Knit Knit
Alright - I know I learned how to crochet not so long ago (or maybe that was awhile ago come to think of it) - but everything I learned I promptly forgot and then the craziness of life swept me up again and I never got a chance to really get going with it. But over Christmas the lovely Charlotte taught me, very patiently, how to knit - and more specifically - how to knit mittens!
This is the important part because I think it helped not just having to suffer through a long boring scarf before I got to do anything fun and interesting. I went straight to fun and interesting - and technically challenging - four double pointed needles and working in the round. Tough if you ask me.
So anyway I got the hang of it and now I am a knitting machine. I have one pair of mitts and two fingerless gloves under my belt and lots of ideas for other things I want to make. I hope I don't lose my focus. I am really inspired by these old sometimes beautiful, sometimes fascinating and sometimes crusty vintage patterns like in the photos above. I am also really attracted to the history of knitting - kind of beginning as a practical skill that most women would master as children to keep their family clothed and warm, and then becoming this kind of goofy knitted toilet paper holder wacky afghan craft fair fun thing to now - where it is supposedly a subversive reclaim of womanhood and in reality, pretty much impractical because wool is expensive and who has the time?? I like how even in the examples above, you can see the women moving through time, expressing their changing roles and attitudes about the shifting tides of culture around them.
In any case there is something very alluring about it for me. I may have said this somewhere before about something else - but I also like the architectural idea of taking one long peice of string and then knotting it up in all these different ways to make something three-dimensional - that you can even wear on your body - and that can protect you from the elements - amazing!
I don't know. Maybe it is just me. Anyway. I'm pumped.
PS. internet is back for good thank god - hence the blab. Thanks for sticking around!
xob.
This is the important part because I think it helped not just having to suffer through a long boring scarf before I got to do anything fun and interesting. I went straight to fun and interesting - and technically challenging - four double pointed needles and working in the round. Tough if you ask me.
So anyway I got the hang of it and now I am a knitting machine. I have one pair of mitts and two fingerless gloves under my belt and lots of ideas for other things I want to make. I hope I don't lose my focus. I am really inspired by these old sometimes beautiful, sometimes fascinating and sometimes crusty vintage patterns like in the photos above. I am also really attracted to the history of knitting - kind of beginning as a practical skill that most women would master as children to keep their family clothed and warm, and then becoming this kind of goofy knitted toilet paper holder wacky afghan craft fair fun thing to now - where it is supposedly a subversive reclaim of womanhood and in reality, pretty much impractical because wool is expensive and who has the time?? I like how even in the examples above, you can see the women moving through time, expressing their changing roles and attitudes about the shifting tides of culture around them.
In any case there is something very alluring about it for me. I may have said this somewhere before about something else - but I also like the architectural idea of taking one long peice of string and then knotting it up in all these different ways to make something three-dimensional - that you can even wear on your body - and that can protect you from the elements - amazing!
I don't know. Maybe it is just me. Anyway. I'm pumped.
PS. internet is back for good thank god - hence the blab. Thanks for sticking around!
xob.
No comments:
Post a Comment