My grandma brainwashed me as a baby...I think she taught me how to thread a needle when I was maybe 4. I have no memory of learning how. I have just always done it.
She also taught me a little bit about embroidery and how to crochet when I was 9...and I sort of picked up knitting on my own with a little bit of help around the same age.
This is what happens when you corrupt a kid....turn'em into crafting junkies...
My Grandma tried to teach me to embroider when I was a kid, but I was all thumbs. My mom was a terrific crafter. She'd go to shows, look stuff over then go home and create her own or recreate what she'd seen and liked. She once told me "any idiot can cross stitch"; well here is one 'idiot' who can't!
Both of my grown daughters all on their own have taught themselves to crochet and to knit and to quilt. In fact, I kid the oldest about taking over from Martha Stewart next time Martha goes to jail.
Arent' Grandmas the best? That's how I first got attracted to needlework. I used to watch her embroider and sew and crochet. I absolutely loved to watch her crochet plastic bread bags into rugs. She was a farm woman and a firm believer in the "make it do or do without" philosophy.
My favorite remembrance of her is the time she embroidered denim shirts for the three of us girls. This was the rage in the early 70's in our part of the country, but Mom and Dad couldn't afford to run to the department store and buy three store-bought shirts for us. So Mom found some plain denim shirts, took them to Grandma, and explained what she wanted.
I don't remember my sisters' shirts, but mine had snowflakes and red and white trim. The first day I wore it, the richest girl in school (her dad was Ryan White's first lawyer in his AIDS battles) told me she wished she had a shirt like mine. I couldn't wait to get home that afternoon to call Grandma and tell her what Suzy Vaughan said about my shirt!