Thanks Cinthia! See–this is already a great, friendly site.
I thought I was just replying to Ann but then I saw it posted at the bottom so I just jumped in. Nice to meet you.
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Hi! I’m Joanne. I started first learned how to knit as a kid. My grandmother designed and did sample knitting for Red Heart (though I didn’t know that until recently) and my Mom knit everything! I didn’t stick with it then. But I picked it back up in my 30’s, around 1998, and found an almost finished Teddy Bear sweater, my first project, hiding in storage. I never did finish that. But I’ve been knitting like a fool every since.
My favorites:
Movie: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Food: Chinese
Color: Green
Kind of shoes: Birkenstocks
The thing I’d like to learn how to do is play the banjo. I’m working on that. And design knitting patterns. Working on that too. I’ve recently embarked on the Master Knitter Program through IKGA.
Looking forward to meeting all you fellow knitterly souls here!
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Do you still knit Continental? This was SHOCKING to me.
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Cinthia!
We have to start a French section so everyone can improve their language skills. Bienvenue au Salon!
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Good morning! Michele here in Portland, Oregon. I’ve been knitting since I was 14; my favorite aunt taught me to knit.
My first project was a pullover knit in the round, stockinette with cables up the front. It was beautiful. But! My aunt doesn’t do gauge swatches. My sweater was enormous. Many years later, I decided to shrink the sweater, because wool shrinks, right? I didn’t know that knitting shrinks up more than it shrinks in, so I had a very short, very boxy sweater. And the neck hole was not too small for my head. Live and learn!
I’ve learned a lot since then. About 10 years ago I figured out what I want to be when I grew up, so now I design knitted accessories, and teach knitting at local shops and at fiber festivals. Sweet! I blog about knitting and fun at pdxknitterati.com.
I’ve been following the Ann and Kay for a while now; reading their blog is like sitting at the kitchen table with old friends over coffee. Thanks for making this place for us to share!
Favorite shoes: Cowboy boots. Cowgirl boots? Boots!
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I’m Linda, from Maryland. I was eight years old when I learned to knit from a classmate. I knit myself a hairband, which I wore for years when I washed my face! It was knit from rug yarn. I must have loved the color. I picked knitting up after a few decades, and have been busy knitting for the past 15 years. I still learn something new from every experience.
I love most foods, and some good movies, can’t think of any one at the moment. I do enjoy, and binge watched a lot of British detective shows on Netflix this summer! I also love PBS. Shoes I love? comfy ones!
I would love to learn some color theory. I have tried fair isle, but need more work on that. Also have made some cable projects, but I’m still learning.
I enjoy meeting other knitters on line. Its a truly universal craft. I belong to a knitting guild in my area.
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I’m Olivia; I’ve been knitting for 4 1/2 years. I’m 20 years old and currently a senior at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie NY. When I’m at home I work at my LYS Kid Ewe Knot in Pittsburgh PA.
The first thing I ever knit was a scarf out of a sea-green shade of Lions Brand Homespun and it is incredibly ugly.
My favorite color is blue and my favorite shoes are my Timberlands.
I wand to learn how to write better patterns - I always have cool ideas for pattern designs but don’t know the best way to scale them for sizes.
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My name is Tracy (Ingleterra on Ravelry). I learned to knit as a little girl, about 40 years ago, back when knitting was seriously UNCOOL and when yarn shops were closing left and right. My mom taught me how to knit English style, and I knit a few scarves, but it didn’t really stick with me. A few years later, I was an exchange student in Austria, and my host mother taught me to knit continental style, and I’ve been knitting ever since! After I returned to America, I showed my mom how I’d learned to knit in Europe, and she was amazed that even though I knit “wrong,” my knitting was smooth and even.
One thing I am determined to learn now is how to adjust patterns for a better fit. I’ve always followed instructions slavishly, which meant that sometimes my sweaters fit well, and other times they didn’t. I’ve learned the theory about how to make the adjustments I need, and on my next project, I’m going to put that theory into practice. And I know I’ll be asking myself, “Why did you wait so long???” 
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Hello all! I’m Wendy, sometimes known as WendyKnits. The first thing I ever knitted was a square, fashioned from leftovers from my mom’s knitting. She cast on stitches for me and I knit away until bored, and she bound of. I was 4 years old and this was the first of many squares I used as doll blankets.
My favorite movie is Brief Encounter. Actually, any David Lean film.
Something I’d like to learn to do: apart from bending the time/space continuum, uppermost in my mind right now is wishing I could conquer Adobe LiveCycle software. It’s not particularly user-friendly, the help file is not terribly helpful, what I can google is not much help either, and I have no training for it available. Gah! 
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Hello-my name is Marsha and I am known as The Headknitwit to my knitting group, founded 16 years ago and meeting weekly.
I learned to knit at age six to allow my Mother and her best friend a visit without too much interruption. “Aunt Ivy” knit as she talked and I was fascinated. Her fingers flew! I wanted to do that. Finally, she put a pair of bent, blue, aluminum, size 2 needles in my hands with pale yellow nylon baby yarn. I knit a headband. That is 1 inch of garter stitch for about 14 inches- sew the ends together and viola! I teach anyone that asks.
That was 1960. So far the only knitting that has bested me is brioche in the round a few years back. I set it aside for another day, that has not yet come? I have faith it will. I never put the needles down. I have had lean years with only one small baby sweater produced and years of bountiful knitting. I am old school. I have a stash that takes up real, real estate. I wrote a blog called Headknitwit that has been dormant now for a few years following a voiceless period.
I embraced the knitting internet early on. I was an original Knitty.com follower and of course Knitters Review. MDK has such wonderful content. Intelligent and illuminating. I followed MDK before their dormancy and rejoiced when they returned.
I still do not know what I want to be when I grow up. I know I will be knitting when I figure it out.
I am wondering how any of you cope with hand problems as we age and knit. Any tips or tricks for keeping nimble fingers? See you around the site…
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Hi, I’m Sue. I learned to knit in a class with my mother and sister when I was 12 or 13. We knit mittens on two needles, seamed. One was hand sized and one was sized for a giant sloth. When I was in high school I decided to knit a sweater, bought some Icelandic wool, knit and ran out of yarn. My mother had a friend reknit the sweater for me, but that meant a sweater worthy of Marilyn Monroe and not wearable by me…
Next big project was the Aran cardigan I designed and knit for our wedding. It is still gorgeous and when things don’t quite come out the way I think they should, I remember that cardigan and know I can fix pretty much anything.
I am also a potter and have been for 30+ years.
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Hi everyone! I’m Danielle (but Denys on Ravelry). I’ve been knitting for more than thirty years. My grandma taught me.
One of the first things I knit was a mis-shaped baby bootie. The spinster lady who was helping me make booties for my auntie’s first baby photocopied the pattern from one of her books and accidentally cut off the bottom of the page. I knit a leg, the top of a foot and then immediately decreased & cast off because “work 14 rows garter stitch” was missing from my instructions. I still have that bootie somewhere (my cousin did get a matching pair that had room for his feet).
My favourite shoes are Doc Martens. I’ve been wearing them for almost as long as I’ve been a knitter.
Apparently I’m about to learn how to teach a class because my LYS has asked me to teach “How to use Ravelry effectively as both a search tool and storage/organization tool” later this month.
See you in the knit-a-long!
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My name is Leah - aka knittygirl4. I cannot remember the first thing I ever knit, but my grandmother taught me when I was about 12. I then took a very long hiatus, and got back into it in my 20’s when I knit a few boxy sweaters, and helped a friend design and knit a long tubular dress! I’ve been knitting now again for about the last 20 years, and for the last 5 whenever I can! I knit on my linen hand towel this morning for about 20 minutes to help calm me while waiting for my teenagers to get ready for school…it allowed me to not yell at them every 5 minutes!!! I’m working on several blankets now, squad mitts, a second sock, and my linen towel! Love to have lots of things on the needles!
Favorite movie - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Would love to learn to crochet, and read crochet patterns - I know how, but would like to learn more.
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JM here, and today I’ll either be late to work or the dogs will be shortchanged on their morning walk, because the Lounge is open!
First knit was a scarf, garter with some stockinette at one end because I learned something new! I still tink a lot, in my 11th year as a knitter.
About me: I often forget to brush my hair, I am into cookies, and we have two dogs in our family. One of them has a very big personality.
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Hi! Kim here- currently of Gallup, NM/Phoenix, AZ, neither of which really feel like home. My heart is in Portland, OR.
First thing I knit? A baby blanket about 12 years ago, relying heavily on a Vogue booklet and some muscle memory from when my mom tried to teach me when I was a kid.
Favorite movie: Out of Africa
Color: purple
Shoes: Sanitas
I’d love to learn to weave, and to quilt.
Oh, and I’m a midwife!
Nice to meet you all…
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I’m Leslie. My mother taught me to knit when I was about 7 or 8 years old. I made a very scruffy doll blanket way back when. I didn’t knit for quite a few years until my daughter got me back into it when she found the Stitch and Bitch. She was about 13 and really wanted a hat that was in the book and needed help to accomplish it, so the two of us embarked on figuring it out. What a fun trip it’s been since then.
My favorite shoes are blue suede…may they never wear out!
The favorite knitting adventure that I’ve had involves Echarpe Vitrail, a kit that I purchased on a trip to France. The pattern is simple and the yarn is gorgeous.
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I’m Jeannie Gray and have been knitting, well, for a really, really long time. As a small child, I’d knit squares/rectangles, shove Barbie’s hands through the holes & safety pin the “dress” closed. The first real project I remember knitting was a sweater for my sister’s first child. My sister is 10 years older so I would have been 13 or 14 at the time. I knit a beautiful cabled baby sweater out of Red Heart with too-tight of a gauge. The sweater was so stiff if felt like it was made from plywood. I didn’t do much knitting after that until my aunt, an avid knitter, died & left me her yarn stash. It took two trips in a large car to bring it all home. I’ve long since used up all her yarn, but I haven’t stopped knitting.
As for my favorites, it’s hard to say. It’s like trying to choose a favorite yarn. I do watch way too much Netflix though, I eat way too much of a variety of foods, blues & greens are my favorite colors and as embarrassing as it is to admit and much to my children’s horror, clogs are probably my favorite shoes. They’re just so easy to take off & on. (And they’re great for showing off hand knit sock heels.)
I would LOVE to learn to draw but am pretty sure it’s a lost cause. My stick figures aren’t even recognizable. The ability to bake homemade rolls instead of hockey pucks and decent photography skills are also on my To Learn list.
As for my knitting, I tend to knit simple structures in massive quantity. You’ll find examples on Ravelry (I’m jeanniegrayknits) but I tend to constantly be behind on uploading my photos there. I also have an Etsy shop and I’m looking forward to the giftalong. I’m already worried it’s going to be one of those years where I’m trying to block gift mittens over the car’s heater vent on the way to Christmas Day celebrations.
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Hi! I’m Kate and first learned to knit when I was four because a babysitter needed me to sit still. She taught me how to knit washcloths, continental style, which I knit exclusively for many years. That was over 25 years ago, and my mother STILL has some wonky Cream N’ Sugar cotton washcloths in some funky 80s colors. It’s like they refuse to die.
My favorite movie is Star Wars; my favorite food is sushi; my favorite color is orange; my favorite kind of shoes are any that don’t hurt my feet.
I would love to learn how to be sophisticated, but I feel that’s a lost cause 
.
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First thing knitted? A garter headband in variegated purple acrylic dime-store yarn, when I was six or seven. My mom taught me the basics, then handed me the Coats and Clark How to Knit pamphlet. The next thing I clearly remember knitting is a pair of jodhpurs for a Betsy McCall doll – the only available doll whose knees AND hips were correctly jointed, and who could therefore ride my collection of plastic horses. She really needed some jodhpurs. I had to teach myself increases and decreases from the aforementioned pamphlet in order to knit them. Apparently all my unmemorable previous projects were rectangular.
Movies: currently on a Coen Bros. kick. Several of their movies are on my Top Ten list, along with The Princess Bride; 2001: A Space Odyssey; A Hard Day’s Night; ummmm … I know I have a favorite movie somewhere …
Food: Right now I really want some Korean green beans, the kind stir-fried till they start to caramelize, AKA burnt beans. Usually, it’s chocolate anything and/or apple pie.
Shoes: on my bucket list is a pair of White’s Smokejumper boots, made by White’s Boots in Spokane, WA. The difficulty is you have to go to Spokane to get them, because they are custom-fitted (and guaranteed for life!) Someday. Best boots evah.
Color: all over the map. Loving the Ann Weaver color theory series.
I need to learn to fix manual typewriters ASAP.
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I’m Janna – jannabeth here and on Ravelry and almost everywhere else. My grandma kind of taught me to knit and crochet when I was maybe 10, but I don’t actually remember knitting anything. After college, I crocheted a bunch of booties and hats as my friends had babies, but didn’t knit again until about 2003. My sister decided she wanted to learn to knit, so we took lessons together. I realized that my hands knew how to knit, but my brain didn’t! The first thing I knit from a pattern was a scarf for my mom, who wrapped it in paper and put it in a drawer. 
MDK was one of the first knitting blogs I found; I literally cried the day the blog “came back,” so I’m really excited about the new expanded site!
My favorite color is pink - something it took me about 30 years to admit. My favorite movie is (I think) Lost in Translation, although I like a lot of movies. My favorite shoes are Danskos, but I recently got a pair of Fluevogs, and if I could afford them, I’d have more!
I’m really good at teaching myself knitting things, but brioche has be flummoxed.
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