It started out with a pattern in a magazine and a sister with a couple of adorable little children. Every year my sister had holiday photos taken. The magazine pattern was for sweaters with snowmen on them. I read it in late summer or early fall. Maybe, I thought, I’d be able to learn to knit, make the sweaters, and get them to my sister in time for the photos. My niece and nephew were only 3 and 5 at the time. The sweaters would be small. It was a possibility, wasn’t it?

But of course! All I had to do was get over the first obstacle. I didn’t know how to knit. I also didn’t know anyone else who knitted, except for one great aunt. Only, she lived in North Carolina, and I was in Colorado at the time and in a general state of low cash flow. Visiting her was not an option. The next best thing, then, was a how-to book. It was a Reader’s Digest needlework book that got me started. The illustrations were good and the instructions well written. I began reading, and before the sun set on me I was knitting the first sweater’s ribbing.

Over the years, I’ve knitted many more sweaters, along with scarves, afghans, bags, dish cloths, spa cloths, shawls, and table runners, to name a few. My stash grew from a few leftover skeins that fit into one plastic bin to a monster of bins and shelves that ate an entire spare room. When I can’t knit, for instance sitting in a staff meeting where knitting is frowned upon, I amuse myself by making a list of my works in progress, all the while appearing to be taking notes and paying attention. It’s not a short list. If it’s a long meeting I go on to list potential upcoming projects. That’s not a short one, either. And I never go anywhere without my knitting. I can get half a spa cloth finished in the waiting room of a doctor or dentist. It’s a way of life, and as ways of life go, it’s not such a bad one.

Or maybe it’s an addiction. I used to joke that it was cheaper than a heroin habit, but as my stash grew my husband stopped laughing. But even if I do have to have every pretty little novelty yarn I come across, along with rayons and ribbons and wools (yarn harlot? I’m an utter ho!), at the end of the day I’ve got something to show for my habit. And if there’s ever a yarn drought, sister, I am ready! Seven lean years? My stash can get through double that and more. It might even be too much to knit in my lifetime. Knitting on, with confidence, though all crises, will be a piece of cake.

My web site – ceci n’est pas un blog – can be found at http://bantrymoon.home.comcast.net/. I don’t blog, but I do put up new stuff, including patterns, on a slightly irregular basis.