I’ve always been a “crafty” person. I just like making things, sometimes they are really nice things, sometimes… well we all have some “what was I thinking” moments.
When I was little it was legos, when I was a little older I convinced my mom to teach me to crochet. I made a really really long chain. It stopped there for some reason. Then it was the sewing machine so I could make clothes for my American Girl doll. I made a lovely ball gown for her, out of some scraps of purple satin and lace. Then by high-school it was ceramics and painting, and through all of it I drew. But one thing I wanted to learn but had no idea how to start was to knit.
I’ve loved scarfs forever and ever. Ever since my dad gave me a scarf for x-mas when I was around five, that at the time was HUGE on me. It was so long me, we called it my Doctor Who scarf. I loved watching Doctor Who with my dad, and like so many Whovians who grew up in the eighties Tom Baker was my Doctor.
I know a lot of knitters seem to think knitting scarfs is for beginners, and not challenging and how many scarfs can you possibly own. Well scarfs are all I ever really wanted to knit, more specifically I wanted to knit THE scarf. The holy grail of all scarfs, the forth Doctors scarf! And I own a LOT of scarfs and I luv them still.
So jump to my early 20’s and I’m a new mom and suddenly find sewing with a crawling infant is exhausting because he really wants to put his hands in the machine. Painting is out, because it’s hard to really get into it while he’s trying to eat the paint. And then on a random trip to a big chain craft store I saw a teach yourself to knit booklet with needles and some other basics. So I asked for it as a gift and by the day after Christmas I had cast on and was slowly working away. I made all the expected mistakes and had to figure them all out on my own. Which I am grateful for now because it has helped me teach overeager 6 year olds to stubborn 37 year olds how to knit.
Nothing came out of my first few months of knitting, I tried to make a semi-lacy scarf for my sister. I managed a couple of swatches in a bright yellow cotton that I ripped out in disgust. I showed my grandma what I had learned so far, and was told I knitted the english way. She showed me what she called the german way (most people call this picking). It felt weird. I even put it all down for a few months. Maybe I wasn’t meant to have THE scarf.
I picked it back upon a whim almost a year after I had started and something just clicked. It came so much easier suddenly and felt natural. I realized then without having thought about it much I had switched to german knitting. And it was working for me! I turned out 3 scarfs in time for the holidays! I gave all 3 away, but managed some bad photo’s before they left me. The red one, in Homespun taught me not to knit so tight or the yarn would bunch, the beige one I learned cables, and the last one was my first and one of the last engagements with fun-fur.
Knitting became the main outlet for my creativity. And a life line-when I was stressed or lonely I knit. It even helped me to quit smoking. I’ve made some great friends from knitting too.
About a year or so after the fun-fur, I decided I was ready. I had found this great site that was all about THE Scarf. I picked up some yarn and got to work and was a little disappointed it was such a simple project. It took me a whole summer, but I knit it. It was too wide and too long (at 20 feet), but it was mine. Just in time for Halloween. I have pulled the scarf out every Halloween since. It’s so special to me I mentioned in a dating profile. “Don’t mind someone who dresses as Tom Baker”, might have been the line. Which caught the eye of another 80’s whovian. Who invited me out to coffee awhile back and that went so well we have recently decided to get married!
And I think a plain ol’scarf in garter stitch is to blame for all that goodness.
This post was inspired by the Blog it to win it contest with Interweave Knits, but turned out a lot of fun to write. It has been fantastic to reflect about all the good knitting has brought to my life. If I win I have a chance to win some stuff, I have chosen mostly books, as I do love books, only 2nd to my yarn stash. I think my child & fiancé may be a close 3rd. 😛
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