In the beginning...

My first steps in knitting were fairly unusual. I lived with my grandmother and she knitted a lot. When I had finished my homework, we used to sit around the table, Grandma with her knitting, Grandad with his newspaper and me in front of the telly. And during the adverts, I used to watch my Grandma’s know-how. Then one day I picked up two sticks of Mikado (the game, not the biscuits !!!), started to cast on without asking anyone’s help and interrupted my grandmother in the middle of a row by asking: “Gran, are these real ones?”

And surprise surprise, my grandmother had to admit that yes, they were “real ones”... And she quickly replaced my pitiful Mikado sticks with two real needles in good old metal and started to teach me.

The only problem was my grandmother’s legendary patience. You could say that she has as much patience as a pig at a slaughterhouse. I was only 6 and did not understand everything. Knitting fans, remember your first stitches and how difficult they were. Knitting is easy... at least, once you have understood how it works!

In short, I used to wait for the weekend when my mother would explain things in a more instructive way. And when I went back to my grandparents’ house on Sunday evening, I always managed to do what my grandmother had tried to teach me the week before... 

She still insists that it is she who taught me to knit and at her tender age, I do not want to upset her...

Merci à Lynne Gradzki pour son aide à la traduction.