MY LIFE (AS A KNITTER) SO FAR

My mother taught me to knit when I was eight years old. She worked in a yarn shop at the time, teaching classes, knitting samples and doing finishing work. Endlessly impressed by the speed and ease of her knitting, I picked up the needles with anticipation, knowing my first completed sweater was only a few short hours away.

Tragically, it was not so. I dropped needles and stitches with equal regularity and soon became frustrated by my unbelievably slow progress. I was a better crocheter. I liked holding on to only one needle. I liked the little, individual stitches that could be unravelled one by one, with perfect control, without laddering or painstaking picking back up through row upon row. I crocheted constantly. My every stuffed animal had its own little blanket. I was extremely good at squares. I stopped knitting entirely.

I had a knitting breakthrough in high school. It occurred to me that, if only I could hold the yarn steady in my left hand and grab it by moving my right needle, rather than throwing the yarn across with my right hand, that knitting would be exactly like crochet, and I would be a natural. After a few tries, it worked! I had developed a whole new way of knitting! My vision of myself as a knitting pioneer was short lived, however, meeting a quick death when my mother (knitting goddess, still; yarn shop employee, no more) broke it to me that I had merely happened upon continental knitting. Curses! I stopped knitting again.

And this brings us to more recent history: the summer of 2002. I was on a crafty kick, and I was looking for instructions for how to make lip balm. Surfing around, I happened upon a website called ‘Not Martha.’ I was impressed by her thorough notes on lip balm. I was also intrigued by her fuzzy, knit scarves. Then, destiny took a hand.

(Actually, it wasn’t quite that exciting, but this narrative is getting a touch long, and I was hoping to liven things up a little. Back to the summer of 2002.)

On a jaunt to my local Barnes & Noble, browsing around the crafts section, I noticed a copy of Vogue Knitting On the Go: Chunky Knits. My mother (always the knitter, that one!) has quite a collection of those little books, so I took a look, thinking she might want a copy. Instead, I found myself fascinated by the sweaters, lured by the simple, yet chic, designs and the promising instructions. (Book: Cast on 36 sts. Me: Only 36? Sweet!) I got the book. I returned to Not Martha, to read with greater care the ultimate fuzzy scarf pattern. I raided my mom’s stash for some needles and yarn. I made the scarf. It was great. I knit in the car. I knit on the bus. I knit while watching movies. I knit while hanging out at friends’ apartments. I couldn’t get enough. I cast on for another scarf. I cast on for a sweater. I was a knitter.

So that’s it. I’d like to thank lip balm and those lovely sweaters in Vogue Knitting On the Go: Chunky Knits for bringing me back to knitting. Curiously, although I’ve done a lot of crafting and a lot of knitting since 2002, I have yet to make either.