My mother sewed, but she didn't do any needlework--her eyesight was too bad, I think. She sewed and read using a magnifier. Both of my grandmothers crocheted, and my Grandma Scott--my mother's mother--also tatted. She taught me to crochet and tat, but the tatting didn't stick. I don't think I ever actually made anything, but she made some beautiful tatted doilies.
I learned how to knit in Girl Scouts, but when I was in high school I did a lot of crocheting. That was the height of the hippie movement, I guess, and magazines like Family Circle and Woman's Day had a lot of crochet patterns. I remember making a bunch of Irish crochet purses using rug yarn. I also went through a phase of thread crochet u sing a tiny steel hook, buying intricate doily patterns and all kinds of colors of crochet thread. During that time I made a few Barbie doll outfits from thread as well. My grandmother had crocheted a whole wardrobe for my dolls, but I must have sold it at a garage sale at some point, or at least it's all gone missing.
My knitting hobby really exploded when self-striping sock yarn came out. I've always loved variegated yarn, and although I had no idea whether I would ever be able to accomplish knitting on tiny needles with such small yarn, I wanted to try. I made my first sock in 2003, and that's really all I've been knitting since then. The photo above is the one I'm currently working on. I'm not very fast, but it doesn't really matter. I'm more of a "process" knitter, i.e., I enjoy the process as much as, or more than, the actual end product.
I learned how to sew and follow a sewing pattern in Home Ec classes at school. I remember making a suit--shorts, jacket and hat--for a fashion show that we put on at the end of the year, whatever year that was.
I'm so glad that I learned to do these things, and for the creativity that pushes me to knit and sew, and make things. It's kind of amazing, really, to create something like a pair of socks out of a ball of yarn, and I'm thankful that I can do it.
Photo: 9/7 - My hobby