Wednesday, August 15, 2007

I AM a Knitwit!

Who remembers "Knit Magic" from the 70's? I remember the commercial jingle, "The faster you turn, the faster you knit...." and was enthralled. I begged Mom to get me my own Knit Magic. I loved it. The only thing I knew how to make was wristbands so I made several pairs for my brother. That must have been when I first got interested in the idea of knitting. Little did I know you could do it by hand, with knitting needles and that you could make more than just wristbands!

I went to the KnitWits meeting yesterday. First let me tell you what you KnitWits are famous for: Last year they donated 1800 knitted hats for the babies at Parkland hospital. 1800!!! Some of these ladies have been knitting for years. Anbd by years, I mean more years than I've been alive!

Tee Tee said she's been at it for something like 50 years. She didn't even look much older than that herself so she must have started very young. She told me to pick out some yarn and she gave me a pair of pink knitting needles and she showed me how to "cast" and how to "knit". As soon as I got into the groove of how to do it, I found that I couldn't talk. Or even listen to the conversations around me. I was having to concentrate so hard. Tee Tee told me to practice more when I got home and then tomorrow, she'd show me how to "pearl". Once I got home to do it, I immediatly made a mistake I didn't know how to fix. So I called Alice, my 80-something year old neighbor across the street, who seems to know everything. (And I mean that in the best way!) I thought just maybe she'd know about knitting. And of course, she did. She told me to come right over and she'd help me sort out my screw up.

Alice got me going again and I felt pretty confident as I left her house. But then, soon after I was cut loose, I did something wrong again. I tried to fix it and only made things worse. By then, it was too late (and too humiliating) to bother Alice again.

But now, it's almost time to leave to meet up with Tee Tee again. But I am not ready to learn how to pearl. Clearly. I need to stick with just knitting. And learning how to back up and correct a mistake.

Yesterday I set out to become a Knitwit. And I think I clearly achieved that.

2 comments:

Valerie said...

BRAVO! :o)

Valerie said...

Me again...here's the link to the yahoo group. It's called Knitting Novices. I introduced myself to the group a long time ago, but hardly ever post anything. I find it interesting to read though.

Enjoy!
val