So how did you learn to knit?

This is my favorite ice-breaker question for other knitters.
Some people (e.g. Harrison), stagger me with the response "I taught myself". I just haven't got that kind of patience or comprehension. Hat's off.
For most people it was Mum/grandma/some other older female relative. I was taught by Sr. Canice, at National School in Callan, Co. Kilkenny, when I was in 1st class (3rd grade or so). All us little girls learned how to cast on, plain (knit) and purl stitches, and cast off. We knit cats. Rather abstract cats, given that they were, simply, two haphazardly shaped rectangles stuffed with Mammy's ripped tights and sewn together, button eyes, ribbon tied round the "neck". Boy was I proud of that cat.
My next project was a tie for my Dad. Pattern: Cast on 4 stitches in Kelly Green yarn. Knit one row. Repeat till Dad gets home from work. Cast off. Present hopefully, receive praise modestly. Observe said tie hanging in wardrobe till you move house some years later, when movers steal it.
So what's your story?

A Starter for Ten...

Here I go with my knitting blog. Maybe no different to all the others out there, but different enough because how many knitting/microbiologist/Boston Terrier-lover/Irish ex-pats are out there? (Hey, if there's more than one of us, let me know). I've become more and more into the blogs of the knitting community, and find myself posting ever-longer comments on their blogs. So why not get 'em all together in one place I say.
I've hesitated for months now to develop this blog, imagining myself running out of steam in a month and being one of those folks who never updates. But I'll try to avoid that, hey nothing ventured etc.
So here goes :)