Quiz #1

Wow, it's not enough that we had the first homework assignment - now we have a house quiz! We really are turning into a bunch of Ravenclaws. I'm sure I shouldn't complain - to be honest, the Sorting Hat really considered putting me in Ravenclaw - so maybe I'm just getting the best of both Houses, here. But still, homework in the first week?

So here's the question: "When did you first learn to knit - who taught you, how did you learn, what was your first project?"

To take the last question first, I can't remember what my first project was. I think I started a lot of random squares of knitting. The first thing I remember successfully making was a pair of slippers from sewn-up rectangles.

How did I learn? Not very easily - it took me three tries, and longer than that before I got good. I remember they tried to teach us in Blue Birds. I think I tried again at another point. But it didn't really stick until my crazy Muggle aunt (everyone has one, right? Mine was great!) figured out that I was trying to do things left handed. It was really weird - she'd been trying to help me with the knitting, and there was a lot of frustration. Then we were playing a game with a spinning top, and she noticed I was spinning it with my left hand. So we tried to accommodate that in knitting, and it worked - I remember I made a little bitty rectangle that very night!

The funny thing is that I'm not left handed. I do everything - eating, writing, wand-work - with my right hand. But often, when I'm trying to learn to do something, I'll start with my left hand, and have to remember to switch to my right. It helps a little, but I'm not really good with either hand. I think I'm ambisinister.

And when did I learn? Sometime in primary school, long before I was old enough to come to Hogwarts. I think I was 7 when my mother gave me a box of needlework material she'd bought and never finished, and there were knitting needles in that. I've had various periods where I've paid more attention to other hobbies, so this last knitting obsession has just been going on for a few years now.

Because I am a Hufflepuff, and very earnest, I'll even mention that I already answered the second question, some time ago, here.