Knit One, Purl Two

I just finished reading The Friday Night Knitting Club while travelling to PA. It really brought back a lot of great memories when we moved to New Jersey in the late 80's. I always had a desire to knit and didn't know anyone that could teach me. I knew how to crochet, which is really easy, but knitting just seemed impossible. I mean, have you ever looked at those directions? Well, one day I drove past this adorable house that was a yarn shop and thought why not! I walked in and sheepishly looked around when this very French woman came up to me and introduced herself as the owner. She was more than willing to teach me to knit so I took the plunge. And, just like in the book, there was always a group of women sharing their knitting (or not). It became a place that I loved to be to talk and knit. Knitting did become an addiction for me though. Good yarn, it turns out, is not cheap! I would spend up to $200 on a project and I was knitting a sweater in 1-2 weeks. That's right - I said it was an addiction! My projects became more elaborate as I craved the challenge of reading those crazy directions. In one project, which I started here in Illinois (picture above) and still haven't finished 15 years later, has like 50 bobbins because of changing colors and yarns throughout the sweater. Crazy! I continued to knit for awhile when we moved to Naperville and enjoyed making sweaters for my son when he was small. I love the turtle sweater as he was really into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But it became harder to finish a project, maybe because I no longer had the camaraderie of my knitting friends to encourage me to finish. I have two sweaters for myself that I'm so close to finishing. The one above only needs the sleeves to complete - a piece of cake at one time! I keep thinking I'll start again. Maybe I'll pack it up and take with me on my all girl get-away and attempt to finish one of the two.