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| One of my earliest creations--a dress for Midge. |
However it remained a difficult process because of this basic problem. I knit left-handed. I did what came naturally when I taught myself and by the time I figured it out, I couldn't switch. I have never found another left-handed knitter to help me. I know they are out there, but they are few and far between. I had forgotten until recently that my mother signed me up for a knitting class with a neighborhood knitter when I was trying to learn. The teacher used a mirror trying to help me reverse the stitches. Maybe that's how I learned to purl. I don't remember.
I went along for years being confused by many directions and pictures and didn't really progress much. At one point, I asked my sister to help me learn how to crochet and that didn't fair any better. She used her right hand and I used my left hand. This resulted with all of my stitches having the tension on the wrong side of the stitch and I wound up with a loosely bound, holey, mess of yarn.
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| One of my felted purses at the community fair that is very generous with ribbons. |
If I were learning to knit today, it might be easier with all of the tutorials that are on You Tube for left-handed
knitters. Maybe I'll watch them and see what I can learn. Or maybe I'll be happy with the status quo. There are other things calling for my attention these days like learning about post-mortem photography during Victorian times. :)
Do you knit or crochet? How did you learn?
Such a cute little dress for Midge. My mom taught me to knit--I'm thinking I was in middle or high school. All I remember making was slippers. Then I forgot about knitting for a few decades, and about 4 or 5 years ago decided to attempt again (my husband loves to watch sports in the winter--I dislike sports but wanted to be able to hang out with him so I decided knitting would keep me occupied). I re-learned from a few different sources--knitting books from the library, youtube, and a couple of women at church who helped me out of a few knotty problems (pun intended). My daughter was at the age where knitting little outfits for her stuffed animals and dolls was a big hit. Those turned out to be great learning projects. I learned a lot of techniques, could use inexpensive yarn, and they were completed relatively quickly. I have also done the hat/scarf thing--I lovelovelove this cowl and use it for gifts all the time--3 people requested them this winter, so I think I'm on to a winner! https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/one-night-one-skein-seed-stitch-cowl
ReplyDeleteA blogger I recently discovered, mamainastitch.com, has simple knitting and crocheting patterns which are easy to follow.
The cowl sounds just about my speed. I tried to do a quick look, but I'll have to go back another time when I have time to sign up for the site. I haven't knit in a couple of years and wonder how my thumbs will fare as they hurt most of the time now. But for me also, knitting is a winter activity, so my yarn will probably stay in the cupbord until next fall.
DeleteI used to refer to it as Downton Abbey knitting but that show is no longer on the air. I'm also (mostly) a winter knitter--we are supposed to get an ice storm this weekend so maybe I'll have to find a stash-busting project, since the calendar says spring but the weather says otherwise!
DeleteSorry about your ice storm. We supposed to have warm weather for the next couple of days. Warm enough to do yard work, actually. :)
DeleteI'm hoping we don't get it. My husband and I have tickets to see Celtic Women Saturday night (a VERY rare event for us to attend!) and I will be sad if we have to miss that due to weather. We are going to be in the middle of a cold and warm front so it wouldn't take much for us to end up in the storm's path--right now it's predicted for the county just to our north.
DeleteCeltic Women should be a great concert. Good luck with the weather.
DeleteI tried... really I did, and I don't even have a good excuse like you do. I simply lack the patience gene. Let's just say that Midge's dress puts anything I ever attempted to shame! :-)
ReplyDeleteI was quite proud of Midge's dress at the time. I looked at the rest of the clothes recently that I made her and can't understand how I got them on her. There were a lot of long, straight evening gowns one even made in velvet. But tight gowns and non-bending arms are not a good combo for dressing a fashion doll.
DeleteI knit badly and only in the wintertime. When I was a kid Mom insisted we learn to do what she was interested in which was knit, sew, and embroider. None of thee pleased me in the least. I was not a girly girl and though I loved to cook I was what my sister called a tom girl. I played with the guys in the neighborhood but always dressed in cute clothes and had my hair done. By the time I was a teen I realized I just liked different things and it was ok that I did not like needle arts. There were plenty of other things I really liked to do.
ReplyDeleteMy mother did not make us learn how to knit or embroider, but we had to learn how to sew and made many of our own clothes. That was much more economical. My sewing was okay, but my sister's was really good. My outfits looked homemade, but sister's didn't. She even made her winter coat and looked quite stylish.
DeleteAnne, I've been thinking about this lately--I am in physical therapy for my shoulder and my therapist (who is also an athletic trainer) kindly kids me about my lack of coordination (she has me doing all sorts of workouts and I have a hard time figuring out where my body is supposed to be--there's a professional name for that but I won't bore y'all!). My interests have always been more toward fine motor tasks and yes, I'm pretty clumsy, at least for gross motor skills. I'm curious if people tend to have a preference for gross versus fine motor skills. Seems to me to be the case when I consider the people I know. #lastpersonpickedforsportsteams
DeleteInteresting ideas. As an occupational therapist, I thought you would have all of the answers to these questions. I too have a hard time knowing where my body is supposed to be and how to move it to get there. That is probably related to my lack of good spacial sense.
DeleteWe just know what to look for, not the incidence of how frequently they occur or if people with good gross motor skills have less good fine motor skills and vice versa. In general, I have noticed that OTs tend to be better at creative and fine motor pursuits and PTs prefer more logical reasoning tasks and are more likely to be athletic (definitely that is anecdotal and not true across the board!). Considering what we both do, that makes a lot of sense to me.
DeleteWhat you say about the differences between PTs and OTs makes sense. I'm going to have to think about it for a while.
DeleteI do know why I hated sewing or other "hand work" I detested them as a kid and still find little reward in them, but my mother was (and still is) a perfectionist and anything not done to her specs had to be ripped out/apart and redone.Conversely I love drawing and painting which are fine motor skills. (It was also something Mom could not do at all so my art was always "safe' from redoing unless I was the one not pleased with it.
DeleteFinally Mom and I struck a sewing deal. If she would make what I wanted, I would cook and clean the kitchen for her. It was a win/win/win. Mom was an excellent seamstress and loved sewing as much as she hated cooking. I can remember Dad walking in the house from work hearing the sewing machine buzzing and getting excited because it meant supper would actually have some flavor.
Live and Learn. You are the only person I ever knew besides my sister and I who had Midge. Did you have Allen also?
DeleteWe did not have an Allen. Midge was our only doll in the Barbie world. My older sister got it as a birthday present and then it was passed down to the rest of it. It was only a couple of years ago that I figured out it wasn't Barbie.
DeleteAlso, Anne, I would hate sewing if I had had to rip everything out. It also makes sense that you are happy in the kitchen since you were allowed to be in there without as much criticism. As you said, a win/win/win situation, especially for your dad.
DeleteI love that dress you knitted for your doll! The felted purse looks good too - love that color combination.
ReplyDeleteI learned to knit in 4th grade, when I was 9. We had to choose between crocheting and knitting and I chose knitting because 2 of my aunts knitted. My mother knew how to, but she didn't knit, as such (and she learned to crochet, much later). I had to knit a scarf at school! I don't know why we were required to learn how to knit a scarf when we lived in a tropical country! My scarf languished for the longest time, when my step-dad's niece (who did a lot of knitting) taught me the basket weave pattern and I finished the scarf. No idea what happened to it - probably left it behind when we left the country!
You certainly have honed your knitting skill beautifully. I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of your latest sweater.
DeleteYou look pretty talented to me! I like your felted purse a lot.
ReplyDeleteYour left-handed story reminded me that my ex, who is left-handed, learned to play the guitar upside down because he didn't have a left-handed guitar. He then taught himself the bass and still plays it upside down. I believe that means that the strings are placed in the opposite direction than they would be if he were right-handed, but I'm not sure. All our 3 kids ended up being left-handed as well, which was hell when I was trying to teach them how to tie their shoes, hold a pencil, write their names, etc when they were toddlers, as I am right handed. But we made it! When YS (who has a different father and both Greg and I are right-handed) showed signs of preferring his left hand when he was a toddler and I was homeschooling him, I did make him switch to using his right hand, which he actually did quite easily. He is right-handed but still favors his left hand to throw balls, etc.
As far as knitting or crochet, I don't really know how to do it although I have tried on several occasions from the time I was little. Both my grandmothers did both and were very good at it. My mom never learned. My maternal grandmother tried to get me interested but I didn't show much of an aptitude (I just wanted to read!) and then I tried teaching myself as a teen and made myself a pair of leggings (it in the early 80s, the ones who wore around your ankles) but they looked clunky and awful. Then when I was in my early 30s, the wife of an artist at my job was coming over at lunchtime to teach employees how to knit so I joined the group. But we mostly chatted and I was terrible at the knitting so it didn't last for me. I have no patience and no skill. I used to enjoy cross-stitching but these days I'm too scatterbrain to be able to concentrate on that.
I admire people who are creative like this, though. I used to make clothes for my (fake) Barbie dolls, but I would just cut holes in bits of fabrics and then use yarn to make a "belt" and call it a dress, lol.
If I cross stitch again, I will probably do something with the pattern printed on it. My attention span has shortened along with everyone elses these days. I don't know if I could pay attention long enough to count accurately in a complicated pattern. What I really admire is someone like Bless who can do those very complicated knitting patterns. I tried a simple sweater once that ended up being a vest because I couldn't figure out how to do the sleeves.
DeleteI had a knitting phase but I wasn't very good at it. I gave it up finally. Portland, up north, is known for its hordes of young knitters, who even knit decor for statues up there at times.
ReplyDeleteKnitting for a statue is something I've never seen. Sounds simultaneously like fun and a waste of time. Maybe they could be knitting sweaters for the homeless or something instead of statues. Now I'll come down off of my judgmental, high horse.
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