Knitting

Knitting has been a lifelong passion of mine.  Learning to knit from a book when I was still in grade school with the help of a grandmother, I have a deep respect for the ancient crafters who developed the skill.  Knitting became a constant companion, an old friend, one on which I still rely today, in quiet times, to keep me company.

When I was ten or twelve, I wanted to learn another craft.  My grandmother had already taught me how to tat, but tatting is very tedious work and not very practical unless you have a passion for doilies.  I asked my mother how to knit: but, she did not have the time, expertise or patience to teach a young child the craft.  She did, however, take me to Woolworth’s in Montpelier and let me get needles, yarn and a Coats and Clark “How-To” book.  I am sure that she felt that I would soon tire of the chore and never ask again.  Armed with the tools of the craft, my determination was boundless.  Whenever I think about the result, I am still in awe of the pullover and cardigan I created that would have been perfect for an appearance on the American Bandstand show.  I certainly don’t remember the number of times I must have walked to my grandmother’s to have her correct my stitches, nor the tears I must have shed during the process.

Knitting classes were not readily available when I was a child.  People did not have the money to support the endeavor and most of our mothers or grandmothers knew the craft.  Not having the option of being taught by my mother and having only limited support from my grandmother; who was in her eighties at the time, I turned to the “How-To” book as the main source of my education.  Without it, I might not have been able to go on and learn to use patterns and colors that make a new project interesting and challenging.  The progression from one color, single stitch to two colors, multiple and complicated stitches was a natural progression.

Imagine the years before written directions, the time when one learned to knit from oral directions and later from imagining or copying a piece that you wanted for yourself.  The complicated Guernsey and Aran patterns of the Northern Isles have been handed down for centuries, first orally and then written and now in pattern charts.  The people who first created these patterns also processed the wool to make yarn and used it to create their interpretation of nature’s patterns in a useful garment.  By looking at a fisherman’s sweater, a stranger could tell where a person was from and whether he had a family and children.  I certainly have not been able to incorporate such complicated messages into my work

Old ways change and reading the knitting directions for a complicated piece of work is now becoming obsolete: the newer books have charts to follow in place of the written work.  The old abbreviaitons are disappearing and it is becoming harder to find lists of them for reference.  I am priviliged to have taught myself, I can knit from chart, directions, or design my own work.  Knitting, for me, has been a lifelong occupation, an extension of myself, a way of saying who I am.