Bass Ackwards

I've been thinking about it and, yup, I'm backward.

I "read" magazines from the back to the front. I've been known to look at the end of a book first. I occasionally will catch the end of a TV show (on purpose) that I'm taping. It's OK with me if I learn the score of a sporting event that my husband is taping and then sit through it with him pretending I don't know the outcome. Why? No idea. Weird isn't it?

It's the same thing with my knitting and beading.

Most people start with the ubiquitous scarf. Me? Nah. I started with a sweater - a striped sweater no less. Never mind that it was made in creepy acrylic. I happily wore it for several years. Then I went on to a ...are ya' ready, a shawl collar sweater for my then "boyfriend". (He's now my husband and we've been married 19 years today....Happy Anniversary to us.) So I knit a sweater as a second project too and thumbed my nose at the "boyfriend" curse. In fact, I had completely forgotten this sweater, until my husband mentioned that he still had it packed away in the attic. (I had long since given my striped acrylic to St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Shop.) The next one I do remember. It was a short sleeved cotton sweater, in purple, and I had such a hard time finding yarn, that I had to hold two fingering weight strands together to knit it. It had a complicated bells and bobbles front and did I mention...I knit ALL of these pieces in the round. The patterns were not written in the round, but I converted them...including the very complicated front of the purple cotton.

As I look back on these feats, I honestly don't know how I did it. But I did. Remarkable. I also followed the same pattern with beading. I embarked on my beading by creating a complex "stained glass" amulet bag, completely with Mill Hill beads. (Those of you familiar with beading will recognize that this probably cost me a fortune. It did.)

I got back into knitting late in 2004, I actually learned to knit in the mid-eighties. And what did I choose for a first project in 2004. A scarf. A "fun fur" scarf. It was fun, it was easy, and I used straight, single point needles for the first time. Of course, I added Miyuki triangle beads to the scarf. I haven't stopped. I found that I like knitting accessories. Scarves, hats, bags, wraps,....I have one sweater that I may knit in the forseeable future, but we'll see. I've also started knitting socks.

What hasn't changed is that I'm still fearless. I don't care what the pattern difficulty is rated. If I like it, I'll figure it out.
Especially with a little help from my "friends" on the internet. Something we hadn't even considered in the eighties......