Unraveled

I've been learning to knit, thanks to a great friend who happens to be the super mom, wife, sister, daughter and writer of the universe. I don't know why she likes to torture herself by teaching me to knit, but she apparently does. The first day that I held the yarn and sticks in hand, she showed me a very basic, simple thing, which I then went home and dutifully practiced. Several weeks passed, and today, she showed me how to do the 2nd step. Took me a while, but I finally managed to clumsily get it done several times. Then she sent me home with the balls of yarn and lots of confidence, which now in hindsight were completely unfounded, because I came home and promptly forgot everything my teacher showed me. I not only knotted up everything, I couldn't remember how to restart. The bit of yarn that I practiced with her in the cafe is now so frizzy that I can hardly recognize it as a string of yarn -- more like fuzz. So everything's unraveled except for the very first knot. Sadly, I even called her, plaintively begging for help. As she is an extremely busy person who is well-loved and needed by everyone, I feel terrible for adding to her burden. But I shamelessly blame my friend for introducing me to this wonderfully fun and challenging addiction. She will probably rue the day she said she'll teach me how to knit.

But, I'm loving it. It's one more thing that I can do in addition to origami. Instead of papering my apartment and my office with origami cranes, I'm going to actually do something that is worthwhile and useful. My mother thinks that I'll be able to knit her and my dad something for Christmas. I said, sure, Christmas 2012 they'll get their first scarves knitted by me. Maybe. If my teacher doesn't kill me first.