Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn’t hurt the untroubled spirit either. - Elizabeth Zimmermann
I learned to knit when I was about 10. A school friend showed me how to cast on stitches with the long-tail method and how to do the knit stitch. I knit a lot of garter stitch for awhile using my mom's silvalume needles and leftover yarn from her crocheted blanket projects. Then I learned the purl stitch and graduated to knitting ribbing, stockinette stitch, and cables. I would play around with knitting every once in awhile, and I was surprised that I always remembered how to cast on and do the stitches.
The only knitting book I remember having around then was The Woman's Day Book of Knitted Sweaters. (I wonder what happened to that copy we had in the house.) I made my first sweater when I was 12, I think. Gray boucle wool, three-quarter sleeves, cropped waist, boat neck, all over stockinette except for a lattice pattern on the top front. The individual pieces looked pretty good (they were all knit flat). However, I have a bit more of a rebel tendency than one might think because I neither made a swatch before I started the sweater, nor kept track of measurements, nor bothered to find out how to properly seam a knitted garment. The result was a rather lumpy, ill-fitting sweater with sleeves that weren't the same length. I think I wore it once.
Fast forward to age 30 - the era of instructional videos on YouTube, Ravelry, Stitch 'n Bitch, Socks That Rock, and Knit Picks. Oh, how things had changed - better yarn (both in fiber content and color range), better (and sometimes ridiculously expensive) needles, better patterns that one wouldn't be embarrassed to wear or have around one's home, better project and instruction books with clearer illustrations and pictures, a huge fiber arts community, and men taking to the craft in droves.
Oddly, it was crochet that got me back into knitting. Being left-handed, it's hard to learn to crochet from a right-handed person. However, my mom is also left-handed, so she was the perfect teacher. Blankets are quick to crochet, and there's nothing like a giant granny square on your lap.
Learning to crochet made me want to get back into knitting. I bought some bamboo straight needles and some worsted weight yarn from the craft store. Yet again, I remembered the basics. And this time, I really took to it and worked on projects on a regular basis.
I finally succumbed to circular needles - thank you, addi and Knit Picks and Signature. My cables and Kitchener stitches don't look too bad. I have a yarn and craft book stash. I found a local knitting group. And I did learn to seam a sweater properly...I watched a YouTube video on it.
nostalgia knitting in the future more
finished objects more
purple project more
sushi sweater more
I confess more
fighting startitis more
late for spring more
a solemn pause more
friends again more
it's not me, it's you more
knit your vegetables more
and again with the socks more
lace socks more
fernfrost scarf more
mystery shawlette more
the sweater that wasn't more
the appeal of sock knitting more
Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, May 2010 more
babette blankets require A LOT of seaming more
how I came to like using circular needles more
a knitting rant more
Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, May 2009 more
finished object parade more
my aversion to circular knitting needles and other yarn musings more
scarves more
famous boy knitters (scroll to bottom of post) more
my yarn habits more
crocheted object parade more
finished scarves and blankets more
meditating with a crochet hook more
