Knitting Nightmares #1

When I first learned to knit I taught myself. It was prescribed as physical therapy after having a cystotomy in my wrist. After just a couple of months I was back to full flexibility, able to touch my thumb to my forearm.

I learned to knit by watching Knitty Gritty on the DIY Network. Apparently I didn’t watch close enough. For the first 6 months of my knitting career I was always knitting through the back loop. I was apparently also wrapping the yarn backwards when purling. So you’d think that with the twisting of the knitting and the twisting of the purling they’d cancel each other out. But noooo, not the way it works.

I couldn’t figure out why my knitting was so damned tight. My fabrics didn’t move the way they were supposed to. They just sat there like hard little lumps. Like some sort of cyst. See what happens when you try to do something for yourself? I was about to give up then I found my LYS and a very helpful women.

She told me about her beginner’s knitting class and it wasn’t until I took that class that I realized what I was doing. Even then it took the instructor looking at my knitting to tell me. I still have that little bright pink baby sweater. With the first half of the back with twisted stitches. I’m such a perfectionist that if I did it now I’d rip it out and start over. However it was my first ever piece of knitted clothing and it will stay with twisted stitches forever, and probably unseamed as well.