At some point everyone tells their tale of their craft, right? Why not share mine? I have completely revamped this blog, started a patreon, and opened up my commission page. It wouldn't be right not to delve into my never ending rabbit hole of a crafting gig.
WARNING: You are about to get not only a novel, but a plethora of terribly taken photos I had to go digging for on Facebook (I was convinced I was a professional), and ungawdly awful filtered Instagram pictures.

In March of 2007, I found out I was pregnant. After the initial shock, panic, and absolute fear of being a single mother, I became determined to become that picturesque Pinterest Mom. That meant knitting my daughter her first baby blanket. I had the whole image in my head, this would be her security blanket. She would carry it around like Lionel and sing to the world how her mother poured her heart in soul into making this blanket for her.

I learned how to do the garter stitch (a constant knit back and forth) and started plugging away at the blanket. I had no pattern and no earthly clue  the vast world of yarn squishy goodness that I would soon be introduced to me. I just had my pair of cheap metal straight needles and acrylic Red Heart Super Saver from Michael's.

The blanket was never finished. With  no pattern, I cast on way too many stitches (they frequently fall off the needles), and no clue what I was doing. As I progressed with the blanket, the needles could not withstand the weight of it and snapped the needles. I dropped almost all the stitches, and because I had no clue on how to pick up stitches, I wound it all back up and called it a day.

In all of that madness, I somehow deemed myself a knitting goddess and decided that I was going to shimmy my way to Amazon in search of pattern books. I would create all of the world's knitting things through garter stitch. My book of choice? "Charmed Knits" by Alison Hansel. I had the most logical reason behind it all, Harry Potter. I have always been such a huge fan and I was ready to rock that Weasley sweater and house scarf like a true knitting whiz I believed I became.

My first project of choice was the house scarf (Hufflepuff, of course). First year. This pattern alone taught me to knit in the round, change colors, the importance of counting stitches, and how to count rows. It was a hard lesson for a girl that swore she was a needle warrior after learning garter stitch. The scarf did end up turning out beautifully and I still wear it to this day.

I stuck with those scarves for two years, I refused to adventure into anything else because not only did that Hufflepuff scarf take me almost a year to finish (yes, there were long periods of just not working on it), but I had friends that saw me as the knitting goddess I once thought I was and asked for me to make them scarves as well.




In 2013, a series of life decisions left me with a broken heart and jobless. I needed to do something to keep myself busy and from stress eating and dove head first into the spiraling world of knitting. At this point, I learned how to knit hats, tested out my first pair of socks, and became the ultimate yarn hoarder, thanks to my home away from home, Bella Yarns (cannot link because they are permanently closed) and my straight to my door goodness of Yarnbox (another unfortunate permanent closing).



2014-2016 led to learning how to dye yarn (with Kool-Aid, mainly), perler beads, and more collecting yarn. I was not actively knitting much except for my daughter's Halloween costumes each year. My yarn collection grew to a five shelf bookshelf before its current status of an IKEA 16 cube organizer.

In 2017, I had some personal problem arise. I also made the decision to go back to school full time. With these problems and decisions, I needed extra cash. I started taking family and close friend commissions and selling down my stash. This ignited a new fire in my knitting craft. I was creating my own patterns, making charts, using a stitch and making my own work with it. None of which was written down to make a pattern (I still haven't attempted to dabble in that aspect of knitting), but it was so much fun to take all of these bits and pieces I learned along my knitting adventure and make something my own.

The fire of my knitting continued and I have become more and more dedicated to it, although my fellow didn't see it that way. He was not happy with the amount of yarn that I had and how I continued to purchase more. I am a girl of expensive hobbies, and the consistent yarn buying just wasn't something that flew with him. I made him a deal that I would not purchase any yarn for my own personal use (only if I absolutely needed to for commissions), until I used up the majority of the yarn I currently have.

THAT is where we are at now. My adventures of using up all of my yarn to be able to buy more. Makes perfect sense! I do still do commissions in between, and I will absolutely purchase new yarn for those commissions should I not have something in my stash. My story isn't very inspirational or meaningful, but it's mine. All of those happenings caused me to absolutely love knitting!

Stay tuned for future "How I Started" series when I dive into my other hobbies.