Laughing At Past Experiences

As I work on new merchandise for our website and our ETSY shop, I remember some of my earlier knitting experiences. When I was pregnant with my first child I decided to knit a baby sweater. I knew nothing about guage and tension or what to do if my knitting was too tight or too loose. I never really had any patience with written instructions so just started out with a simple pattern, my only pair of knitting needles, and some lovely baby blue yarn (my husband was certain we were going to have a boy so I did not think of using any color except blue). I was just very excited thinking I was going to create something for my first baby. I was still working in my office job in addition to being a very slow knitter at that time. I worked on the sweater when time permitted, and soon it seemed to take on a life of its own. At one point, my husband asked me, "Just how big is this baby going to be?" I was totally miffed and just kept knitting. Sometime later he asked me, "Is that sweater going to be his first "letter" sweater?" This time I became concerned rather than miffed because indeed the sweater was looking awfully big considering how small newborns are. By that time my mother was sewing little newborn clothes and I was shopping for them. When I compared my knitting with some of the other clothing, it became abundantly clear that my sweater would be something a toddler could wear rather than a newborn baby. Totally discouraged I unraveled the sweater, rolled up all the yarn and gave up on knitting for years to come. I had to acknowledge that measurements, guages, tension, swatches, and written instructions were all going to be important parts of anything I would attempt to knit. Our first baby was a boy, and our second child a girl. I did no knitting until after she was born when I was asked to knit some Barbie Doll clothes for a church Christmas bazaar. They were small items, quick to knit, and turned out to be great sellers. After that I decided to again try knitting for my children...........but that experience is yet another story for another day. I am pleased, however, to tell you that my knitting skills improved tremendously so our customers are very satisfied with their purchases from www.malcolmfortots.com.