My mom taught me how to knit when I was nine years old. I started a stockinette stitch scarf, but only got about a foot and a half done before I was totally bored with it. So I turned around and made a diamond pattern pullover, loaded with YOs, in an easy to memorize pattern that kept me interested as I went along. And I was off and running.
Out of all the crafts that I've done over the years, I have to say that I've knitted more than anything else. For a time I rode the bus to work and back, which gave me believe it or not, about seven hours a day of virtually uninterrupted knitting time. I knitted in geometry class in high school (I got all A's so the teacher didn't mind). When I was in Nursing School and everyone in the dorm was staying up studying, I'd knit while firing questions at everyone else. Don't get me wrong, Anatomy & Physiology was the hardest class I ever took in my life, and studying like this helped me as much as everyone else, after all I had to know the answers to the questions I asked.
In spite of all the knitting I did when I was growing up, I've had a very long lapse (the last thing I remember knitting was a double sided afghan I designed which I finished in 1987). I started knitting again recently though, Sep 2003. Other than that afghan, most everything I knitted I made according to the directions with very little if any alteration. Now that I'm back knitting though, I'm seeing some really fascinating designs by new designers. It has given me the bug to try my hand at seeing what I can develop. Baby steps though, first I'm learning new techniques, making up some of those new patterns I've found on and through the internet.