A Tale of Two Knitters

So, it turns out that Mum had a baby hat pattern the whole time that I could have used.  Now, I'm not discounting the hours and hours that I spent perusing free patterns on the interwebz-- because, seriously folks, that's one of my favorite past times--but come on!  Why did I not think to ask Mother if she had one?!  I sometimes forget that she was a knitter, too.  Not that she does it much anymore.  Quilts have been her thing for quite a while now and she's very talented.  Me?  I can't sew a straight line and the sewing machine kind of scares me.  Sis quilts, too.  And knits.  And crochets.  Bitch.

Okay, no really.  I'm teasing.  See, here's the thing though.  Sis lived in Colorado for four years.  And when she came home she was all, "I need a hobby!" and I was like, "Well, I could teach you to knit."  Now, two things.  First, she already knew how to crochet, I had taught her that long before, and she didn't really love it.  And second thing?  At the time, I knew how to knit.  But I sort of sucked at it. I hadn't discovered Portuguese style yet.  Anyway, she says no but then shows up like a week later and gives me the eyebrow waggle and says, "Want to teach me to knit?"

So I did.  I found a couple of needles and some spare yarn (cause, let's face it, I had tons to spare) and I showed her how to cast on and how to do the knit stitch.  She got bored with that after a couple of rows and so I showed her how to purl as well.  And there she went, knitting along.  And a little bit later I looked over and she's got this beautiful piece of stockinette fabric.  I glowered.  I said, accusingly, "You knew how to do this before!" and she was quick to deny.  She'd never knitted before.  But this thing she was creating?  The tension was perfect, her stitches were lovely.  Bitch.

No, still teasing.  But I'm not going to lie, I was jealous.  Because with hardly any effort, she was doing so much better than I could do.  Of course, then I found Portuguese style and I far surpass her now.  Mostly because I actually finish stuff.  And now I've had way more practice than she has.  I'm obsessed with it too, in a way she isn't, so that helps too.

Anyway, I've finally finished my time budget.  Okay, really only sorta.  It's a mini time budget.  Cause stuff keeps happening and getting in my way.  But I've got a couple of days worth of time budgeted and so we'll see how that goes.  God, I can't wait until all the crazy calms down.  Seems like it's been going on forever.

Tonight, the first item on the budget is "practicing" some more knitting.  I've got a sweater to make!