Really? That's what I've been doing wrong?! Really.

So I've had this problem for years...

I taught myself how to knit by watching someone once, and figured out the rest by following the string through various patterns that I liked.

But I've had to design everything I've ever knit from scratch because knitting patterns never made any sense to me. None. I've complained and complained, but no one could ever explain what I was missing... Until the other day at dinner when someone was actually sitting next to me and watching me knit.

"Well that's interesting... I've never seen anyone do that before."

"What?"

"You throw your yarn over the needle instead of picking it."

"Oh, that's just when I go this direction. When I go the other way, I pick."

"... What do you mean the other way?"

"Like this." I turned my work over so that I was knitting from right to left instead of from left to right.

"Wow. Most people can't go both ways."

"What?"

"Most people can only knit in one direction. Left to right or right to left."

"Well then how do you do that?" I pointed to a section of my knitting that was a stockinette stitch.

"You flip your work over and purl."

"You have to flip your work over after every row?"

"Yes."

"Well, that's not very efficient. Why don't they ever tell you that in knitting patterns?"

"It's just understood."

"No... No it's NOT understood. If I understood that, I'd have figured out how to knit from a pattern YEARS ago..."

So... maybe I'll have another go at those knitting pattern things, now that I know how "normal people" knit...

*headdesk*