Sunday, July 15, 2007

A Little Story (Adriana)

I don't remember when I first learned how to knit. I know it was sometime after I was home-schooled, before I started high school (I know this because the woman who taught me to knit was also a home-schooling mom). I didn't take to it at the time but the muscle memory was still there when Heather retaught me two years ago. I don't remember actually making anything usable then.

While I was home-schooled we were able to go visit my grandparents a lot in Montreal. On one memorable occasion, Granny and I visited Old Montreal, the oldest part of a very old city (by Canadian standards, at least) with lots of historical sites and touristy shops. I have very clear memories of visiting Musée Marguerite-Bourgeoys, a museum within an 300 year old chapel which had displays of miniature figures illustrated scenes from her life (looking at the website it is clear that a lot has changed in the past decade and a half. A return visit is definitely in order). After the museum we had lunch at a cafe and then browsed through the interesting shops in the area. Granny bought for me a figurine of a lady holding a bouquet of dried flowers. This has become one of my favourite possessions and I have taken very good care of it.
figureine2

I've had this figurine for so long (I was probably around 11 when we got it) that I have stopped really looking at it. This might explain why I hadn't really seen what she was wearing around her shoulders:
figureine1

figureine5
That, my friends, is my very first piece of knitting. You can see the dramatic increase in size from the cast on edge (I must have increased without realizing it), the dropped stitch in the middle and the lovely cast off edge where I threaded the yarn through the live stitches.
figureine4

What I think is most amazing about this is that even though I didn't take to knitting at the time, this piece was special enough that I have kept it in a place of honour for so many years. It really is such a cool discovery.

Pete just pointed out that my first project was a shawl which is appropriate since I'm such a shawl nut :)
Speaking of, work on the mystery stole continues. I need to get a good picture of it before I start clue #3!

3 comments:

Heather G. said...

I think I have my first knitted project too... I think I was nine and it was a HUGE red scarf.

I laughed when I realized it was a shawl too!

Azura said...

Awww! That's so pretty and sweet :)

Anonymous said...

Neat story.