From the beginning to Yarn Elf

On the left is my very first knitting! And to the right, meet Yarn Elf!

I'd learned to crochet potholders from my mother when I was three. My Great Aunt Maude taught me to filet crochet when I was five. But no one in the family was admitting to knitting. (Much later I realized my baby booties from my Aunt Elsa, the master embroiderer, were knit.)

In junior high in the 60's tennis sweaters became very popular, but they couldn't be bought here. They had to be hand knit. Mom said that I could knit my own, but we had to take lessons.

Mom had a friend who agreed to teach both of us to knit. But, I couldn't start out with a sweater. Joyce had me start out with squares. In Red Heart wool. On straight needles. She showed me how to hold them, got me going, then went to help Mom...and I changed how I was holding the straights and never have gone back to the "proper" American way. (Ends up, I hold my straights Shetland/Scandinavian style...must be genetic!)

I just couldn't bear to knit an afghan in blocks all the same color or all the same pattern. So I got coordinating earthtones and a learn-to-knit booklet and knit. And knit. And knit. Seemingly forever. But I finished it! I even did all the seaming and crocheted the edging. That Red Heart wool definitely wears like iron...but doesn't pill or rust!

The tennis sweater never did come to fruition. My next project was designing a jumper with buttons on the shoulders for my Barbie doll. Maybe that'll be next Friday's photo!

Mom started in on a stockinette coat in blocks, but it remained a UFO.

I do want to share a pic of my Yarn Elf I mentioned earlier. Thanks to LH for the picture. He's looking elf-like here as, unbeknownst to me, the yarn he's holding is some that he's about to ship to me. I had the picture six days before the yarn!