Hey there, I can finally call myself a knitter! I've been making a New Years resolution for a few years that "This year I will learn to knit" and then never did.
I tried books, DVDs, YouTube - none of it made sense. I went to a free group at a coffeeshop but they all knew how and didn't really want to take time to teach me.
A year ago I paid for a set of 3 classes at a yarn shop about 30 miles away - I had a year before the coupon expired so I finally went. I took classes the last 3 Friday evenings - and now I can knit and purl. I'm working on a sampler scarf. It's kind of funny looking - a little bumpy and wider at the start than it's ending up - but I'm doing it.
I took it on a bus trip yesterday. I knit at night watching movies, although I'm still having to pay a lot of attention to what my fingers are doing, so missing a lot of the movie.
I've gone to yarn shops for years, and bought yarn, and needles, and went to a fiber festival and bought the raw stuff (is it called roving?) just because I like it so much.
My middle-aged crisis includes learning to knit. Yay!
Oh - the teacher uses continental style so that's what I learned. She says she does that because she crocheted for years before knitting.
After seeing other styles, continental seems much more efficient. A woman at the shop who was just there to knit learned in England and she uses a style that's a variation on the standard English, wrapping the yarn a little differently.
I heard the Scandinavian way is different too - but they all produce the same fabric. Interesting.
I'm going to go back and read this whole thread - I just wanted to say, "I can knit!"