In Which We Meet Studley Knit-Right: Revisiting the Past, Part II

A continuation of older net posts explaining my beginnings as a knitter; presented here to keep the archive complete. Part I is here.

Original post date: October 12, 2006:

OK, so part II of the story. Grandma taught me to knit and purl and sent me on my way. I proceeded to purchase KNITTING FOR DUMMIES, in a quest to figure out , well, everything.

Being spatially challenged, however, I found myself unable to translate the diagrams in the book (or any book -- I tried several) into actual motions. Enter DH. It went something like this:

"hon, can you help me figure it out?"
He grumbles and comes over to where I am sitting in a tangle of yarn.
"Give me the needles and the yarn," he says.
He looks at the book, and 1-2-3, does exactly what is pictured in the diagram.
"Now do it slower and show me," I say.
He does. I try it. I (mostly) grasp the concept.

This happens over and over, in the course of a few days.

I head off to the yarn store to replace the icky aluminum needles and Red Heart acrylic yarn. I get some bamboo needles (size 7) and Lion Brand wool. When I get home from work one afternoon, DH has half of a scarf done in 2x2 rib. Me, I'm still struggling with the purl stitch.

Off to the yarn store I go for some "professional" instruction.
"Show me what you know," the owner says.
I demonstrate what Grandma, DH, and KNITTING FOR DUMMIES has taught me.
"Oh," she says. "You knit that way.
That being Continental.
"I don't know Continental," she says. "I won't be able to help you much."
At this point, I'm not locked into anything, since what I was doing wasn't all that great anyway -- so I then became a 'thrower'.
I still get aggravated when I think of that ... shouldn't a knitting teacher at least be able to demonstrate both styles?
So I go home that evening, having a better grasp on my knitting and purling (literally -- she showed me how to hold the needles properly).
DH had ripped out the 2x2 rib scarf, and had started another -- this time it was the beginning of a cable scarf from Scarf Style.
If looks could kill ....

Since that time, DH has started and frogged more projects that I can remember. 3 scarves from SCARF STYLE, a hat of his own design (complete with seed stitch diamonds that he graphed out), a sock, and who knows what else. He likes the challenge ... and then he cruises along until he makes a mistake. Once the mistake happens, he rips it out, and starts something else. He is too bored and frustrated to start the same project over. There's good in that, though. DH has expensive tastes in yarn. And when he frogs ... it becomes MINE.

Note, 1/7/07: The knitting adventures of DH, whom I have sinced named Studley Knit-Right, will be continued in another post, as soon as I can steal his one FO and photograph it.