There it is. Possibly the very first finished object I ever knit, enshrined in all its old-school, film-camera, scanned-into-the-computer-at-a-low-resolution-that-seemed-reasonable-at-the-time glory.
I was going through old photos on the computer today and found this one in my 2002 scrapbook folder, and I can't remember ever seeing it before. I'm pretty sure I gave the bag away to someone — was it one of my sister's friends? It was squeaky acrylic yarn that might have come from some kind of "learn to knit" kit, and I know I'd started knitting some beginner project with it as soon as I got the yarn years before ... but the experience was so unsatisfying, so outright frustrating, that I mistaked the crappy yarn and crappy plastic needles for my own inability to knit, and put the project down.
Years later, I found it and decided I would finish a project, dammit, and nothing would stop me — so I ripped out the old project (which was probably a scarf anyway, and who needs an acrylic scarf in Florida?) in my very first official project frogging, and reknit it in a new pattern, horrible squeaky yarn and all. And maybe it's the fact that it's completely blurry, but looking at it now, I actually think I like the thing. Sure, it didn't match anything I owned or would ever wear, but I like the colors. I like the tassel-y ties. I like the shape of the little pouch. I have no clue what pattern I used so if I want a new one I'll have to go pattern-hunting or invent my own.
The weirdest thing about this is that if my file hierarchy is correct — which it probably is; I hadn't lost my mind and my organization skills yet in 2002 ;) — I knit this way earlier than I can remember knowing how to knit. I think I didn't knit a lot after that project, as the next time I picked up the yarn arts, it was with crochet first ... but now that this photo has been excavated from the depths of the hard drive, I feel pretty comfortable pushing back the date from which I can count myelf an official knitter. Come on — I made a pretty little pouch that someone else liked so much I gave it to her! That means I was a real knitter, right? Even if I forgot for a couple more years before rediscovering it?
Maybe every day isn't a new discovery, but every couple of years is. ;) And this is why I don't like to get rid of stuff, even old blurry photos of things I think are horrible and ugly at the time. ;D There's always a chance I'll find something old and ugly and see it in a completely new perspective, or be able to use it to relearn something about myself that I'd forgotten.
