Krazy Kelly

When I was a kid growing up, I would always hate when the teacher of any class would force the kids to find a adjective that starts with the same letter as their first name and explain why they think that word describes them the best. Lucky Lisa, Clever Carla, and Marvelous Melissa were all great options. Then there was me. Kelly. The letter "K". No amount of Sesame Street could help me find a good word to describe who I was at the time. So it was Krazy Kelly for me and I hated it.

Now don't get me wrong. I was and still am crazy. My whole life I've always seemed to go to my own drumbeat. However after a few years of saying the same thing to sometimes the same teacher, Krazy Kelly just wasn't cutting it anymore.

I learned how to knit about two years ago from a co-worker at a call center I used to work at. The job was rather mundane. Some days, we would get on average close to 2 calls per hour (which is not a lot for a call center). Sundays were the busiest because that's when we got the most calls. Either way I was happy because I had a paycheck and ample time to do my homework when it was down time. However, at the time I learned how to knit it was July and school was out. With no homework and nothing to do, I bought a cross stitch (because I absolutely love that thing) and started working on that at work to fill up time between calls. Then one day I saw my co-worker knitting away at a black scarf. I was instantly intrigued by her craft and how her finger manipulated the yarn and needles to make her creation. Up to that point, I wouldn’t have said I was a crafty girl. I've sewn a couple pillows in my life, did some cross-stitch and embroidery and did all the usual crafty things that children do with crayons and watercolors. Knitting was something completely new to me. So I did like any other Krazy Kelly out there would do. I went up and asked her to teach me right then and there.

I took a couple lessons for me to be able to practice at home. Unfortunately I just wasn't getting it. Knitting was easy; it was purling that was frustrating. I made ugly swatch after ugly swatch of garter stitch and tried to include some purls in there but it just wasn't working.

Fast forward to September 2004. I was in New Jersey visiting a friend at her house and I woke up one morning to find Debbie Stoller's Stitch & Bitch book in her room. I opened it up and read the whole book (including the introduction) that day. When I asked her why she had it she told me that she started knitting and her mom got her the book. My friend then walked me through knitting again, then we went to Wal-Mart, got some cheap acrylic yarn and I started at my very first scarf. It was some ugly maroon color with a thick tweedy green yarn that my friend let me borrow from her. The colors were too manly for me so I gave the scarf to my boyfriend at the time.

Two years later I haven't put my needles down. Some still call me Krazy Kelly because of my obsession with yarn, knitting and anything involving it. However, now I have a new word to describe me. Knitting Kelly. It's not quite an adjective but it does describe who I am. Take that Smart Sean and Thoughtful Theresa.