For the Love of Yarn

As I was contemplating knitting and it's importance in the lives and societies of so many people, I started thinking about when my grandma taught me to knit. I was 20, and looking for a creative hobby. I already "knew" how to crochet. I say that in quotations because I learned how to crochet when I was 11, and while I can whip out a shady looking scarf, my crocheting abilities are mediocre at best. So I never really played with yarn all that much. Until that cold day the beginning of January when my grandma handed me my first pair of knitting needles.

She had some purple yarn that she wasn't going to use. So, she started by casting on enough stitches to make a scarf. Then she showed me how to do a couple stitches, and handed the needles over to me. And it was the easiest thing I have ever learned. I slipped the needles through the stitches, and could tell that this love affair I was starting with these sticks and yarn would not end.

I kept going and going, and when the first shade of purple ran out, I added another shade of purple and ended up with the first scarf I ever made. I still have it, and although I don't wear it too much anymore (I've got so many scarves that I alternate...) I love it, because it reminds me of something that started as a simple little hobby, and has blossomed into the love of a lifetime.