I've always wanted to know how to knit. My granny, who was good at that kind of thing preferred crochet. Why it always had to knitting and crochet wouldn't do, I don't know, but the end of it is that Granny never taught me how to knit. She taught me how to sew, how to quilt, embroidery, cross-stitch and crochet, but knitting has always been a mystery.
Secretly, I was always hoping to make friends with a knitter who would initiate me. This was foolish on many levels. A. I'm very hard to teach anything to, being rather pig-headed. B. I have limited time for developing new friendships and my current inventory of friends lacks a knitter. C. Waiting for romantic notions of that kind to be fulfilled is very often a good way never to learn how to knit.
So.... I took matters into my own hands and bought a book. This is my usual method for making up for a shortfall in personal relationships. My library is much larger than my circle of friends for many reasons, but it nevertheless is a source of quiet melancholy that I tend to learn things from books more than people. The book is quite helpful. It took several tries, but I can now cast on and do a basic stretch of knitting. I'm finding it as interesting and soothing as I thought I would. Maybe after I get good at it, I'll be able to give someone else the gift I always wanted.