My mom and the next door neighbor collaborated in taking Ellen and me to all sorts of classes — piano in 3rd grade, dance (I was enthusiastic but uncoordinated), and knit and crochet lessons at a local yarn shop. It was just the two of us at a table in the shop with the owner. The shop is long gone.
All I remember making from those lessons was a pair of crocheted slippers. I crocheted a lot of stuff over the years, but didn’t knit much.
I made a fuzzy white sweater with lace in the yoke in the early 80s that was not very fashionable and actually fit despite my avoidance of gauge, and there is an unfinished sweater in the closet that is a lace sampler made from fuzzy Olefin (!?!). I’ll put a picture of it up sometime, under the “what was I thinking?” category.
When I was pregnant with my first child over 20 years ago, I made some intarsia blocks for a blanket that was never finished. (These are also in the closet…) Then nothing until I discovered beaded knitting in the late 90’s and made about 30 beaded amulet bags with 0000 needles and size 8 perl cotton.
The next “real” knitting I did was from the Fall 2001 issue of Interweave Knits. I made Mariloise’s Scarf by Myrna A. Stahman (if you search for Myrna you’ll find lots of beautiful lace patterns) on p. 57 and used Lorna’s Laces Helen’s Lace because Myrna said to… It was a Christmas present for my mom.
In October and November of 2001 I made some washcloths and (back to lace) some soap sacks. Coming up: the My Fair Lady shawl and the sudden but inevitable knit addiction.