Wednesday 26 February 2014

Knits I have known and loved

Instead of knitting, I am continuing the long journey of going through stuff.  I could write soliloquy's on stuff, but I won't.  Not today. (I'm going to leave that hanging over your heads!)

I was going through photos yesterday.  I have to take three boxes of albums and turn them into something much less.  I would love to scan them all, but there just is not going to be time.  Not when there is so much left to do.  Next year.

As I was going through, I caught a few pictures of knitted things from long ago.  These are from the time when I wanted to knit so much, but could not find a teacher who understood what I needed to know.  They would be better photos if I had known I needed pictures of them!

 You have seen the blue scarf before.  I still have it.  They all have scarves I knit though it is really really hard to see them.  One camo, on burgundy, one blue. 1 x 1 rib with stripes on the ends and fringed.  The perfect boy scarf.
 My yellow sweater.  The only sweater I knit myself.  Very plain.  Very yellow.  I loved that sweater.
 The blue sweater.  Somewhere around here, I have a sweater wheel, which gave sizes for every sweater you could want...with raglan sleeves.  I think I knit the yellow sweater using the wheel too.
I had kind of forgotten this one, but I really do like it.  I had seen the two colour cable on a ladies sweater in a magazine and took a plain pattern and made this one up.  All seamed and not too bad a job if I do say so myself.  The sleeves are a little lumpy, but overall, not too shabby.
Wee little boy sweater in blue with lice!  I wanted a sweater for this little guy, which is why the blue and white raglan sleeved sweater above happened.  I had to keep just enough blue for this one.
And the very first thing I ever knit, other than a swatch in Brownies.  A sweet little sweater, with lacey bits on the bottom.  Apparently, I did it all. Colourwork.  Lace.  Who knew?

I look back at this and wonder at me.  Had I had just a little encouragement, just someone to talk to, would I have been a knitter all my life?  I think so.  I was doing things that no one showed me, that are pretty daring, like two colour cables and the stranded lice pattern and  combining patterns and I was doing it long before the internet.

In those times, no one where I lived admitted to knowing how to knit.  I had heard of one elderly lady in town who knit, but I did not know her, and didn't know any of her grandkids, and didn't know anyone to introduce me to her, so I could ask.  All I had left was to ask at a store, when stores did not answer questions in those long ago days.  Not mine anyway.

That is where the wonder of Ravelry and the internet and knitters connecting with knitters is so amazing.  We can knit alone if we want to, but we sure don't have to. No matter where we are, all we need do, to reach someone who understands this part of us, is turn on the computer and go looking.  

Google search:  34.7 million hits on the word Knitting and counting.

3 comments:

Sandra said...

funny coincidence on the man scarf. I was talking to my boss and he mentioned how much he likes his new scarf (I gave him for Christmas). It's 1x1 rib - the prefect man scarf, he called. Just like you did.
Great minds...

Brendaknits said...

If I were to write the history of my knitting life, it would read exactly like yours. I recall getting my first issue of the Knitters Forum from thehaGOCanada and being flabbergasted taht there were people out there that felt as I did about fibre and knitting. I had thought I was all alone in the world. How things have changed - thakfully.

Anonymous said...

You could send your pictures to my house for storage till you are ready to scan them. Really, there is much space. GD