This past spring semester, I packed up my junior-year dorm and headed home with one goal for the summer: to read as many books as my little bookworm mind could consume. How would I rate my completion of this goal? 1/10. I am not, however, disappointed about this outcome; I didn’t abandon my goal because of some lack of motivation or inability to unglue my face from my Instagram Reels. I didn’t spend the majority of my summer reading, because I spent most of it knitting instead.
Last fall — for reasons I cannot for the life of me remember — I decided that I wanted to jump into knitting and make my first official project: a pair of socks. Now, many “learn-how-to-knit” guides online suggest starting with something easy like a scarf or a blanket, but honestly, I disagree. Did I struggle with knitting this sock? Yes, very much so — what the heck is a heel turn? Why do my stitches look so loose on the edges where I switch my double-pointed knitting needles? How did I end up with three more stitches than I began with? Yet, after I completed my first — somewhat wonky — sock, I jumped right into the second one, which turned out much better. With that groundwork, I learned most of the basic knitting terminology, which empowered me to start more socks with more intricate patterns and even a sweater!
As of writing this, I am working on an absolutely gorgeous sweater — if you’d like to look it up for reference, search “Porcelain Sweater” by leKnit on your search engine of choice. And I could not imagine starting knitting only a year ago and already being able to work a four-stranded colorwork sweater without much difficulty.
I feel an obligation to end this article with a warning. If you decide to get into fiber arts — a term some people use to encompass crafts using fibers such as knitting, crocheting, embroidery, etc. — make sure you don’t have too much homework to do. It won’t be getting done anytime soon. And, finally, yarn is expensive! Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Feel free to email me with any knitting questions you may have.
