"I think I've got the knitting bug"
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We asked musician Anthony Ward to undertake a knitting challenge, like the one in Sew Your Own.
"My nan taught me to knit when I was around five or six," he says. "I remember that I kind of enjoyed it but didn't carry on with it."
Anthony, who lives in Dublin, says he's a dab hand at sewing buttons back on to jackets but picking up knitting again was a harder challenge.
His girlfriend Margot Cullen, who is a fashion designer, gave him some knitting needles and wool.
"She also pointed me towards an instructional video -- but it was for right-handed people and I'm left-handed. But I actually found a video on the internet that taught left-handed people to knit.
"I cast on the stitches too tightly at the beginning so it was difficult to get the needle through the wool. I was getting quite frustrated with the whole thing and felt like throwing it at the wall!
"But I'd just start it over again and after a couple of hours, I'd picked it up really well. I think the rewards you get for the amount of time it takes to learn the skill means it's well worth it.
"It can take years to perfect how to play a musical instrument but knitting is much easier to pick up than that."
Anthony is now 90 rows into his chosen project -- a colourful scarf. He also took on the challenge to knit in public.
"I was sitting in the audience at the Ruby Sessions night in Dublin and decided to take out the knitting and do a few rows. People found it intriguing. The only person who questioned what I was doing was a German girl who asked 'Isn't that a feminine thing to do?' I asked her 'Do I look feminine?' and she said no.
"I think I've got the knitting bug now -- it's got this nice sort of calm, repetitive nature to it. I'm definitely going to continue doing it."
Irish Independent
