How it began...

I have blogged on and off for a few years, just like I have done knitting and crocheting and other crafts that have tickled my fancy, until recently. Now I am knitting obsessed and on a mission to make all of my friends knitters as well! To that end, I decided to go back to blogging to share my renewed love of all things yarn with you - my girlfriends (or boyfriends...men knit, too)!

It all happened over the summer when after a discussion with a few close family members (well, it was more of an intervention where three of them sat me down and told me I needed to seriously take a look at how stressed out and unhappy I was), I decided to crochet a doily. I know that sounds very grandmotherly of me, when in fact I am only 35. However, it was because of my grandmother that I decided to take on that particular project.

In my mind, my mother's mother was all things grandmotherly - a clean house with a crackling fire, squishy hugs, freshly baked cookies, and doilies on everything that would sit still. It was she who taught me to crochet when I was so young that I probably told people my age by holding up a certain number of fingers. (Ok, I probably never did that. I was way too verbal, even at a very young age...but you get my point.) Because I missed her terribly, because I wanted to do something to remind me of things that I loved most from my childhood, and because I had a whole summer to kill (a perk of teaching for a living) and the crochet hook and yarn on hand, the crocheted doily became my therapy of choice.

I began with a small doily that I planned to give to my "other half". It was a small and practical little thing to sit on the bedside table and keep rings from ruining the furniture. I could excuse the time I was spending on it as being productive. (Please ignore the fact that you can now buy a 'Made in China' version of the same thing at most local dollar stores for...well...a dollar.)

With this small project, I ventured back into the land of yarn and hand-made items. I had planned on it being an amusing one-time thing during that summer to jump-start me out of depression and an ever-deepening career rut. I had no idea it would turn into this obsession...which I hope to share regularly with you.

(Oh, yeah, I will get to how the crocheting became knitting soon enough!)

-Your (slightly obsessed) Knitting Girlfriend

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