Knitter, translator, teacher, traveler, lover of cats, dogs, movies, the sea and the mountains…

My first memory of knitting? A small rectangle made of thick wool in a checkerboard pattern, (k3, p3, repeat 3 rows, then p3, k3), sewed up on the sides by the primary school teacher to make it into a small bag to which a twisted cord was attached. Did I like it? I don’t remember, I think my mother finished it.

Next came classic socks, top down on dpns, oh dear. But when I spotted a gorgeous sweater in my teenage years I couldn’t afford to buy I knew I had to make one myself, plus I got to choose exactly my yarn. I picked the most luxurious pastel yellow angora yarn and set to work under the tutelage and eagle eye of a wonderful friend. It turned out spectacular. What I hugely underestimated, however, was her incredible experience and later, every time I embarked on a new (and usually way too advanced project) it ended up ill-fitting, odd, or somehow just not right. The floats were too long or too tight, the shoulders looked wrong, the sleeves out of proportion. My knitting came to a sad halt as I didn’t see the point spending time and money on a piece that would only make me angry and frustrated. What went wrong?

Not every friend is an experienced knitter, and vice versa – what I lacked were well-written and thought-out patterns, the next best thing when it comes to stitching besties. But that took years to find out. When my daughter was little I dared give it a try again. My legs were blue from the cold wind on a sledding hill and leg warmers were nowhere to be had. It just can’t be so difficult, I convinced myself, and so I knitted two rectangles and sewed them into two legwarmer tubes. (dpn and sock trauma still strong, didn’t dare going in rounds). A friend recommended a book (these were the pre-internet times), and the rest is history ;-)

I learned to tell apart well-written patterns from duds, mostly, and sometimes the hard way. I learned to trust genius designers and be wary of others. And so will you! Hopefully, some of my comments are useful to you.