Knitting for Lefties

I'm left-handed. When I was little, scissors were made exclusively for right-handed people. I vividly remember how much it hurt to use scissors for more than a short period of time. My mom used to get old pattern books from the fabric store for my brother and I to play with. We would cut out the figures and switch out their heads, bodies and legs. It was great fun, but I remember the pain caused by the scissors.

Anyway, I'm way off topic now.

In the recent past I have tried to take up "real" knitting again after many years of knitting washcloths. I made two attempts at knitting socks, both of which failed miserably. Jennifer offered to teach me. All I need is a plane ticket...

But I digress again (I must be starved for conversation after all those letters). For some or other reason unbeknownst to me, I thought that I might be able to knit a sweater. "Why?" you ask. "You can't even knit a darn sock!" (Pun intended)

Of course, the pattern I chose isn't a plain stockinette stitch pattern either. It involves charts. I've never knitted using charts before.

I followed the chart block by block and ended up with this (which is not what the picture looks like, trust me):

Much Googling and five hours of knitting, chart-amending and frogging later, SUCCESS!

One of the sites commiserating with left-handed knitters claim that, because of the intense studying involved in successfully knitting anything that uses charts, we will have a greater understanding of how it works. I don't want a greater understanding! I just want to knit a sweater!

That all being said, I don't mind being left-handed. We're smart and creative, I hear.

My favorite lefty quote:
"All people are born right-handed. Only the great overcome it."