So I recently taught myself to knit. Or more like I reminded myself. My mother was amazing at teaching us how to do creative things, especially if we asked, because it meant more alone time for her. Four kids is something I'd want to escape from too if I had them, and she liked to steal away to read in her fireside chair whenever she could. Thus, I learned how to sew at age 6, crochet by 8 and knit by the time I was 10 or so. Looking back on it, she really knew how to do everything. A jack of all trades, that woman.
Except she never taught me how to bind off. I think she just forgot to teach me how to bind off, and I was too young to know any better and never asked. And it's quite possible she just figured I'd never finish anything since at that age I was picking up and discarding hobbies like a fat man at an all you can eat shell fish buffet; picking up a hobby enough to figure out and remember the basics, but not really wanting to enjoy the whole of it. So here I was knitting long thin scarves and belts, taking them off the needles before binding off and wondering "why the heck do they unravel??" Oh, little one. I think back to it and just laugh.
Anyway, I re-taught , or rather taught, myself with this book. The cover of the book really turned me off, but the inside truly is amazingly well thought out and simple, and well, visual. I'm a big fan of reading a book to find out how to do something. When I was in high school, I would go to the Ann Arbor public library and check out how to books - on how to play tennis (my boyfriend doesn't believe my amazing backhand came from a book), how to paint with water colors, how to create science experiments at home, how to make a terrarium, the list goes on - from which my addiction and fascination with how-to books was born.
My current (re-discovered) how-to book? Check it out here!