Knitting Journey Introduction

I've found myself on a knitting journey this summer. It is a trip I didn't plan to take, rather, I fell into it. I haven't decided which direction the journey is going -- sometimes it feels like I'm going forward, but other times I feel like I'm going back to earlier times in my own life. I'm enjoying the journey and look forward to the unexpected views along the way.

I've always been a crafter of some sort. I learned to knit when I was 6 years old. I got a learn to knit kit for Christmas and started with a bright purple square which actually ended up being a triangle. It worked just fine as a cape for my Barbie doll. In high school I continued to knit some, though rarely finished a project. I also started sewing my own clothing and did finish a lot of those projects. I graduated from high school in the Bicentennial year and became interested in quilting after attending an exhibition of traditional crafts. Imagine my delight when my freshman year roommate showed up with two kayaks and a spinning wheel! Luckily, the kayaks couldn't get around the corner into our room and had to be stored elsewhere on campus, but we had the only spinning wheel on campus in our room! I continued to knit sporadically in college (though I knew no one else who knit). I also spent a January term at Alice Lloyd College in Pippa Passes, KY in my junior year and made a mountain dulcimer that still hangs on my wall and quilted a couple of pillow covers.

After college, living in Scotland for a bit, I discovered a great knitting shop and took a few classes. I had roommates from Switzerland and Denmark who knit and we knit a lot of Lopi sweaters that year. I also learned to knit socks for the first time. Then I moved to Montana and continued to quilt and knit. On an airplane layover I ran into a professor from the college where I worked and discovered in the conversation that she was an avid knitter and spinner. I joined the local spinning guild, bought an Ashford Traveller spinning wheel and started to get excited about spinning. That came to a halt when I moved to Ohio to go to graduate school. There was an active spinning guild there, but I didn't have the time to join. I continued to quilt and sew clothing and do a bit of knitting.

Then came the child-raising years. After graduate school, my husband and I moved back to Maine, where I had grown up, and back to the college I had graduated from. I have worked as a career counselor and administrator (i.e. I oversee our website and library collection, hire and train our student employees, advise students applying to law school, and anything else that comes along and needs doing) for over 20 years now. I have twin sons who just turned 18 and are in their senior year in high school. As you can imagine, the job and the boys have taken an enormous amount of energy over the years, but I have continued to knit and quilt (and sewed a lot of their clothes when they were little -- it was so hard to find fun and colorful boys' clothing at that time!). Somewhere along the way, I also started taking basket weaving classes at a local shop.

Nowadays, I have fallen into several patterns related to my handwork. I got back into knitting regularly when the boys started being on teams or in other activities that required me to wait around for them (for example, I have one sweater that I identify with 4th & 5th grade basketball and another from junior high basketball), and went through a cross-stitch phase while the other son attended ballet classes. I got rather compulsive about baskets for a while, until my family complained that I never gave any of them away. Now I knit year-round, do baskets only in the summer (and only on Tuesdays with my basket ladies group unless I need to finish something between meetings), and quilt intermittently -- usually inspired by attending workshops at the annual quilt show in late July.

So, I'm at this point in my life where I'd love to spend more of my time on my projects. In fact, I often feel an acute physical (or is it psychological?) NEED to work on my projects, but have a distinct lack of time. I think that is probably the heart of my journey and I'm looking forward to facing it head on -- I just need to grab one of my project bags to take along for the ride!

ON MY NEEDLES:
The sleeves (yes, I'm doing both at once so that the increases are even) of the Brocade in Charcoal jacket from Jackets for Work and Play. I love the idea of these tailored, knitted jackets for work in the winter and just happened to have the Cascade 220 the pattern called for, in gray, but not in charcoal.

Two socks on two circs -- my first attempt at socks on circular needles. I went overboard, of course, and am doing the toe-up socks from Kelly Petkin of Knit Picks as my first project. I'm making them out of the sock yarn with Aloe Vera in it and they are turning out a bit big, so I've promised to give them to one of my sons. I'm about half-way up the foot. I've got to get going on them because I've offered to teach a two socks on two circs class at my local yarn store later this fall!

A Clapotis scarf. I kept hearing about this in the Let's Knit 2gether video podcast this summer and finally found the pattern on Knitty.com. I'm making it out of Cascade 220 marled yarn (purple, my favorite color) and am almost done with the increases, which means I'm almost to the interesting part where you start to drop stitches. I hope to get to that part later today.

The Vermont felted bag from Webs on Berkshire Hand Painted from the Great Adirondack Yarn Company (ordered from Webs). I've been listening to the Webs owners' podcast, Ready, Set, Knit, this summer (got me through a lot of woodwork painting on a couple of hot days!) and this project was their second "knit-along." I'm working on the handles at this moment and have started to sew up the bag seams. I have another bag that needs to be felted, so I'll do both at once sometime this weekend, I hope.

Just off my needles: I spent an hour yesterday going through about 5 pairs of socks I'd knitted but hadn't grafted the toes and/or tied in the ends. They are now all in my sock drawer, waiting to be worn when the weather gets a bit colder. I also just finished a Debbie Bliss sweater for the son of a friend. It was a good challenge because the yarn I wanted to use didn't match the gauge, so I had to do a lot of recalculating -- with great results, I must say. And, I just put buttons on several children's/baby sweaters that I'm stashing away for just the right person to come along.

I am hoping that blogging will help me stay on task with my knitting and other projects.