Purposefully Untitled: Knitting and Knitting and Knitting

One characteristic I know, for a fact, that I lack --it's in my very genetic make-up-- is patience. Patience is not a virtue present in anyone in my family. My dad and his brothers are infamous for their short fuses and ability to get riled up over essentially nothing. Yes, it's largely due to am inability to control their temper, but it almost always surfaces when they are having to wait for something. Anything. Waiting another 5 minutes (or really any minutes) for their food at a drive-thru (FYI Whataburger, we are gonna sit here at this window and hold up the rest of the line until we get our damn Chophouse Cheddar Burger --we're not playing your pull-forward mind game). Waiting one second longer to see what is happening on the television because someone has had the audacity to pass in front of it. Every stop light is the longest in town. We are leaving at 8:00 and it's 7:55 and you're not ready and what the hell is taking so long?! We are not waiters, my family.

I knew going in that this was the MAIN ingredient to being good at knitting, and yet... here we are. Maybe someday I'll break the vicious family cycle.

Soooo needless to say, it's off to a slow and maddening start. I was not naive enough to think I could pick this up in a day (or maybe I was?), but I may not have the je ne sais quoi to be good at this long term.
Why did I decide to try knitting?
Why does any TV nerd under the age of 55?
To make your own Jayne Cobb Hat, of course.

(Now from what I understand this is actually made by crocheting? Ugh.)

So, I blindly grabbed some smooth yarn I didn't hate (thanks, random knitter at Hobby Lobby!), some nifty acrylic needles and sat down to see if I could get down the basics. Little did I know, that I had to learn a new language in the process --cast on, purl, continental. The first video I tried to learn from failed to mention that I wanted to leave my stitches loose enough to be able to get my needle back in there for the next row. I wanted them to look neat and small so I pulled those suckers tight --like a you know who's you know what on Sunday. It also explained how to make a slip knot in such a way that I had no clue that they meant, you know, just make a slip knot. Keep it simple, stupid video. I found one that is geared to teaching pre-teens and I suddenly got on a roll...of sorts.

This is about as far as I've gotten.

There's only one dropped stitch so far so that's a win, I guess. Never you mind how long it's taken me to get this far. Turns out this is not the 'mindless' hobby I thought it would be. This demands all my attention or else I'll be droppin' stitches and shit left and right.

l am not giving up, certainly, but I think I need a decided project to work on (I'm going to have to work up to the Big Damn Hero gear) so I know when I have 'arrived'. I might just give in and go for a scarf because, yeah that's something even I can't screw up. If I manage to finish, I'll post evidence.
Yay, learning!

*bonus points if you got the movie reference from the post title. This one was a classic in my house as a kid. Childish --I KNOW YOU ARE BUT WHAT AM I?