My dad once compared me to Emma on Corner Gas. I hadn't seen the episode (Season 3, "Dog River Vice") at the time, but he figured that if I ever took a bet that I could stop knitting longer than someone else could stop doing something, I would end up just like Emma and be knitting the air with my hands.

I don't know if I am quite THAT bad. But I have been known to knit at stop lights. And during baby showers (the gift wasn't quite done!) and the occasional church annual general meeting. And during many a game of Scrabble or Settlers of Catan (sometimes people take a really LONG time on their turns!)

Therefore, you can imagine my surprise (more like dumb shock) when, last Wednesday night, I discovered that nine years ago, while teaching myself the purl stitch from dim, dusty memories of my grandmother's instructions at the age of five, I taught myself wrong!! And have been doing it wrong ever since, which is why my stockinette stitch pieces always had crossed stitches on them. (I just thought everyone's knitting looked like that! It wasn't until someone commented on it that I began to notice that no one's knitting looked like that! Why, yes, I'm a natural blond, why do you ask?) It worked, it just looked a little odd—and I am fairly certain that is why I have not always been able to get various techniques to work for me. I immediately found videos of how to do it the right way, of course--but it will take a while for the new motions to become as ingrained in my muscle memory as the old ones are were. (I keep telling my fingers that it's a "were!")

However, despite comparisons to Emma and Chicken Run's Babs (above), I still don't think anyone could top this:

Family members, take note: if I ever run out of yarn, make sure you hide the scissors!