand, or another finger, or something...  Right now I'm just so thrilled I LEARNed how to knit!

I'm also taking some retail sales training courses online through work.  They seem sort of basic and silly, or at least they did to start, but I always seem to pick up something from each one.  I guess they really are worth my time and the company's money, if they help me LEARN a new sales tool I can use to help sell more books or more content or more services.