A little knitting content

My links apparently have a use, since StaceyJoy has found me and announced my presence on her blog. If she hadn't, I suppose that I would just merrily keep on writing and not telling anyone that this rag exists, except that I thought if she knows (it's not rocket science if I've linked to you) then I should probably tell the other players in this game, so now Hub, BF1 and BF2 have been informed.

The knitting: yesterday I bought yarn, which is of course a shock to anyone who knows me. I can point and click at Elann with the best of them, and had resisted for quite a while but there was some grey Debbie Bliss stuff that I can't even remember now but which at the time (earlier this week) that got the covet juices flowing. Yesterday, I went to the LYS which is a nice little place, and bought a few balls of things, some gagging pink because Big One wants to learn to knit and she needs a scarf, some army green alpaca/cashmere blend .... wait, sorry, I'm drooling, just let me wipe my face.... okay, some of that for another scarf/small shawl, for A Time for Wine at my former employer, and two balls of bamboo sock yarn that cost one million dollars but which I could not walk past. Also, I have a problem with knitting two of exactly the same thing, it is paralyzingly boring for me...I have thus far, ever, in the last 20+ years, knit one sock. Sleeves are a pain in the ass too, but I seem to be able to get through them. I made The Sock about two years ago, and it is still mateless. See the sidebar for the Stash Enhancement eXperience. (including a wip, the back half of an AS design from The Celtic Collection...woohoo)

One day I will try to photograph the entire stash. Oh, I hear something. Yes, it's the sound of BF1's snort. The stash is huge people, I am a yarn packrat, and I even pared the thing down recently, to about 2/3 of its former glory (I typed "gory" first, that might be more appropriate.). I'm addicted to yarn. I can admit it, and I have no urge to overcome the addiction, since it doesn't seem to hurt anyone except for our need for space in the basement. I love the colours, I love the textures, and in fact once in a while I even love to knit the stuff up.

I like to give knitted things away rather than keep them, even though the wip's are almost all things that I started out for myself....and will more than likely give away anyway, in the end. I think that for most knitters this is the case, that they make and give rather than make and keep. Other people are so enamoured with the hand-knitted garment much of the time that I find it hard to keep it and easier to give away and start something else.

I learned to knit the first time when I was eight years old, and I didn't like it, although I finished a scarf that I wore for about three winters before one of the dogs tore it to shreds. I didn't really knit again until I moved in with my Grandma when I was 20years old and starting my third year of university. I couldn't do the drive in and out of the city every day, with labs and t.a.'ing and studying....oh, wait, no, that would be partying....anyway, my time was full and there wasn't enough time to drive for 45 minutes both ways to school.

My grandma could knit, sew, weave, spin...you name it, she and her sisters knew how to do it (if it involved fiber). She told me that they weren't allowed to just sit at home unless it was Sunday, and then they weren't allowed to do anything except read the bible. Grandma was born in Canada, only her eldest brother Mike was born in Poland; Great-grandma was Polish, Great-Grandpa was German; he had a heart attack right after he and my Grandma danced at his 40th wedding anniversary, so I didn't know him. I knew my Great-Grandma since she lived until I was 16, when she really thought that I should be getting married ... her English wasn't very good but she was pretty clear that I was getting old. Eyiiiii.

Grandma on the other hand didn't particularly care whether I got married or not, just that I was happy and living a relatively good life...good as in I wasn't a "bad" girl...which I sort of was, but not so bad that I couldn't get out of any trouble that I got myself into. Mostly. Grandma herself was employed most of her life as a seamstress of one form or another. She used to work at The Bay in the dressmaking department, for people like my other Grandma, who came from old money. There were good stories about The Bay and the women she used to work for, but that wasn't something she wanted to do forever. She ended up working in a factory downtown that made fur coats, and you know I never found out which one it was, but there are several in our Hometown and they're all excellent. I don't have a fur coat, and I only think they're necessary in colder climates than we have here in Southern Ontario, but if I lived somewhere a lot colder you'd bet I'd wear fur. And I know about the animal cruelty, I know about trap lines (my brother-in-law used to run one) and all that stuff, but in the real cold, nothing beats fur. And that's what she did, and she didn't like it very much and she didn't wear fur herself very often, but she repaired and sewed fur coats for years, for my entire life before she retired.

So when I moved in with Grandma and lived with her for a bit, I asked her to teach me to knit. She was doing a simple sweater, all garter stitch but with one large needle and one small one to sort of give it some interest, and it was a fine thing to start out on. I knit all the pieces and sewed it together a bit more tightly than I should have, but I wore that sweater for quite a while...it was almost weightless, a mohair blend, and it was warm and I quite liked it. Naturally I was hooked. I knit all the time I wasn't "studying" (I really didn't study that much. I really liked to go out a lot and I worked more on the social aspect of my degree than anything else. My grades show it, too.) or at school. And I started collecting yarn, something I keep doing, compulsively. Some day I'll knit it up.........and probably not. Like many knitters, I have more yarn than I could knit up in a lifetime. That's fine. If you don't have yarn, I have no doubt that there's something that you have a lot of that other people don't understand, and if you don't, then you have some other interests that don't involve collecting.

Crafters are bad though. They have lots of ideas and no time. They make plans. They buy, they store, they wait for the time to show up. Usually it doesn't, but that doesn't stop the crafter, they keep on the treadmill of making plans, writing up their ideas, buying, storing. I'm right in there; fight on! perservere! Time will present itself, damnit!

(For those of you who don't knit, I'm sorry for all the acronyms. Also, Big One did not like her knitting experience, and so now Mumma will finish a bright pink garter stitch scarf. Keeping the garter stitch in case Big One wants to put a few stitches in here and there. She declared it "Not Fun!" and stomped off with tears in her eyes. I tried. I was patient, more so than you can imagine. She, unfortunately, was not.)
blogger is toying with me and I can't upload the pic on the sidebar, it's taking an inordinately long time, so it'll have to wait...(add: I did it another way, via Picasa, so there it is...big whoop.)