I remember "finger knitting" a lot as a kid but I didn't know how to make a new row so would just sit for hours making hilariously long chains. And I'm pretty sure it was more finger crochet, but honestly not sure as I can't remember how I was doing it.

My grandma knitted for a while but had absolutely terrible taste, all the grandkids dreaded being gifted something so that probably put me off for a fair while!

Ended up learning for real in early 2013, I'd just moved in with my now-husband and must have felt secure enough to start a yarn stash after years of moving around between different rentals every few months. Basically just googled for tutorials and followed them as best I could, which did result in me knitting everything through the back loop for a while due to one ambiguous image in a tutorial somewhere. Within a couple months I'd done a full size adult jumper and a lace shawl, just jumped in at the deep end with no fear whatsoever.

These days I'm with you OP it's pretty much new things as and when I see a pretty pattern using them. And then most of the time, modern patterns are going to have at least a brief explanation of any unusual techniques included, so you often don't even need an external resource at all! On those occasions when I do I'll look for written with photos first, video if the pics weren't clear enough. And then of course sometimes I just make it up and if it looks close enough to the pattern photo I'm happy 😆