knitting

I've decided to learn how to knit. Actually, I remember taking lessons as a child, never to touch a needle or yarn again until college. During my senior year, my house had an auction, where people donated services that you could bid upon. Someone was offering knitting lessons. Given that my senior spring was the least stressful time of my college life, I decided that knitting would be a good thing to pick up. I received needles and two balls of yarn. But unfortunately, the woman who was supposed to teach me never came through on her side of the bargain. Not to be disparaged, I went and spent too much money on a intro to knitting book. (The Idiots' Guide to Knitting and Crocheting. I admit it).

Note to self: Don't buy a knitting book ever again. I couldn't make any sense of the drawings whatsoever. They tried to draw hands holding hooks knitting loops. That fundamentally cannot be conveyed in two dimensions. I nearly tied myself up trying to figure it out. So much for the book.

Apparently, my mom used to knit, way back in the day (though what do you knit in India? No need for anything warm there). So she showed me the basics. But this was many years ago, and I had since forgotten.

That is, until last week, when my roommate pulled out a ball of yellow yarn and knitting needles. She told me was invited to a "knitting circle" - where women sit together once a month and knit clothes for Peruvian children (for less than a cup of coffee a day, you too can participate!). Sort of bizarre, but heartwarming nonetheless. (As an aside, I was about to publish this when I caught a spelling error. I had written "heartworming" instead of "heartwarming." A little gross. I'm glad I found the mistake!).

I decided to pick it up again so that we could learn together (she is a beginner as well). Over Thanksgiving, I found my knitting supplies buried in my room and brushed off the dust. I had my mom re-teach me the basic steps, which proved to be amusing. I'm a very impatient learner and my mom sometimes doesn't explain things well. Every time she showed me how to do something, I would mess it up. It was difficult for her to tell me exactly what I did wrong, so she kept snatching the yarn out of my hands and saying "Do it like this!" Well, if I could do it like this in the first place, I wouldn't have to learn, now would I?

I'm still stuck in learning the basic steps, but I found a fun website that has up close videos on how to knit stitches. I found it quite helpful. So much so, that once I got the hang of casting on and doing basic knitting, I stayed up until 2:00 AM last night doing it. I didn't even make anything, just knit a few rows and then unraveled them. It's addicting.

So now I'm knitting and I sometimes wear orthopedic shoes. I've been under the weather recently and am continually sucking on cough drops. I just watched the Golden Girls. I prefer comfortable undergarments to fancier but uncomfortable ones.

I may be 25, but in reality I'm 80. I'm going to go get a cat.

On a completely separate note, I've noticed something. Recently, I've seen an abundance of air freshener / scented fans / scented outlets / type commercials. Why are these products suddenly so popular? Is our country stinking itself up to the point that there is serious competition for mini-fan operated scented oils? But what I saw today was a little ridiculous. It was a commercial for Febreze ScentStories. It's like a CD player but for smell. They have scented disks that you put into a player. You even have to press the "PLAY" button for it to start. The disk then starts, and progresses through five different scents. The commercial touted how you are told a "story in scent." And this woman was sitting there talking about how transported she was when she played her Scent Story.

This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I'm going to call up this dumb woman and tell her to start knitting. There are Peruvian children out there who could use a tea cozy!