My First Blog!

This is my very first blog and I'm sort of at a loss as to what to say. My greatest joy in life besides my children, my absolutely adorable grandchildren, my wonderful significant other, Barry, is knitting. As much as I have trouble admitting this, I've been knitting for almost 52 years. Yikes!! That's a heck of a long time.

My first knitting experience was in the third grade. The first day of school, the teacher came in and announced that on Thursday afternoons, the girls would knit and the boys would play chess. And we were told, you must bring your yarn in an oatmeal box. Already, I knew I was in trouble. We didn't eat oatmeal in our house. I went home with my list of school supplies that HAD to be purchased and told my mom about the requirements for knitting. She said NO to the oatmeal box. Hey, this was 1955 - you didn't just buy food and toss it out for the box it came in. I cried and my grandmother told me not to worry. She lived with my aunt and they got me the box. My mom knew how to knit - and of course, she taught me. The teacher hadn't a clue what to do with the needles and yarn. It was a struggle, but I never gave up. I still remember those beautiful orange mittens I made for my dad - on one of them, the thumb was way too long. But, good man that he was, he wore those mittens proudly on those bitter cold days in Buffalo, NY where we lived.

By the time I was in high school, I was making sweaters - I even made a fair isle sweater. Over all these years, I've knitted and crocheted a lot of things. And now with my precious grandchildren, Alyssa, Jake, and Ruthie, I stay very, very busy.