I got this meme from Grumperina, knit blogger extraordinaire, and the other bloggers out there with their responses. 1. I taught myself to knit, mostly using the Martha Stewart Living website and the most embarrassing book ever published, I Can't Believe I'm Knitting!. Getting out there and finding other knitters made me a much better knitter than I would have been otherwise.

1. I wanted to learn how to knit because of a task I had at my retail job. I was assigned to reset the shelves on which the yarn was to be displayed. I was in a new town, far from home and my friends and family; I was working graveyard shifts and sleeping during the day. I was grasping for something to do.

2. Although I like to think of myself as a "process knitter", I love, love, love getting a project finished. I do enjoy learning new techniques, but when I start a new project, I've got the finish line as my goal. I rarely discard a project.

3. My favorite yarn depends on the project. I love silky fuzzy shiny goodness such as some shimmering Sea Silk or Misti Alpaca Lace, just to touch it. I love Tahki Donegal Tweed, my first real yarn, a nice rough wool with lots of tweedy bits. It's really made for Ireland's climate more than California, though. For socks, I love the colors of Lorna's Laces, but it's hard to deny the foot-warming pleasure of a plied 100% merino. such as Louet Gems Pearl or, of course, Koigu.

4. I don't knit many sweaters for myself. A lot of patterns aren't made for women my size. I have altered patterns, with some relative success, but I need to be better about doing the math and writing things down. I have handmade sweaters, but they aren't sweaters I love to wear.

5. I love hairy yarn, it reminds me of the animals that provide the fiber. I have yet to knit with angora, but I want to since it's from rabbits. Crazy, but I think I would love having a Bunny Sweater.

6. One of my favorite part of knitting (besides finishing, see #3 above) is having a pattern I want to make and finding the yarn with which to make it. I love shopping for (or just "looking at") yarn. I keep lists, constantly updated and revised, of the yarn I have, the intended projects, as well as still more patterns I want to make but don't have any yarn picked out, and completed projects. The backlog is in the projects to be knit -- I can't knit fast enough!

7. Although I love fair isle technique, I'm not wild about intarsia. It's the awkwardness of having to switch around the separate balls of yarn ... too fiddly. I have an intarsia project planned, though it will be felted. Maybe I'll come to like it yet.

8. Knitting different patterns and looking at different sources from around the world has actually made me consider learning a new language. Top three are probably Norwegian, Japanese, and Swedish.

9. Knitting connects me with my Grandma. She grew up knitting, and she taught her daughters. I remember her knitting afghans using Red Heart. I used to have a pair of red wool mittens she made, with that string to pull through the sleeves so you couldn't lose one. I bought my first "real yarn" in order to make a new pair of red mittens. I imagine that growing up in Minnesota, and later raising her 11 children there, that knitting clothes to keep warm was a big part of her life. Knitting is a way for me to connect to my roots.