Discussion #4

How is everyone? I hope well. We are still cold and snowy here in Ohio. Midwestern winters, they do drag on. This week I'm curious to know:

Have you participated in knitalongs? Charity knitting? Art knitting? Gift knitting?

This is my second knitalong - first time hostessing. I love to charity knit. I make afghans for the YWCA family center where my sister works as a youth coordinator. Each one is given to a family who is setting up a new home after a period of homelessness. This is also my first art knitting adventure. I have added knitting elements to artworks but never made an artwork of knitting. As for gift knitting? LOVE IT! When I am working on a gift for someone I sort of meditate and think about our relationship and friendship. I try to imbue warm, happy feelings into each gift and I hope they can sense it when they put on the scarf, mittens, socks, hats, or sweaters. I am trying to do a similar thing with this knitalong - concentrating on my research, on the knitting stories I have read and heard, and what the final project could look like. It's exciting...and a little scary. What is your experience with knitalongs, charity knitting, art knitting, and gift knitting? Which is your favorite? Why?

Discussion #3

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day! The blooms above are from Cath. She tried to make the flower before I was able to revise the pattern. The results were less than floral prompting her to send me an email titled "Bra Cup?" Apparently the old pattern produced something structurally similar to a Madonna-esque cone bra. Yeesh! This week's question was answered partially by some of you already but maybe you could elaborate a little.

When and from whom did you learn to knit? Do you have a particular story?

I am especially interested because my own story is not very exciting. I worked at a cafe in the main library at the Ohio State University for a year as an undergraduate. We were next to the computer lab and one of the computer lab assistants would knit to kill time. She made mainly scarves and she put the idea in my head. A portable activity with usable results to do during down time at a boring job. Then I saw Debbie Stoller on the Today Show promoting the first Stitch n' Bitch book. I was a budding feminist and I wanted to be her. I went to the Columbus Metropolitan Library and borrowed the book with the best pictures (they didn't have a copy of Stitch n' Bitch), bought some needles and a skein of Red Heart and spent a weekend cursing and fumbling. After many ugly hours, dropped stitches, and sticky needles it clicked! I was knitting! Everywhere! Class, work (by this time I was tending bar at a pool hall. Very Madame Defarge), outside, inside, I couldn't stop. The first project I finished was a wonky scarf for my gram. Of course she loved it. She was a defunked knitter herself who learned from her mother but never developed much love for the craft. She prefered to build doll house furniture. But my efforts reminded her of my great-gram and that made her proud. Who taught you to knit? What do you remember about learning?

Discussion #2

Wow. I have been reading all of your responses from the last post and all of you have told such wonderful stories! Thank you for sharing. I received the first flower today from Mary.Yep, those are adorable little bee buttons. Liela had asked if embellishment is allowed. I replied absolutely. Be creative with materials, buttons, beads, mixing yarns, etc. or you can keep it simple. Here are some I have made.
The brown ones aren't the prettiest but I don't love them any less.People have also asked how many flowers to knit. I will take as many as you care to knit! You can mail them a little at a time or all at once, I just need them by the end of March. Finally, my goal is finish editing the intro to the thesis this week so hopefully I can send it out next week with the announcement email. Now that the house keeping is out of the way, this week's discussion question is:

What is your favorite item to knit and why?

I love to knit afghans. I knit my first one three years ago as a gift to my mom and step dad. It was a very simple pattern with alternating squares of garter, reverse stockinette, stockinette, and seed stitch. I bought a bunch of wild, soft, textured and novelty yarns like Fun Fur, Patons Allure and Divine, Yarn Bee Luscious, and Bernat Bouclé. These are yarns I normally wouldn't knit with but because the afghan was so large, there was a lot of room to play with texture. Then I began really exploring my afghan options and discovered the beautiful Mason Dixon patterns like the log cabin and mitered square afghans. They reminded me of growing up in rural central Pennsylvania seeing all the quilts in Amish country and at the county fairs. In addition, they reminded me of the Gee's Bend quilters that I fell in love with while I was in art school. Over all, because afghans are so big, there is a lot of opportunity to play with pattern, color, and texture. I also usually make them with cheapy acrylic yarn so they aren't too expensive to create. I donate them most of the time, though I do have two I'm working on now that I plan to keep. Aside from afghans, I feel like I need to give a shout out to socks because I recently started knitting them and the variety of yarns and patterns is staggering! Each one is like a little sculpture. What about you guys? Hat's? Mittens? Socks? Sweaters? What's you passion?

Disscussion #1

Hello fellow knitters! I am so excited by the response I've received over the last few days. Thank you so much for participating - sharing your talents and thoughts. The first discussion question is one we've all been asked before:

Why do you knit?

I've answered this multiple ways depending on the circumstances: "I like to knit because it relaxes me", "I like making my own clothes", "It gives me something to do while I'm watching television". All of these are true but there is more to it for me.

• My grandmother and great-grand mother were knitters. Though I didn't learn from them when I knit I still feel closer to them.
  
• I am trained as an oil painter but did not really feel like an artist until I started working with crafts like knitting and sewing.
• Knitting has introduced me to so many wonderful people simply because they share the craft and discussing it never gets old.

These are some of the personal reasons why I knit. They are interesting to me and my fellow knitters, but generally when I start to talk about the art/craft conundrum at cocktail parties people's eyes glaze over a little. Why do you knit?

Pattern Changes

After some practice knits and a brief mathematics refresher I have updated the pattern. Edits are in red. Please let me know if you find mistakes or problems. This is my first pattern writing experience and I need all the help I can get! Thanks Cath, Lindy, and Ginny for the helpful notes.