A Magnificent Obsession?

So, I craft. I card, I scrapbook, I make jewelry, I crochet and tat. But the one thing I DON'T do is knit. I have tried over the years, but haven't been able to get the hang of it. I got my Grandma Keller's needles, at least some of them. But I guess I have just been keeping them for sentimental reasons.

I don't know why, but recently I decided to give it another go. I wasn't going to let two needles and some yarn lick me. I bought a book for preteens and started slow. I think I finally got the idea. I can do a garter stitch. I knit, I purl, I can even increase a knit, both the back and front method and the invisible method. If I can't do something, I search for instructions on how I can. Over the years I have collected a few how-to books, and I am searching them from cover to cover. I think I have eight different ones, plus pages printed off of various websites. Little by little, I am getting it.

My friend has this headband that is so cute. I saw it right after I started knitting. I thought, I can do that! She offered to let me borrow it, but I said, nah, I can do it. I could have, if it was crochet. I did crochet one, but it didn't lay right. So I practiced knitting and I tried it, but I couldn't get it to look right. I researched a lot, but I wasn't finding what I needed. What I needed was a stitch that was half knit, half crochet.

So I checked around. I found something called tunisian crochet, or the afghan stitch. It is also called the half crochet. One of the stitches looked like it would do the trick. So I printed up all the instructions that I could find and began learning something new. After days and days, and tendonitis, I found out that it wasn't going to work out. Completely wrong for what I wanted.

I thought about it and realized the answer WAS knitting, but I just needed to tweak what I have already learned. I am really trying hard... I don't think I will hit too many snags, I hope. I have tried to work on it, but the tendonitis isn't necessarily allowing it yet.

For weeks, I have been spending every waking minute working on this project. The really funny thing is that I tried Courtney's headband on and the style looks awful on me. I mean, really awful. I am not quite sure why I am going to all the trouble. Just to say I can, I guess. I don't know that I could call it a magnificent obsession, but it is sure an obsession. And I am what I am, no matter what.