Experiences From A Sock

Hello there! I am a basic sock. At least that's what I hope to become someday when I grow a little more. My knitter, who has promised to learn how to knit me, found my yarn under her bed (you know, that treasure trove known as her yarn stash). I am currently on a size 2 circular needle. It is a 6" bamboo circular. Who knew they made such things!?!?!?!?

Anyway, my relationship with my knitter is going quite swimmingly at the moment. She is happily knitting away, although I did hear her murmur the word "toothpicks" at one time, but I believe she has quickly gotten used to knitting with these needles and has settled down quite comfortably. Did you know she even watched how to "turn the heel" from a video on line? Boy, I hope she finished me and doesn't have to frog me too often. Do you know what the term "frog" or "frogging" means? I didn't. So, I went on line. I used each end of my circular needle to type (clever, aren't I). Each language has a word for the sound frogs make, but in English is "ribbit, ribbit", or in knitting is "rip it, rip it". So when you tear (or rip) your knitting back in frustration, it's called "frogging." I laughed so hard when I read that, I actually got a stitch in my side (pun completely intended).

Okay. Back to the matter at hand. I only have one concern with regard to my knitter. I truly hope that our relationship ends well. I am like the lone man Adam in the Garden of Eden. If this doesn't go well, I may never get my Eve.....

Knitting Socks

I will admit to being too ignorant to not know better when it came to my specific knitting abilities. I would see a pattern I liked, and always giving myself the benefit of the doubt, thought, "I can knit that." Now, nine times out of ten, I was able to accomplish the task. However, I always kept the rules - meaning I used the yarn that was suggested and I NEVER changed the pattern in any way to "suit me." However, I have been fairly successful.

But socks were an altogether different matter. I am afraid of knitting socks. They truly intimidate me. The whole short row and heel turn thing, is relatively frightening. But I realize that if I ever want to open my own yarn store (which would be the ultimate ecstasy for a yarn-a-holic like me), I need to learn to knit socks. So I have broken down. I am starting my first pair. I will update you and let you see photos. Pray for me!!!!

Confidence in Knitting

I recently picked up a copy of Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's (aka Yarn Harlot) book Free-Range Knitter and have realized something about knitting that I had never considered before. Well, actually what I am about to say, I am sure many of you will read it, read it again, and think, "Well, duh..." or "Is she really that dense?" But if you will just humor me for a minute, I have been in the lone and dreary world of knitting all by myself for quite a while, and it was not until I moved to Utah that acceptance and even embracing of my passion was acquired.

As an example, my step-mother lives in Southern California and is an avid quilter. She made a trip up here this last weekend and, of course, the first thing she wanted to do was shop at every quilt store I could find to help her with her stash. When I inquired about this desire, nay, even primal drive to shop for fabric, she informed me that three quilt shops that were even remotely near her home had recently closed. Ergo, "Utah is the crafting capital of the world," she proclaimed. Really? But then I thought back to the time I had lived in Southern California too.

The first time I entered a yarn shop, as you know I was pregnant with my first child. It was in Sherman Oaks, and the shop was small, but bright and friendly. The staff was all too eager to show me the two basic stitches of knitting: knit and purl. From then on I was on my own. I developed my own style of knitting and learned from books, while only when extremely frustrated, entering a yarn store to ask a question so I may receive clarification. I became a closet knitter.

The next time I seriously picked up the needles again, I was living in the Inland Empire (hotter than Hades there, I might add). I went to the only store I could find (which was 30 minutes from my home) and inquired about some classes. Gleefully signing up and paying my money, as I exited the store I was walking on clouds and couldn't wait for the class to start. I envisioned finally rubbing elbows with other knitters and commiserating over patterns and yarn. I arrived at the designated time, opened my carry-all and sat down to knit. I noticed tiny snickers and twittering, and out of the corner of my eye saw some strange glances. One brazen women looked me in the eye and proclaimed: "You are totally knitting the wrong way." Did she help me with the "right" way? No. So, mortified, I slinked from the shop never to enter the establishment again. I sadly put away my needles and forced my burgeoning passion to the back of my mind.

Fast forward to moving to Utah. I found a store, and with not a small amount of trepidation entered the portal to the Land of Yarnia. This time the girls in the shop was friendly, kind and extremely personable. I timidly relayed my experience in California and the owner of the shop asked me to show her how I knit. She too began to laugh, but for a completely different reason. She said I knit in the Continental Style and then she said to me in the kindest voice, "Oh, honey, there is no right way to knit. If the stitches aren't twisted, then how they get there doesn't matter." Whew! Well, now I was mad. Do you know how much time I wasted without nary a knit stitch in sight? Do you know how many moments my kids would have fallen on their knees and thanked the heavens that mom didn't kill them for something they had done? Why? If I had been knitting, I would have been calm, serene, yea, even the very model of saintly patience. But did my children receive this treatment? No!!! Why? Because I believed some impudent, ignorant woman whose shop I most fervently hope has perished into the vast wasteland of the California recession.

So, here is my point. ANYONE can learn to knit. Whatever makes you feel comfortable, is the right way. As long as the stitches look right, who cares? I learned to crochet first, so holding the yarn in my right hand is uncomfortable and completely useless. I might as well try knitting with my feet to hold the yarn this way. When I purl, I still hold the yarn in my left hand, but then I kind of "throw" the yarn anyway. Why? I don't know. It's just how I do it. All knitters are each uniquely and profoundly different from each other. So, put your needles in the air and proclaim: "I can knit! I can create! I am worthy!" Ha-ha-ha-ha (evil cackle)!!!!

The Light Bulb

If you haven't read my blog from the beginning, then you don't know how I got into this obsession that now encompasses my whole world ... knitting. I picked up my first pair of knitting needles about 19 years ago when I was pregnant with my first child. Never finishing a project and sporadically knitting more off than on over the next 17 years, I let life take me along on my thoroughly busy and sometimes chaotic journey of husband, kids and other such cables and bobbles of life.

I guess I must digress at this point to let you know that although not technically diagnosed as ADD, I might be what other people would call a "flibbertygibbet", perhaps, flighty, interested in everything, unable to finish anything, you know what I'm getting at. Now as for me, I like to think that my personality stems from being born under the astrological sign of Aquarius. The main features of this sign are more along of the lines of "independent", "creative" and "free-spirited". Now, doesn't that sound better? I know it makes me feel good.

So, back to the matter at hand. As my children have grown and become somewhat more independent, I have reached out to find something that is uniquely "me". I love to read, but my husband hates it, because when I get involved in a book, everything else around me fades to black. So the word unresponsive here is more than applicable. I've tried various sports, because my husband is very athletic, but let's just say that the hand/eye coordination thing is non-functional in me. So, in order to prevent myself from stuffing my face with food when I am in bed at night, I turned to knitting, because, as you well know, it takes two hands to knit, and two busy hands knitting cannot also be putting food in your mouth. Problem solved! Well, not really. While food is no longer an obsession, yarn and knitting is.

The main issue with all of this knitting and how it has encompassed my life is my family has now confirmed to themselves that I am certifiable. My kids don't understand it, my husband doesn't understand it, but because this is the only thing I have stuck with, he supports me in this obsession. So over the last two years, can you imagine the amount of books and magazines that have made their way (very stealthily, I may add) into my home? Last week, my husband was in his (ah-hemm) "office" and picked up a copy of Vogue Knitting. Hence, the "light bulb" moment. My husband finally gets it! Not only is he excited about my yarn stash and knitting abilities, but he is encouraging me to teach others to knit, and "while you're at it, why don't you start an on-line store or sell yarn to your friends?" Could my ears be deceiving me? Did I hear him right? Oh the joys! The ecstasy! I can hear the angelic strains from on high!

I must go now. I have to start looking for new yarns............

Spring Fever

Well, my husband's vest is almost finished. I really hope he likes it. Honestly what's on my mind today is Spring Fever. It has been so beautiful and warm here the last couple of days. I am looking out of my office window and the snow on the mountains is almost melted, which from my California mind is a blessing, because last winter was soooo long and soooo snowy, that I was ready to hightail it right back to the beach! Last year, I think it was sometime after Mother's Day, thinking, "I am still so cold! Why am I still cold?" I would soak in a hot tub just to warm up my bones. This thinking process even lead my wandering mind back to a series of books I first discovered about 15 years ago by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander). The main characters were in damp, cold France I think it was, and got into these hot mineral baths so they could finally get warm. The way she described the cold right in the midst of her bones, was so compelling, and I supposed that's why it has always stuck with me, not to mention the fact that Jaime is soooo hot in my mind's eye. I know all of my girlfriends will agree with that one. If you haven't read them, they are historical fiction, but oh so addictive.

I have given up pleasure reading for the most part, because whenever I get into a book, the world fades to black and until I have finished it, I can get nothing done and no one can talk to me, because I truly transport to another world. Very unheathy I must say if you have children. Knitting is so much better because you can converse, keep food out of your mouth (mustn't muss up the yarn, you know) watch the television, put down the project, do what you need to do, and pick it right back up again!

And speaking of keeping food out of your mouth, at my Friday afternoon knitting group, someone brought .... Girl Scout Cookies!! Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad! Is anyone capable of keeping their hands off of them? And what's with the new Daisy Go Rounds? They are reduced calorie, which is supposed to make you feel better for stuffing the whole box into your mouth? Right! Well, sadly today is filled with laundry, vacuuming, ironing and running up and down the stairs, so (sigh) I won't be getting my daily yarn fix. Maybe if I work really hard and quickly, I can get to it. Let's hope for miracles, ladies.....

The New Project

I was knitting my husband a cotton vest from the "simply Sublime organic cotton book". It was getting a little tedious. Okay, if we're going to be honest here, it was BORING!!!! I mean stockinette stitch, while the basis of all knitting, can get really boring. I have to knit something like 18 inches until I get to the beginning of any interesting pattern. But because of the fact that all of my kids got something that I knitted them at Christmas, my poor husband (with a dejected pout on his face, I might add) said, "What about me? How come you haven't knitted anything for me?" So, I scoured the pattern closet and found this great beachy looking pattern for him.

While we were in California (at the beach, even) I scoped out a yarn store and ran across this new Rowan magazine no. 45. (See cover photo). Now, do you see why I attempted this? What a challenge!! Now, truth be told, I am really too stupid to realize that I'm not capable of a certain level of expertise when it comes to knitting, so I jump in with both feet (and my eyes metaphorically closed) and hope for the best. So far so good! Take a look for yourself! The best part is that even though I have crocheted, I am really NOT a crocheter. But it really wasn't that hard. Once I downloaded the difference in terms from the UK to the US, it was relatively easy. What do you think? One of the gals at my knitting group said that when I finish it, I need to wear a battery-operated neon sign stating "I MADE THIS".

So part way up the first sleeve, I started feeling guilty as the partially finished front of my husband's vest began to call out to me from deep within the recesses of the bag I had banished it to. Soon that vest began to be annoying. In fact it turned into a complete nag! Well, just to shut it up, I reached into the banishment pile and picked it up again. I am on row 85. Mindless work, but if I can at least finish it, maybe it'll finally shut up!

Knitting with Cotton

When I first started knitting, I was pregnant with my first child (19 years ago). I thought it would be nice to knit a baby blanket. I had grown up with a grandmother and a father (yes, that's right, a father) who crocheted. Since I was born in the last half of the 1960s, I was a young child in the 70s. Who remembers ponchos? Macrame? Crocheted bikinis? Daisy afghans? (Still have that one, by the way.) I had this large swing that was made out of macrame and had a homemade clown sitting on it. It hung from the ceiling in the corner of my room on my sister's side. Now, who remembers the movie Poltergeist? Are you following me here? Never in the history of the world has a clown been removed from a child's bedroom faster. I still have nightmares.

Anyhoo, where was I? Oh yes, so because I grew up around crocheting, I didn't particularly like the look of the baby blanket if it was crocheted. To me (in my ultimate 20ish wisdom) knitting looked so much more professional. We had, at that time, gotten through the craft era of the 70's, through the fashion atrocities of the 80's (enough said on that era) and were just squeeking into the 90's when this thought occurred to me. I want to KNIT! I headed off to the nearest craft store and bought a book on knitting along with some yarn. Initially I got stuck and sheepishly walked into a yarn store in Southern California. The wonderful clerks helped me and I was on my way. How was the blanket? Don't know. Never finished it. In fact, I didn't pick up needles again until about 2 years ago. This was after we moved to Utah and I was experiencing my first winter when I realized that reading books (or watching TV) whilst stuffing one's face whilst watching the snow fall outside was not terribly healthy. People don't get depressed because of the winter, they get depressed because in the spring they step on the scale and see the results of all the noshing! I never packed on the freshman 15, I packed on the Utah 20!

Needless to say, I was such a novice back then about this whole knitting thing. I was satisfied with any old yarn and if the project looked reasonably simple and elegant, I was game. It wasn't until I found this Filtura Di Crosa Baby pom pom yarn by Tahki that I started to realize that yarn really mattered when it came to one's projects. This was the crossroads of my knitting existence. And I crossed over, I mean I really crossed over. Living on the planet Yarn Obsession is fun! Stash is a blast! Have you seen the Kleenex commercial where the woman touches everything, until she gets to the tissue and suddenly .... it's FEEEEEEL. Oh yes, the feel of the yarn is essential. It makes you excited to see the final project.

However, knitting with cotton is something different. If you don't have a consistent tension, it ends up looking all wompy (or is it wonky?). I know that's not a Webster's word, but you know what I mean. Here is an example of my first attempt to knit with cotton. Truly humiliating. But, I have finally gotten the hang of it, and yesterday I finished the Gumdrop Sweater for my next door neighbor's little girl. Here it is. I will post pictures of her in it, though. I promise. So since spring and summer are just around the corner, pick up some cotton, or maybe some bamboo/cotton mix. There is so much out there, I just don't have enough time to see it all! And ladies .... use good yarn. You'll be glad you did.