I am 42 years old and live in Portland, Oregon.  I have been knitting for over 20 years!  I was an exchange student in Jonkoping, Sweden and everyone in my school was crazy about knitting so I asked my host mother Sol-Brit to teach me.  Mama had me knit a sweater and it didn’t turn out so well. As I remember it was kind of lop-sided, but I did slog through it.  When I came back to the United States knitting wasn’t vogue and the yarnshops were rather sucky in the Portland area so I stopped knitting.  I broke my arm in 1999 and the physical therapist suggested I knit to get the strength back in arm.  I had noticed a new yarn shop had opened on Hawthorne so I stopped by after physical therapy.  This new shop was the Yarn Garden and a nice lady (who was the owner) helped me pick out yarn and needles to make a scarf.  Except for taking a year off for the first year of my daughter’s life I haven’t stopped knitting.  I have a problem of starting these projects where I seem to get in over my head and end of ripping and cussing.  Hopefully fellow knitters can learn from my mistakes and have success.  Thanks for reading!