Mom learned how to knit from a book, then taught us, her daughters. I’m not sure why, but we all shared the size 10 ½ needles and blue acrylic yarn, taking turns working on The Blob that it became. It became a sampler of our experiments and mistakes with knitting and purling, increasing and decreasing, casting on and binding off. It was full of dropped stitches, holes, ridges, puckers, loose and tight stitches, and edges that advanced and retreated. And it kept on growing. As soon as someone put it down, someone else would pick it up and knit some more. We could do this!
Mom’s main passion has always been sewing. She and her thrifty Dutch mom and sisters created many of their own clothes, and ours as well, and tried to teach us their skills. This took with my older sister and cousins, who went on to create all manner of dresses and coats, and pillows and curtains. Not me or my younger sister. The mechanics of it bogged us down. Too tedious!
But knitting stuck with me. I loved the feeling and rhythm of it. I created doll clothes and bedding, hats, scarves, mittens, slippers and stuffed animals, moving on to tiny needles and fancy stitches to outfit my Barbie dolls. I made gifts for family members, including a huge red tie I knitted for my new brother-in-law. Mom went on to make some afghans with big needles and multiple strands of acrylic yarn. Then I made one, too, and so did big sister. But she doesn’t knit anymore (so how did she get all our afghans??).
One of our older cousins got the knitting bug, too. She is a lifelong knitter of beautiful classic sweaters. I got a hand-me-down from her as a kid, a cowl-neck form-fitting sweater in gold wool that she made in her teens. It looked professionally made. Whatever happened to it?
Santa Claus brought a plastic “spinning wheel” for me one year. This was spool knitting, controlled by moving the big wheel around, which moved the smaller one on which you hooked the stitches over the prongs. I made yards and yards of red cord, but not enough for a rug or anything useful. It would have required sewing to piece it together—eww!
Grandma H. taught me how to do single crochet one summer and I put that to use, creating edgings on my knitted things and making purses. Grandma was fond of making doilies and fancy little potholders that looked like dresses, before her fingers became crippled from arthritis. When she was growing up in Sweden she knitted and crocheted. She said she used to make a sock a day for her family members. Can you imagine? (Ooh, Twilight Zone moment; that’s a phrase I often heard Grandma say).
I haven’t been an obsessive knitter, but I think I could be. Reading, writing and playing music have consumed a lot of my so-called free time while raising a family. Over time I have taught myself cabled Aran knitting, color knitting, and knitting in the round. I’ve completed whole sweaters, and then completely unraveled them when they didn’t measure up—no way I’d waste the yarn (it must be the Dutch in me)! I have made Scandinavian-patterned Christmas stockings for my sons, sweaters for my mom and sisters.
In the past few years, because I wanted to be knitting more, but found it depressing to tackle large projects and then see them lying around unfinished for ages (that ubiquitous sewing dragon standing guard again), I took up knitting cotton dishrags from a pattern I found at a yarn store. These are the circular ones with thirteen points around the perimeter. They look so cool knit in variegated yarn—like stars! And I love working with color. I realized I could stuff this work into my purse and take it anywhere, to doctor’s appointments and Little League games and on car, plane and train trips, and not have to be concerned with a pattern, because it was easily memorized.
I have given dishrags away to family members and friends new and old. They’ve gone around the world to my Swedish cousins and to my son’s Italian exchange mom. It’s been fun to see people’s reactions to getting a dishrag. At first they might not know what it is and put it on like a hat, to be silly. Yeah, it could be an instant Catholic hat or Jewish yarmulke, perfect for whipping out of your pocket or purse when you need to get your head covered. Some people think they are too pretty to use as a dishrag. They prefer to use them as trivets or as doilies under flowerpots and other rough objects. It’s a gift that so small it doesn’t need to be reciprocated, and is always appreciated.
But dishrags do get boring after awhile. I’ve recently been checking out pattern and idea books lately, and going over my yarn stash. My fingers are eager for new projects. A friend and I went to a workshop on the linen stitch two months ago, given by Karen Alfke (www.2ndesign.com). I can’t wait for her to get a book together. I’ve been experimenting. I’ve started and re-started a scarf with chunky fuzzy yarn, but it has decided it would rather be garter stitch than linen stitch. I’m loving the soothing mindlessness of knitting it. I pick it up and put it down often.
I have an amazing, creative friend, Dena. She is a hardworking translator, writer and mom who knits and felts all the time. She inspires me bigtime. I could never keep up with her, but I always love to see what she is working on. We’ve had a couple of field trips together to yarn stores. What fun. But I find I have a hard time at these stores as I am easily overstimulated by all the choices, and end up not buying anything!
I’m proud that knitting is in my family and in my life. But I wonder what happened to The Blob. It probably got thrown away, having served its function as the repository of our learning. How I would love to see it hanging on my wall!
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Okay, it’s your turn………
How did you learn to knit?
How old were you?
What part does it play in your life?
I want to hear your story!
© Alison H. 2007
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Comments: 13
and I liked doing the really fancy stitches. I never was one to do just the routine knitting or patterns. I used to follow patterns in a book and even did a whole table cloth chroched. When I went to work in NYC I had a little over an hour commute each way and this was back in 1944 during the war years, and one day I took it to my job and some one of my friends saw it and showed it to my boss. It turns out her sister worked for a wool company that was trying to teach or get kids interested in school to knit and crochet. Well, they were impressed by my things and asked me if I could do a baby set, hat, sweater and booties and take the directions down to where a child could understand them. You know, I did that for several baby sets and rewrote the instructions as I did them. I got about $50.00 for each one I did and I was only making $40.00 a week, big money in those days. They put them into a knitting book for kids and I think they went into the schools. I never knew what really happened after that as I left that job when the war ended and came back home and wasn't comuting anymore. I knitted all my life. I made sweaters, vests, jackets, socks, argyle ones for my husband, lol, lovely fagotted tops for myself. I haven't done it in years as my hands started to hurt me. I have arthritis and am amazed I can type the way I do. But now that you have mentioned it, I might take it up again. I taught my daughter Tracey to knit too and each one of my grand children had a baby out fit made for them. I also sewed all my clothes and my childrens clothes when they were growing up. Too poor , lol, to buy them. But I loved doing that. You know, until I read your article, I had forgotten this part of my life, well shelved it, and it brings back some memories. Thanks for pointing me to it and thanks for reading my poetry and leaving such nice comments. I hope you get lots of readers here. Very enjoyable story.
I tried to learn to knit, my aunt tried her darndest to teach me but I always ended up with a blob in my hand. I dropped stitches, and more stitches . . . .
I do crochet and taught my doctor that crocheting could be a good means to recover some of my hand eye coordination I lost due to breathing episodes and a mini-stroke or two. He was astounded when he saw the improvement and knowing me asked what I was doing. I told him crocheting. He smiled and made a note to himself to share with other patients!
Trish, I appreciate your comments. Knitters all go through the dropped stitches phase; I understand! Eventually the fingertips learn to become the guardians of the needle tips. It's great you found crochet and later could teach the doctor a thing or two. How else will they learn after medical school.
Later I learned to crochet, which seemed much easier to me, and didn't pick up a pair of knitting needles again until I was grown. When I did, I taught myself to knit without dropping the needle and swinging the thread over the gap (I think it's called European style).
What kinds of things did you make?
Then I became a teenager and my time was filled with school and work. After high school and college I became a teacher and worked with young children. I got into a lot of papercrafts as I was big into art with my children. I still make cards and scrapbook.
Then I got married and was pregnant with my first child. When I found out my baby was a girl I wanted to knit something for her and I got hooked on it! My first project was quite an adventurous one.... I saw a picture of a baby in a knit beret and just had to make it! So not only was I trying to teach myself to knit, but I was also dealing with learning to use double-pointed needles, a picot edge, and knitting in the round! I found a site online (knittinghelp.com) which was an absolute lifesaver! There I was able to watch videos on many techniques and also ask people for advice when stuck on the wording. Well, the beret turned out way too big for her at birth but I am happy to say it now fits her perfectly at 14 months old.
Since I started knitting a year and a half ago, I have completed many baby hats, sweaters, socks, and mittens as well as a few sweaters for myself. A few months ago I even started designing my own patterns for children's sweaters.
Along the way I also started finding crochet patterns online and began learning more intricate patterns and found that I love crocheting baby hats and booties.
When my daughter was born I was given a handknit hat. I absolutely loved it. It meant a lot to me that someone had taken the time to make these little hats with love to add to the happiness of my day.
So I have been making hats, mittens, booties, and sweaters to donate to my local hospital and also to shelters where the children do not have much to keep them warm. Some day I want to start a charity for this purpose. There are many out there in every community if you want to help others. I have a group here charitycentral.gather.com where I list charities, where they are, what they need, and who to contact as well as other ideas to help others if you are interested. I'm glad to accept any new members as well to get the word out.
Thank you and I hope to have some new members to help clothe those in need!
Please don't think I've taken offense. I am an actual spinner of yarn on an actual spinning wheel. Then I create items from the yarn that I have created from wool or other interesting fiber. I can honestly say, have never spun yarn from acrylic.
In my search for information, I entered "spinning wool" and got your article. Cute though it is, it is a bit misleading.
The great thing about needlework is that you can take it anywhere (unless it's a big project). Yes, there is a knack to keeping the stitches on the needle, Nana. It just takes practice! Crocheting is nice because there's only one stitch to worry about (except for afghan stitch). Needlework is a nice escape from the computer when you're traveling or have to sit in a doctor's office. Unless you are so addicted that your laptop goes everywhere! :-))