Knitting "Trust" and "Love" Heirlooms

I was listening to David Ready’s latest Sticks and String podcast essay on “Trust”. He says, “Most of us go through life trusting people. Most people live up to that trust.” When we are knitting, there is a measure of trust we must have. We need to trust a pattern we are knitting, that it is correct and it will knit up to the picture before us. We trust that a ball of yarn is not going to have knots or strange shapes or color, unless it is intentional.
I think that the knitting and the crafting community is a community of “trust”. This trust is what appeals to me and feels so comfortable about being part of this community. Never have I seen a community that is so generous with their creativity and their time. If you have ever participated in a knitting group or Internet knitting forum, there is a measure of trust that a person must have to reveal what they are working on, good or bad. Most of the time, the responses are ones of encouragement and praise for your efforts. In signing on to Ravelry, never before have I felt more comfortable telling about myself in my profile. Is this because I know that only those who sign on, will be crafters who I can trust to share what is important to me? Is it because we mutually trust each other in our craft with similar goals? Is it because in doing this, allowing others to share my passion for my craft, I am somehow promoting its continuation throughout to generations to come?

I am glad that knitting is not considered an “old lady’s” hobby anymore. I’m glad to see so many young people wanting to learn. It’s great to see a resurgence of this long loved craft. We all need to teach someone how to knit or crochet to preserve this valuable skill. Of all my three sons, my youngest son was the only one of whom I was able to teach how to crochet when he was in Jr. Hi. He made his teacher a scarf and gave it to her for a Christmas Present. I was so proud of him. Unfortunately, shortly after his older brothers started teasing him about it and he stopped. I occasionally fanaticize the three young men being “stranded on a desert island, without any resources and of the three, there is only one who is able to crochet his own clothes out of the fibers found on the island, and the other two are naked as jaybirds. It’s a little like the story of the Three Pigs and Chicken Little, two lazy brothers and one industrious one.

Why are handmade knitted or crocheted gifts more cherished than purchased ones? The investment of one’s love and time in patiently knitting or crocheting a special gift for a friend or baby or loved one speaks volumes to the recipient. Learning a craft is much like learning to play a musical instrument. With time and practice, one perfects the skill to create a beautiful symphony of love in an heirloom that lives on for generations.

Something Old, and Something New

I promised you I would share about my knitting and Ravelry. Well, here goes…..

My husband and I had a very nice time driving up Interstate 5 past the orchards of almonds and fields of cotton, corn and cows, to Oakland. I knitted along the way working on my orange Wishbone sweater. I was able to knit up to the armpits and part of one arm when we arrived in Oakland seven hours later. Working with Size 11 needles makes this project go very quickly, but soon I tired of doing only stockinette stitch.

I had packed several knitting projects with me. When I was able to focus and concentrate, I worked on my Candlelight shawl. This lace pattern takes my whole concentration. I am knitting it on Size 4 needles and I had wished I had brought my magnifying glass with me. It just doesn’t seem fair to loose our sight with old age eyes, as we get older. This is when we finally have time to sit and actually do some needlework. I am finding it harder to knit with small needles, no matter how often I change my prescription of my glasses.

I also brought with me my baby surprise jacket and started to knit a hood on it. Everywhere I go, I get many compliments on it. The colors are so bold and jeweled. I am trying to add the hood without a pattern and am guessing the size of my granddaughters head. I am trying to decide whether to add a drawstring so that she can grow into it. Someone commented to me that it is a shame that for all the trouble we take to knit baby clothes, they grow so fast and cannot wear it for long. How true is that? I guess it’s the love and care of making and giving the gift that makes it special no matter how often they get to wear it.

I started the Tofutsies socks with the yarn I purchased at the Knit and Crochet show, for my Dad. I am knitting a k2 P2 ribbing. I didn’t get very far in this because my husband got sick on the way home (we suspect food poisoning), and so I had to drive home. I did, however, see some hundreds of sheep on the way home and actually picked a couple of bolls of cotton to see if I could spin it.

I brought my laptop with us on our trip and was very pleased to have some occasional wireless access in our hotel. Low and behold, I got my Ravelry invite when I checked my email. At first, I tried to leave it until I got home, but it kept calling to me. I finally caved in and set up my site. I happened to have a lot of pictures of my projects on my computer, so I immediately started to enter my recent projects. I was very intrigued with the amount of detail I could enter. Ravelry can even match a published pattern to a book. I spent several hours trying to investigate all the possibilities of using this tool. It may need a book of instructions to use all the features to its fullest extent.

Lately, I’ve been trying to learn about RSS site feeds. None in my computer literate family seem to be familiar with this so tonight I finally got a book Blogging for Dummies. I’m still wondering if it will work to increase my readers of this blog.

Calling All "Comments"!

I am so exciting to receive my very first comment on this blog!!!! And from no less than Frecklegirl Jess of Ravelry. WoooHooo! (This is where you imagine me jumping for joy!) I am so happy! I was beginning to feel very lonely that no one chose to comment on anything on this blog. I received some nice email comments but none on the blog.

I do realize some do not feel comfortable posting comments for all to see. That’s OK too. Nevertheless, I am still learning about how to do this “Blog stuff” and work this website, and realized that I had it set to accept only those who registered with “Blogspot”. I had inadvertently excluded my larger audience, those who were not registered (aka anonymous) people. Well, now I have changed my settings to allow Anonymous (anyone) to comment.



Sooooo…..Come one and all! Feel free to comment. Just press the “comment” link at the bottom of this entry and leave me your thoughts. I would love to hear from you.

P.S. Thank you Jess of Ravelry for your nice comment! Hang in there! We very much appreciate your hard work. You will be famous….you ARE famous in the knitting world!.

Orange you glad to know?

I just couldn't wait to start my October project sweater. Once I make my mind up to do something, it so hard not to. I started my Wishbone sweater from the December project of Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitter’s Almanac.

I don’t believe EZ intended this sweater to have a ribbing, but I put one on anyways, because finishing is just not something I like to do. I think she intended for a facing to be added and then sewn up, but I just couldn’t bring myself to commit to this. I can handle the sleeves and the neck line, but 48 in of sewing a facing was just not very motivating.

I just love the color. I don’t think my camera has caught the true color. The Lion Brand Jiffy color is rust but it looks more like a pumpkin orange. The Acrylic in the photo makes it sort of shine. It’s somewhat fuzzy, like mohair, which makes it soft. In the photo it looks more redish than it really is. It is knitting up quite fast as expected. The above is two days worth of knitting on Size 11 needles.

I’m afraid my sweatpants is in danger of becoming a UFO (aka unfinished object). I am going to have to do a lot of ripping back to correct it. (Sigh!) Well…I hope that when I get tired of knitting the rust, I will be motivated to knit the cream. (So uninspiring, huh?) I am so glad to get back to colored yarn again. I plan to dye the cream sweatpants. What color did my son request? Dreadful Black; another reason to be uninspired. I hope to get back to it before Christmas.

I am so excited that I am getting closer to getting an invite on Ravelry, the knitting community (what do you call it?) website database? I’m now at 654 people in front of me and believe it or not 17,423 people behind waiting.

I heard an interview on the Stash and Burn podcast with the creators of Ravelry, Jess and Casey. Wow, do they sound tired but very gratified to have created something that has taken off so well. Thank you Jess and Casey! I’ve heard so many great things about it. It may prove to be an excellent model for a new kind of supportive community that brings out the best talents, resources and gifts of people. Knitters rule! We have a potential to change the world in so many positive ways!.