Learning a new craft

For any of you out there who have been knitting since birth, this may be a bit of a bore... forgive me! I have had a block over knitting as big as the blocks I have over putting in zippers or button holes... it just never seemed like I could get it right, no matter what I did! Enter the computer age, and youtube. My problem has always been that I never had a human to teach me how to knit, and looking at illustrations just didn't do it. But this time of year, I do like to work on warm things, so knitting has been one of those "gee... I wish I knew how!" things. Well, I have at least learned the garter stitch:

I took a couple of suggestions from my friend Wendy, who apparently was born with knitting needles in her tiny hands: first, I got wooden needles. I was attempting to learn using long, metal size 11 needles, and they are really cumbersome. I have been focusing on just the garter stitch for several days now, just picking up the needles and stitching a row here, a row there, then stopping if I get tired. I have no ambitions beyond getting completely comfortable with the motions for now. Then after Thanksgiving, Wendy is going to give me a hands-on lesson, which will introduce me to purling, among other things. I'm thrilled that I have gotten this far, and can't wait to go even further! Stay tuned for more breaking news!