You're Getting a Scarf For Christmas.
Despite feeling a little gross, I decided to go to the knitting class I scheduled a few weeks ago. It was held Saturday afternoon at Yarns Unlimited, a small yarn store in downtown Bloomington. I was, oddly enough, the only guy in the class; I'm beginning to notice that I am drawn to activities that seem to also attract middle-age women who are looking for activities to fill their time now that the kids have left for college.
The last time I tried knitting, I was a junior in college and was going through a "I'm-going-to-be-like-_recoil-and-be-all-crafty" phase. I begged and begged my mother to knit but there were weird rules there. Growing up, my mom was pretty amazing with allowing me to grow into my own person; she didn't force me into any specific roles which, thinking about it, must have been pretty hard given the fact I grew up in the UP. It's a lot easier to brag about your son the quarterback than it is about your son the forensics state finalist. She never really taught me how to cook or knit or cross stitch; it was almost as if she withheld those lessons because that would make her complicit in the development of who I was. I finally wore her down over Christmas break and we made our way to the yarn store that used to be in the old Ben Franklin building in my hometown, bought some yarn, and we spent the entirety of the evening attempting to teach me how to knit. We weren't all that successful; somewhere in my house there is a ball of decently expensive navy blue yarn waiting to be turned into a scarf.
I don't know if my mom was just a bad knitting instructor or if I simply wasn't ready to learn yet, but I actually caught onto it pretty quickly in the class. Casting on is my favorite part. There's something soothing about moving the needle, the yarn, and my hand in this smooth, rhythmic motion to produce these stitches that will eventually become something interesting. The actual knit stitch was pretty easy as well - I sat up far past what should have been my bedtime on Saturday night (it's official: I'm old. knitting class and a saturday night bedtime?) knitting. Perling has yet to be something I can manage without concentrated effort, but I will eventually get there.
I haven't knit anything of substantial length yet - the picture above is the longest yet. Sadly, I keep adding stitches each line, so it looks like I'm knitting a pyramid rather than a scarf. Must do better on the counting, although there was no mention. And let's hope that I never have to cast off - my head was about to explain and I totally didn't pay attention when Judy, the instructor, showed us how to take our creation off the needles. There's gotta be someone I can find to help me out with that...