Atlas Insider
Peer Pressure
The other day, Ann looked at me and posed an important question “Why aren’t you knitting?”
Good question, Ann.
I have all of the ingredients to make a knitter: a heavy craft background, some free time, a copy of Skill Set with a Box of Joy (the cutest set of supplies). Plus: access to Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne for any and all knitting related questions.
Why am I not knitting?
See that at the bottom? That is my very, very first bit of knitting.
I did start. I picked up my copy of Skill Set. I watched the videos, hand-wound my yarn, learned to knit and purl, carefully making my way through the chapters of such a handy little book until I had my very own hand-knit hat in my hands.
Then I stopped.
Why keep going when I just made this hat? Kay complimented my very first hand-knit as I held it up on our morning zoom. Obviously I can’t make anything else and run the risk of ruining my compliment streak. I’ve peaked as a knitter. (There is a big assumption here that any further projects won’t be worthy of a Kay Gardiner compliment. I’m not putting pressure on it or anything.)
Since then, in times I could have been knitting, I’ve instead been mulling this knitting thing over. Intimidation is not quite the feeling, but overwhelm.
When you are a beginner knitter who happens to work at MDK, the Bar For Knitting Is Very High, even if it’s self imposed.
I don’t like being a beginner. I want to skip to the part where I have a pile of sweaters I’ve made like Ann’s pile of sweaters she’s made.
I guess I don’t have to start with a Norwegian sweater or a cable party a la Norah Gaughan or a lace table cloth. I can figure it out as I go—even if it’s not beginner friendly or worthy of a Kay Gardiner Compliment. (Even though Kay is nice and will probably give me one anyway.) Everyone starts somewhere, so they say.
Not to spoil the ending, but I have started knitting since the fateful day Ann asked that question.
Drum roll, please. My very first project is: The Scrunchie Bag. I captured a fleeting moment of inspiration brought on by a recent trip to Turkey and bought the pattern at the airport on the way home. I rooted around in the community yarn bin at MDK World Headquarters to find two skeins of Felted Tweed in complimentary shades of purple and took off towards glory.
I’ve made slow-but-steady progress. I’ve frogged only once to re-figure out an i-cord—which as it turns out, I was doing correctly! I just didn’t know what an i-cord was! Learning is fun. I really mean that.
My take-aways so far:
- It sort of feels like magic.
- I actually do like being a beginner.
- It almost feels like a crime to call this a craft. It’s art and labor and math.
- It makes me feel close to my grandma, who we lost in August.
- I get it.
I’m halfway through my first project and already thinking about my second, maybe even third.
I’m guessing that makes me a knitter.
What was your first project? Do you have advice for a beginner knitter?
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Emily, it’s going to be wonderful! Knitting is a continuum. It may feel like there forwards and then a lot of backwards, but actually it’s all moving forward (and getting better). Keep going, you’ve got this.
Since I feel like an eternal beginner (even though I have a perfectly knitted lace shawlette to prove otherwise – you know the one – and a tiny stack of decently knit wearables I actually take out on the town) painfully based on how much time I spend tinking vs. actually knitting, I have this to share. It is ALL knitting. Enjoy each stitch. Walk away for awhile when fixing any one error has been reknitted one stitch too far, then come back later (maybe five years later but who’s counting), and consider Wendy Bernard’s comment that goes something like this: keep in mind the vision of the end product you are trying to achieve. Every time I want to ignore a “minor” mistake that I know will affect me in a major way, I think of that comment. (Expressed by her differently but I hope based on the same idea). And enjoy that perfect hat, and every creation forward, perfect or not. It is Yours! Every stitch. And one to be proud of. And related to the tinking aspect of knitting, when I went back and saw that picture of Ann’s stacks of sweaters, I automatically started counting them by threes, the same multiple I use when counting the myriad number of stitches on my needles, and miraculously – according to Ann’s text – they came out even!
Just read Didi’s Comment which said in 3 sentences what took me more than 5 times that many to say the same thing. Yikes. Hopefully the Wendy Bernard advice was at least useful.
Even though I have been knitting off and on for 50 years, I still find projects to start with a technique I have never done before. Each project can make you feel like a beginner at something, but that’s okay. I look at them as adventures and with excitement.
As a fellow yogi enthusiast, when I knit, I tend to ponder the qualities of shtira and sukha both in my knitting and in myself as I’m knitting. Do you do likewise?
I focus on ‘the act of knitting’ rather than the finished project. I love the meditative qualities of the process. If I make mistakes (we all do), I’ve learned to fix them. I practice my knitting every day — and I stick to one project at a time. I do want to finish one, before I begin another.
Of course I love all the garments I’ve been able to create and am thrilled when a stranger asks about what I’m wearing. I get to say, yes, “I made that”.
That’s me. You will find your knitting path. Just pick up the needles to begin!
There’s a community yarn bin at MDK World Headquarters? It makes sense, of course, but still WOW—what a place to work!
That struck me too! Oh joy!!
How exciting for you! May you have many years of knitting ahead of you. And welcome to MDK! Looking forward to your next article.
Hi Emily, I didn’t know what i-cord was either. Thought it was something like parachute cord that you bought at a craft store. Finally learned at Shakerag class a few years ago by sitting next to someone who taught me. Bless that knitter!!
Also, I’m much better at building a yarn stash.
Emily, you are doing great, and being a beginner at anything is fun!
My first real project was a trio of hats for some friends, and it’s only gotten better since then.
I was going to suggest a Sophie scarf for your next project, but it looks like the Scrunchie bag is almost the same thing!
But yeah, a Sophie scarf is a great beginner project, and fun to wear!
My first project was the bottom portion of a sweater that taught me the importance of swatching. I kept knitting and knitting and it was barely getting longer. I finally took it off the circular needle and discovered it was three times too big.
After that disaster, I knit the Chauncey sweater by Isabell Kraemer. It turned out perfect and I still wear and love it all the time.
There’s always more to learn with knitting, but I miss the beginning when every single project offered the opportunity to learn a new technique or skill.
Doll clothes. My mom was an incredible knitter….i have 2 sisters and we all had mitts ( with strings!), scarves, hats, sweaters. She knit, ripped out and reknit as we grew. I am the eldest so I think I started knitting before I started school. Knitting has just always been part of the rhythm of my life!