Pride
Wednesday 19th October 2011
That’s what I feel when someone knits who didn’t knit before I taught them, or someone improves who mightn’t have done so before. Or when someone moves a little out of their comfort zone and achieves something that pleases them and makes them proud. Wait. We’re talking about knitting here, right? Not medical research or Olympic gold? Yes, it’s *only* knitting, but yet it’s much more than that. Because knitting is – or was, it’s not now so much – a solitary activity that women, mainly, carried out at the end of a busy day of domestic labour, in order to produce practical, economical and warm clothing for their families, knitting wasn’t really valued. As you can see from my knitting, issues of practicality and thrift are not at the top of my ‘essential qualities’ list when designing. What is M&S for? Yes, that’s right, M&S is for undies, posh ready meals and practical knits that would bore you to weeping if you had to knit it, but yet you still need sweaters and jackets like that. Go to M&S! So, I don’t need to knit bottle green pixie-hoods for my daughter to wear at school, as my mother did (though the amusement value of making one and then attempting to get Lily to wear it with her pony-tail threaded through a pony-tail hole at the top of the pixie-peak was almost overwhelming; did anyone else ever have these knitted for them? I actually loved mine, aside from the itchy feeling you got under your chin due to the woollen knitted strap, because I could swish my pony-tail about as I cantered off to school pretending to be a horse on the telly programme – White Horses! remember that? Downside was that to get the pony tail high enough up your scalp to reach the hole in the hood, your mum had to brush your hair really hard for 10 minutes dragging it incrementally higher with each sweep, until your face was distorted and pulled so tight it looked like a thousand face-lifts had been performed and you could scarcely blink or quite close your mouth. Also, a pony tail that comes out of a hole in your hat is far more swishy than a naked pony tail. I wonder why? Discuss). Sorry, minor diversion…So now I knit, as do most of the people I know who knit, because I love the process and I like the feeling that I have knitted something that I couldn’t have bought. I know you can buy a pair of mass produced mitts from Primarni, but you and I also know they will actually squeak when in use, crafted from pure acrylic as they are, and that if you attempted to wash them, they’d turn into a little ball of slime. Nice. So we knit things that we enjoy making and wearing. Enjoying the making is crucial. I have never been someone who longs for a project to be over, other than for reasons of vanity, because I want to wear it. I actually enjoy the process of spending time on the knitting. Once the adrenaline rush of buying the pattern and the yarn has passed, once the excitement of casting on – that most addictive of all the stages in knitting – is past, I like actually knitting away steadily at my work and I know I’m not alone. Now, read that last sentence again and imagine a non-knitter reading it and their reaction – adrenaline? excitement? But here, it’s just you and me, and we get it. Someone who has bought a knitting kit from me, and then very sweetly blogged about it, mentioned that she enjoyed the making. That’s it! That’s exactly it! Of course, I sometimes, as you do, wish a bit of knitting was over, think: my goodness, this picot cast-off is a lot of Miss Marples episodes on Sky +… that sort of thing. But actually, I like knitting. If I was on a very, very tight knitting budget I’d knit in 4 ply wool and 4 ply cotton because you can get really good quality 4 ply at a bargain price – and it lasts for ages. I love finishing things – obviously as I now seem to knit mainly swatches, this is less frequent – but mainly I love the process, repetitive though it is. In fact, that’s what I love the most. Repetitive, soothing work with my hands, mind free (other than the tricky bits) for some audio-book or just thoughts. This is why so many of my designs feature ‘action’ rows and then a fair few ‘resting’ rows. That’s the rhythm. Last week I went away with some knitting chums for 3 days in Dorset. There were 6 of us, and we stayed at the foot of Golden Cap. It was, and I am not exaggerating, heaven. We laughed, talked non-stop, 2 of us did some epic running – slow but mighty, UP to the top of Golden Cap – and we knitted. And I am really proud of all their knitting, on their behalf, though I can take no credit for it. Like any group, this one features knitters at different stages in their knitting, ranging from very prolific through to occasional. But all the knitting was beautiful and (aside maybe from the picot cast-offs!) it was enjoyable and fun. No, in fact that’s not entirely true. I was attempting to knit a sparkly Christmas bauble, knitted in the round, around a polystyrene ball. That was not super-fun. I re-named this piece, but I can’t publish its new name as it’s rude, if accurate. There is one knitter amongst us who doesn’t knit a lot. Yet she finished a really lovely scarf, beaded, felted and frilled. That’s a lot of activity for a novice knitter to embrace. I am so proud of her! As someone who has little time to knit and no knitting pals close by to help and encourage, it would have been so easy for her to pack it away and never complete it. But no, she has worked away at this scarf and the work is lovely, as is the final result. Oh, I’m not saying there weren’t a few curses along the way, because I witnessed some of them. But still, she (mainly) enjoyed the process, slow though it was, and she made a lovely, unique thing. Didn’t matter if it was slow, did it? It’s gorgeous. Here is the work when it was in progress:
In other news I am knitting sparkly things for Christmas, for the workshop on 5 November. At this event we will knit many decorations and favours, including tiny sparkly gift-bags for the tree or table, and icicles with snow-flake sequins! My glitter gene is in over-drive, can you imagine?
Sparkly gift bags and icicles with snow-flake sequins?!!!! OMG I can’t wait!!!!! Must crack on with current WIPs to make room in knitting calendar for post-workshop sparkliness 🙂
Aww thanks for the link 🙂
I’ve finished my Smudge Scarf and, much as I enjoyed the knitting of it, I ADORE the finished scarf. It is like a thousand sparking stars in a night sky. It is beautiful. I’ve just washed and dried it and as soon as I’ve got a picture that captures a little bit of how pretty it is I’ll be posting about it again.
And I’ll definitely be asking Santa for more of your kits…
I know! I feel all Christmassy each day I spend in the workshop room, surrounded by sequins! Lol.
I am so happy you like the finished result! I have decided to offer a longer length too like you did – that will give options. Also, I have swatched it with the new Rowan Fine Lace as the B yarn and KSH as A still, with the beads on it(Fine Lace has 400m to a ball = 2 of KSH) and it looks really well esp in the plummy/aubergine spectrum…if I ever knit a full one I’ll post a pic…
Oh Alison – very nice words about our visit to Dorset and about me. The scarf is lovely everyone here at work thinks it is brilliant Thnaks for putting it on the blog xx
Just wanted to leave you a quick note to say that my Smudge scarf is finished and I couldn’t love it more. I’ll definitely be doing more beading – I might even do another Smudge with Fine Lace as you suggest. Many many thanks for all your help!
http://www.mooncalfmakes.co.uk/2011/10/fo-smudge-scarf.html