I do admire your knitting and I envy the peace it brings you. You tried to show me how to knit once, but those needles might as well have been chunks of firewood I was wielding. And I tangled the yarn worse than a fisherman’s “bird’s nest” I am so familiar with. I have found my place when you need me to hold the skein while you roll it into a ball. I like to think I have a small part in your creations. I can live, happily, with that.
Kateri, the way you write about knitting is ~ beautiful. The connection with your daughter...so sweet and strong.
I read Ella Enhoff's knitting 101 post. Now there's a box on my desk. I ordered two large knitting needles and a ball of thick yarn in the shade of blue that matches the Carolina sky. I will open the box during the holidays when my thoughts need to be focused not on things that cause worry. Figuring out how to knit is big enough after the Storm, and then after the man-made Storm.
Thank you for your dedicated presence here and on Patreon. love in kinship, Katharine
Ohhhh send me a photo! If you need any help when you get started, you know how to find me. I think you will find a very soothing practice in knitting. Mostly... keep it simple, breathe and stitch upon stitch. Love you.
This is a beautiful ode to knitting Kateri. Like you I too have found knitting to be a balm in my life. I learned to knit in primary school, but it wasn't until I was a teenager that I really fell into the sheer comfort it offered. The gifts of knitting are many, and the places it takes the knitter to are varied, from learning how to knit intricate patterns in stranded knitting, or the textured patterns of Aran garments and the fragile secrets of lace. When my babies were born I searched desperately for woollen sweaters for them, but everything seemed to be made from acrylic. So I picked up my knitting needles again and started designing and knitting sweaters for each of my darlings. Eventually I fell into spinning and so began a love affair with all kinds of fibres, blending and dyeing each one to my own specifications. A few years ago I have had to set aside my spinning wheel because of physical health issues. I sold one of my wheels and my various spinning tools. It was so sad to have to relinquish these artifacts each one with a story of its own. Recently I have tried a little spinning on my very first spinning wheel, the one my children said was not to be sold because of all the memories it held for them. Now I am hopeful that perhaps it might be possible to spin a little now and again. Fingers crossed!
Such beautiful words and thoughts, Edith. Thank you. I have been a spinner, too. I still have my Ashford wheel, which I did love, but I much preferred a drop spindle. I wonder if my hands would easily find their way back to that rhythm? Have you written about each of your beloved spinning artefacts? That feels important to me. Is it easier for you to spin on a wheel than using a drop spindle? Oh I hope you find your way back to it xoxo
What a lovely history you have with knitting and with your daughter. So odd how our lives ebb and flow through different dreams and what dreams we toss away that surprise others.
I used to crochet, learned from my grandmother when I was very little to make granny squares and my best friend taught me more when I was 8, to crochet bookmarks and other fun things. When I was in high school I crocheted my first blanket, all pastel colors. And years later when my son came along his first blanket and another few years later my daughter her first sweater and booties. But I set it aside as well when the parenting years were too busy. I did make scarves and hats for the kids once they were older but really have not devoted a lot of time to it anymore. I tried to learn knitting in late 2019 and early 2020 and that project still remains on my needles, a knit/purl scarf, a simple beginners project. As of late, We did purchase a few Wooble's kits for Christmas eve for my daughter, granddaughter and I to make. I am so excited. Just a small fun project to do together.
While I wish to learn to knit again, earlier this month I asked myself, "If I knew I was going to die next month what would I want to spend my time doing and growing my skill in? It gave me a sudden clear picture of what I wanted to work on. It has been a little easier not to scatter myself over several projects and much easier to refocus myself from the shiny new projects that grab my attention back to my true desire at the moment. While I probably won't die next month, I definitely found this question to be focusing on what I truly want to spend my time doing right now. Hopefully I won't forget to periodically ask myself this. My life is more than half over and I want to spend whatever time I have left be it 1 month or 30 years doing the things I would regret not getting to and enjoy the pursuit of them immensely.
Wow, Ari, thank you for this lovely writing and reflection. I love when I get back such rich stories here. My daughter showed me the Woobles! They look so fun. I love to crochet but I do everything backwards and cannot follow a pattern. Leftie 🤪 But I have figured out granny squares on my own and they are one of my most favourite things. Something so nostalgic and also purposeful, to use up yarn scraps and make something useful and beautiful. I hope you pick up your hooks far more this year.
Your thought about what you would do if you had a year to live is such an important question to ask ourselves. For me, I'd quit all of my jobs and live on very little, and spend all my time enjoying and helping out my family and closest friends. I suspect there would be plenty of time for knitting. And I would fill my journals with all of my hopes and dreams for each person I love, and tell them everything I could think of telling them that mattered. Thank you for your wonderful reflections xoxo
How is it I missed this essay??!!😱 My mother was a knitter and as a child I watched as she made blankets and Christmas stockings for each of her 5 children! I was always fascinated and she signed me up for a knitting class at the local YWCA with what I felt at the time were little old ladies and 5th grade me! 🤫🤭 I loved it! I could knit back !and forth forever, but never really learned to read a pattern and gain more skills.
Fast forward to my 25th year and meeting Russ, my husband-to-be! When the time came to meet his parents, we were off to the beach. His mom pulled out her knitting bag and started knitting away! His mother was a fabulous knitter who could look at ANY beautiful piece of clothing and totally recreate it without a pattern! It helped that my father in law was a cutter in the garment district in NYC and later a union rep for the women’s garment union (ILGWU) for inspiration! My love of knitting was reignited and we spent a good deal of time through the years knitting and learning new skills! What was even better was that she’d help me sew up the pieces for each of my creations! Such a wonderful gift she shared with me!
I also graduated to working in a yarn shop when the kids were in elementary school and I taught others to knit.🧶 I especially loved the colors and remember taking my young children to see Disney’s Aladdin movie and upon seeing all the brilliant jewel colors of the magic carpets and garments, I headed immediately to the shop to gather up yarn in the beautiful colors that inspired me and created a beautiful vertical striped “coat of many colors”! 😍 Sadly I stopped knitting in my late 40’s (peri-menopause🥵) as I couldn’t wear wool. I was very disappointed with the quality of cotton and many of the acrylic yarns.
On a family vacation 5 years ago, my daughter and her partner discovered a newly opened small yarn store. They encouraged me to go with them to explore the shop and I discovered a whole new generation of yarn that they assured were NOT SCRATCHY, so I thought I’d try again. I made a wool hat in the round and from there made 25 hats over the next 8 months for everyone I knew!😅 I proceeded to beautiful mohair wraps and scarves in scrumptious colors and have recently attempted a sweater! Knitting has such a relaxing and rhythmic quality when I changed stitch patterns and colors…
I’m a bit out of practice since my husband’s cancer diagnosis and am trying to get back into it to settle my mind. It’s been a struggle, but I am hopeful to find my rhythm again… funny, I was sitting in my chair catching up on recent Patreon and Substack posts and was going to “knit a bit”. I finished Deep Time and WAS headed to your philosophy of grey, but came across your essay and ended up writing about it instead! This was just as enjoyable and remembering and sharing my knitting stories was a pleasure!🧶🥰 Thank you…
Oh Linda, what a wonderful piece you just wrote. Thank you. We have a similar knitting path, but I've never gone too long without knitting becasue sometimes I knit just to knit... and not make anything. Just back and forth. It calms me like nothing else. Thank you for your story xo
I often look at my stitches as all the tiny stones which I painted 2 years ago after you had posted a watercolor exercise on Patreon around Christmas I think? 🤔 I’ll share a photo after I finish dinner and head to my studio! I have a knitting swatch that I’m considering trying out in the watercolor collage class you’re offering!
I had a knitting phase - never emerging from complete beginner. I knit a scarf but couldn’t figure out how to finish it and when I did - it could wrap around my neck about 8x 😆. One day I’ll be brave enough to try again
I do admire your knitting and I envy the peace it brings you. You tried to show me how to knit once, but those needles might as well have been chunks of firewood I was wielding. And I tangled the yarn worse than a fisherman’s “bird’s nest” I am so familiar with. I have found my place when you need me to hold the skein while you roll it into a ball. I like to think I have a small part in your creations. I can live, happily, with that.
We have it on video to enjoy now and then. I thought we made a good situational comedy team ;) And...everything I do has you in it. How could it not?
Kateri, the way you write about knitting is ~ beautiful. The connection with your daughter...so sweet and strong.
I read Ella Enhoff's knitting 101 post. Now there's a box on my desk. I ordered two large knitting needles and a ball of thick yarn in the shade of blue that matches the Carolina sky. I will open the box during the holidays when my thoughts need to be focused not on things that cause worry. Figuring out how to knit is big enough after the Storm, and then after the man-made Storm.
Thank you for your dedicated presence here and on Patreon. love in kinship, Katharine
Ohhhh send me a photo! If you need any help when you get started, you know how to find me. I think you will find a very soothing practice in knitting. Mostly... keep it simple, breathe and stitch upon stitch. Love you.
This is a beautiful ode to knitting Kateri. Like you I too have found knitting to be a balm in my life. I learned to knit in primary school, but it wasn't until I was a teenager that I really fell into the sheer comfort it offered. The gifts of knitting are many, and the places it takes the knitter to are varied, from learning how to knit intricate patterns in stranded knitting, or the textured patterns of Aran garments and the fragile secrets of lace. When my babies were born I searched desperately for woollen sweaters for them, but everything seemed to be made from acrylic. So I picked up my knitting needles again and started designing and knitting sweaters for each of my darlings. Eventually I fell into spinning and so began a love affair with all kinds of fibres, blending and dyeing each one to my own specifications. A few years ago I have had to set aside my spinning wheel because of physical health issues. I sold one of my wheels and my various spinning tools. It was so sad to have to relinquish these artifacts each one with a story of its own. Recently I have tried a little spinning on my very first spinning wheel, the one my children said was not to be sold because of all the memories it held for them. Now I am hopeful that perhaps it might be possible to spin a little now and again. Fingers crossed!
Such beautiful words and thoughts, Edith. Thank you. I have been a spinner, too. I still have my Ashford wheel, which I did love, but I much preferred a drop spindle. I wonder if my hands would easily find their way back to that rhythm? Have you written about each of your beloved spinning artefacts? That feels important to me. Is it easier for you to spin on a wheel than using a drop spindle? Oh I hope you find your way back to it xoxo
What a lovely history you have with knitting and with your daughter. So odd how our lives ebb and flow through different dreams and what dreams we toss away that surprise others.
I used to crochet, learned from my grandmother when I was very little to make granny squares and my best friend taught me more when I was 8, to crochet bookmarks and other fun things. When I was in high school I crocheted my first blanket, all pastel colors. And years later when my son came along his first blanket and another few years later my daughter her first sweater and booties. But I set it aside as well when the parenting years were too busy. I did make scarves and hats for the kids once they were older but really have not devoted a lot of time to it anymore. I tried to learn knitting in late 2019 and early 2020 and that project still remains on my needles, a knit/purl scarf, a simple beginners project. As of late, We did purchase a few Wooble's kits for Christmas eve for my daughter, granddaughter and I to make. I am so excited. Just a small fun project to do together.
While I wish to learn to knit again, earlier this month I asked myself, "If I knew I was going to die next month what would I want to spend my time doing and growing my skill in? It gave me a sudden clear picture of what I wanted to work on. It has been a little easier not to scatter myself over several projects and much easier to refocus myself from the shiny new projects that grab my attention back to my true desire at the moment. While I probably won't die next month, I definitely found this question to be focusing on what I truly want to spend my time doing right now. Hopefully I won't forget to periodically ask myself this. My life is more than half over and I want to spend whatever time I have left be it 1 month or 30 years doing the things I would regret not getting to and enjoy the pursuit of them immensely.
Wow, Ari, thank you for this lovely writing and reflection. I love when I get back such rich stories here. My daughter showed me the Woobles! They look so fun. I love to crochet but I do everything backwards and cannot follow a pattern. Leftie 🤪 But I have figured out granny squares on my own and they are one of my most favourite things. Something so nostalgic and also purposeful, to use up yarn scraps and make something useful and beautiful. I hope you pick up your hooks far more this year.
Your thought about what you would do if you had a year to live is such an important question to ask ourselves. For me, I'd quit all of my jobs and live on very little, and spend all my time enjoying and helping out my family and closest friends. I suspect there would be plenty of time for knitting. And I would fill my journals with all of my hopes and dreams for each person I love, and tell them everything I could think of telling them that mattered. Thank you for your wonderful reflections xoxo
How is it I missed this essay??!!😱 My mother was a knitter and as a child I watched as she made blankets and Christmas stockings for each of her 5 children! I was always fascinated and she signed me up for a knitting class at the local YWCA with what I felt at the time were little old ladies and 5th grade me! 🤫🤭 I loved it! I could knit back !and forth forever, but never really learned to read a pattern and gain more skills.
Fast forward to my 25th year and meeting Russ, my husband-to-be! When the time came to meet his parents, we were off to the beach. His mom pulled out her knitting bag and started knitting away! His mother was a fabulous knitter who could look at ANY beautiful piece of clothing and totally recreate it without a pattern! It helped that my father in law was a cutter in the garment district in NYC and later a union rep for the women’s garment union (ILGWU) for inspiration! My love of knitting was reignited and we spent a good deal of time through the years knitting and learning new skills! What was even better was that she’d help me sew up the pieces for each of my creations! Such a wonderful gift she shared with me!
I also graduated to working in a yarn shop when the kids were in elementary school and I taught others to knit.🧶 I especially loved the colors and remember taking my young children to see Disney’s Aladdin movie and upon seeing all the brilliant jewel colors of the magic carpets and garments, I headed immediately to the shop to gather up yarn in the beautiful colors that inspired me and created a beautiful vertical striped “coat of many colors”! 😍 Sadly I stopped knitting in my late 40’s (peri-menopause🥵) as I couldn’t wear wool. I was very disappointed with the quality of cotton and many of the acrylic yarns.
On a family vacation 5 years ago, my daughter and her partner discovered a newly opened small yarn store. They encouraged me to go with them to explore the shop and I discovered a whole new generation of yarn that they assured were NOT SCRATCHY, so I thought I’d try again. I made a wool hat in the round and from there made 25 hats over the next 8 months for everyone I knew!😅 I proceeded to beautiful mohair wraps and scarves in scrumptious colors and have recently attempted a sweater! Knitting has such a relaxing and rhythmic quality when I changed stitch patterns and colors…
I’m a bit out of practice since my husband’s cancer diagnosis and am trying to get back into it to settle my mind. It’s been a struggle, but I am hopeful to find my rhythm again… funny, I was sitting in my chair catching up on recent Patreon and Substack posts and was going to “knit a bit”. I finished Deep Time and WAS headed to your philosophy of grey, but came across your essay and ended up writing about it instead! This was just as enjoyable and remembering and sharing my knitting stories was a pleasure!🧶🥰 Thank you…
Oh Linda, what a wonderful piece you just wrote. Thank you. We have a similar knitting path, but I've never gone too long without knitting becasue sometimes I knit just to knit... and not make anything. Just back and forth. It calms me like nothing else. Thank you for your story xo
I often look at my stitches as all the tiny stones which I painted 2 years ago after you had posted a watercolor exercise on Patreon around Christmas I think? 🤔 I’ll share a photo after I finish dinner and head to my studio! I have a knitting swatch that I’m considering trying out in the watercolor collage class you’re offering!
I love that idea. Tiny stones! The teeny tiny ones? I still do that to relax. :)
It was! My knitting is imperfect and when I really look at it, it reminds me of that lesson! Sadly I can’t show a picture… I’ll try through Patreon!🫤
I had a knitting phase - never emerging from complete beginner. I knit a scarf but couldn’t figure out how to finish it and when I did - it could wrap around my neck about 8x 😆. One day I’ll be brave enough to try again
We should have a knitting club on Patreon. Gathering every other month and just knit and share our projects. Pick up those needles again!