A Brief History

"A history of what?" you ask.
Well, we'll start with my personal knitting history. Perhaps soon we'll look at a history of knitting in general, and a history of men knitting. But for now, we'll settle with me.

I've always been rather interested in knitting. When I was very small (too small to remember how old I was), my mum and nana taught me how to knit. I think I had my own little needles and everything. But, inevitably, I grew tired of it when I didn't have a sweater within ten minutes or so.
I made several attempts to get on with the hobby throughout my childhood, but was never any good at it, and never got past the basic knit stitch. I wanted to learn how to purl, but there was no point if I couldn't make a half decent job of knitting something.

About two years ago, my now wife, then girlfriend, knit me a scarf for Christmas.
I was aware of the task that she had undertaken (mainly because she didn't know how to cast off, and I was given the job of finding out) and got her to teach me again.

I knit a scarf for my friends' baby, but it was too scratchy, and he wouldn't wear it. Thus ended that brief excursion into the world of knitting.

Finally (and this is where the past meets the present), I was in my local library in Noevember, and I found some rather cool looking knitting books. I took them out on a whim, and had a look through them at home, thinking that I could make a few Christmas presents for friends and family. I found that there were plenty of things that I wanted to make, but that I would have to finally face my old foe, the purl stitch.
I Googled for it (something that turns out to be a useful tool of the modern knitter), and printed out the instructions. Thus prepared, and with a ball of wool and a pair of needles, I headed to my favourite coffee shop with a friend who also wanted to learn to purl.
We sat for some time getting our yarn in a twist, but finally I shouted with triumph that I had cracked it. From then on, I've not been able to stop. Once I could purl, I knit a ribbed scarf for my friend Jacob. No sooner was it off my needles than I started a scarf for my mum, for which I learned the cable stitch. Next on the list was a hat for my wife, Bethany, and I combined the new technique of decreasing, with Fairisle (a method of knitting with more than one colour to make a pattern). Having finished that, Jacob got a hat to match his scarf, this time with earflaps. Then I knitted Bethany a multi-cabled hat. In the meantime, I'd bought myself a new pair of needles, and I had another scarf on the go; this one a more adventurous combination of Fairisle, stocking stitch and garter stitch edging, with a pattern I had created myself.

So that brings us to where we are now. In the past 7 weeks, I have learned to purl, knit several things, and started a knitting club. I can't stop. It's too much fun.

So, the purpose of this blog is multi-faceted: to keep people up to date with the activities of my knitting group; to show off new projects; to share advice and techniques; to ask for help; to share patterns; to learn more about knitting and the history of knitting.

If you have any advice for me, or would like more information about Knit it Up, then drop me an email at salvatordarling@gmail.com, or comment on this blog.