How did I get started?

One of the most frequent questions I get on my TikTok Lives is some variation of "how long have you been knitting?" or "how did you learn to knit?" Surprisingly (or maybe not, I don't know), my answer isn't straightforward and simple.

A long time ago, in a land far away...

Actually, that's not all that far from the truth. I first learned how to knit in elementary school in Finland. Elementary school was a long time ago, and for those of you in the USA, Finland is a land far away.

When I was in third grade, handicrafts were added to our curriculum. There were two options: textiles and woodworking. The class was divided in half, and everyone got to try each of the options, swapping halfway through the year. After trying out each option, we would select our permanent choice for the rest of elementary school. I picked woodworking to try first.

The plot twist is that halfway through the year, we moved from Finland to California, and the school in California didn't offer handicrafts. We lived in California for about a year and a half, then returned to Finland. I went back to school for fifth grade, and when asked which handicraft I wanted to do, I picked textiles since I had not had the chance to try it out in third grade.

The first project that year was knitted mittens. The problem was that all my peers had learned knitting basics over the previous two years. I had not. I was thrown into knitting in the round with four double-pointed needles without any prior experience in knitting.

To say that I was frustrated by that project would be an understatement. Lots of tears were shed, and I never got further than the ribbing on the first mitten. Eventually, the teacher told me to give up, as I would fall too far behind the rest of the class.

I didn't pick up knitting needles again for almost a quarter century.

In December 2017, I was inspired to try knitting again. I managed to make simple scarves for my kids for Christmas. Inspiration didn't last very long, though, and I didn't pick up needles again until the following November. This time I knit a chunky cowl for my sister. In February 2019, I decided to try knitting a pair of socks. They turned out looking like socks, though I didn't have actual sock yarn, and they were made from 100% acrylic yarn.

Inspired by this success, I headed to the craft store and got new needles and yarn that was labeled as sock yarn.

I had intended this next pair of socks for my husband, but since I knew nothing about yarn weights, they ended up fitting my nine-year-old. It also took me three months of working on them before they were done.

In September 2019, I got a gorgeous yarn from my mom that had all my favorite colors in it, so I made socks for myself. I was quite pleased with what I had accomplished. I could actually do this.

My successes inspired me to try something more complicated. In December 2019, I participated in my first Niina Laitinen KAL, the 2019 Joulukalenterisukat.

I looked up my local yarn store and visited Eat.Sleep.Knit. for the first time. I picked out my yarn, followed along with the daily clues, and managed to create a pair of colorwork socks by Christmas Day.

This was when the knitting bug really bit me. I've not gone very many days since then without having a project on the needles. ESK's Yarnathon was very inspirational and helped me learn new techniques. Over the past few years, I've knitted socks, hats, blankets, shawls, and various other items.

So, there's the long-winded answer to the question. I learned the basics in fifth grade and retaught myself at the end of 2017. I have knit several projects since then, but have considered myself a knitter since the end of 2019. I think this is the longest hyper fixation stretch I've had.