a story from mom

i got the email below from mom this morning...it was so funny and such a blog-style entry that i had to share it here. welcome mom, as our guest blogger. :-)

Did I ever tell you about my "knitting days"? When I was 20 I admired someone's hand knit sweater featuring a horse on the back and also designs on the front, all in three colors. So I went down to Fantle's with the pattern and got the yarn and Frankie Reeves taught me how to knit – her way, which is the "pick-knit" method. Instead of throwing the yarn over your needle on each stitch, you Pick it through the last loop you made. Both methods look the same when completed. I proceeded to make the entire back of the sweater and then went down to have a lady at the store inspect my work. She said, "Who's this going to be for?" and when I told her it was me, she said what I'd just made would fit a little kid. Although I had counted all the stitches and made it according to the pattern instructions, It was knitting it too tight (can be caused by the yarn being too small in diameter and/or making the stitches too tight). So I ripped it all out and started over. I may have even had to buy larger knitting needles, but in any case, I had to make looser stitches. I don't know if you remember seeing this sweater. I don't even know if I still have it, in the depths of our front bedroom closet. It was tan and had two colors of brown for the horses. I believe this was my first and last effort at knitting.

Somehow this reminds me of when Dad decided to enter the old man's calf roping (breakaway roping) at the Platte horse show, using "Beast" (Bee's Star Bar). He roped the calf in 4 seconds, winning the event, and promptly retired from the sport, undefeated.