Get a cup of tea – it’s a long story!

I love to knit.  I have always knit.  I don’t remember learning to knit.  My mother doesn’t remember teaching me to knit, although she must have, as I don’t remember being around any other knitters way back then.  I do remember that the little boy next door taught me to purl when I was about seven years old, in exchange for a lesson in how to use my yellow knitting knobby (hey – I was teaching even then!).

I remember knitting for my Barbie doll from a pattern book of doll clothes.  I recently rediscovered that book (Virginia Lakin’s Petite Bazaar Knitting Book, Book Three, 1963) in my mother’s basement, and happily added it to my own collection (with her blessing).  I remember knitting green, white and yellow argyle socks for my middle sister (they must have been knit flat, then sewn up the back).  I was knitting using the English method (throwing the yarn with my right hand).  I don’t remember much else from the early days.

Flash forward to my first apartment after graduating from college.  I remember knitting two sweaters for my boyfriend (I know, I know – never knit for a boyfriend.  I wonder whatever happened to him?).  I still have the blue, red, purple and yellow argyle afghan I knit for myself.  I lovingly knit a big dark purple cabled cardigan for my dad.  I gave my oldest sister (who lived in California at the time) an almost finished, two-toned gray sweater for Christmas one year.  It was missing one sleeve and a side seam.  She proudly wore the one-sleeved sweater, belted around her waist to hold it shut, to a holiday open house in Pennsylvania, proclaiming “this is how we wear sweaters in California!”  Or maybe we just explained it behind her back by saying “She’s the one from California”, which would lead people to nod their heads and roll their eyes.

I managed a typing service for a year or two after college (always keeping those fingers moving!), which happened to be across the hall from a yarn store.  I discovered how much better it was to knit with friends than to knit solo. 

Got a real job as a computer programmer (still keeping my fingers limber), and met and married my best friend.  When I was pregnant with our first son and looking for the perfect yarn for that first baby blanket, I discovered a new yarn store in town (short-lived, alas).  The owner introduced me to the local knitting guild.  That was in 1990, and that’s when my knitting life really took off.

The local knitting guild acquainted me with an extremely diverse group of knitters, many of whom are like family to me now.  I became very active in the knitting guild, eventually holding a variety of positions, including Secretary, Vice President/Program Coordinator, and a few terms as President.

With my new knitting friends, I began to attend knitting classes at the local, regional and national levels.  I began to study knitting books, looking for new techniques and for better ways to do things.  Somewhere along the way, I taught myself to knit Continental style (holding the yarn with my left hand).  I taught a few programs for the knitting guild (I remember a headband done with Swedish two-ended knitting and a little sampler bag involving many different tricks and techniques).  I learned a very important lesson in the process – you can’t force a knitter to do a technique a particular way.  There is no one right way to knit.

Some of the knitting guild members decided that our monthly meetings were not enough to satisfy our need for “social” knitting.  For many years now, we have met weekly in members’ homes, sharing food and ideas, watching each others’ families grow, and always honing our knitting skills.  I have welcomed the knitters into my home the first Tuesday of every month since my oldest son was a toddler.  He’s now a teenager, and he and his younger brother have never known life without the knitters. 

A few years after my second son was born, I left my job in order to be home with my kids.  At about the same time, a new yarn store opened in town, just a few miles from my house.  I found myself spending most of my very limited free time there, just happy to sit and knit. 

The owner of this new yarn store asked me to teach some classes for her.  I replied that I didn’t think that would be possible.  A week or so later, she told me specifically which classes I would be teaching for her.  Hmm, I said.  You’ll start in January, she said.  Okay, I said.

That was January of 2000.  I taught at that yarn store for three years, showing over 150 different students how to knit Continental style, how to make socks and hats, how to finish their knitting projects, how to work Fair Isle and Entrelac, and how to design their own sweaters, among other things.  I provided my students with detailed handouts and lots of moral support.  I encouraged them to contact me with any questions or problems, committed to see them through to the end of their projects, even long after the classes were over. 

I love what I’m doing.  I’ve gotten excellent feedback on my teaching technique and on my handouts.  I’ve watched students transform from inexperienced, unsure knitters into self-confident knitwear designers.  I’m constantly being asked for help from friends and strangers alike (I was even approached at my son’s basketball game by another player’s mother for advice about a knitting class she was taking!).

And I still love to knit!  It’s my passion.  The act of knitting is my therapy for dealing with the stresses of day-to-day life as well as with the uncertainties that abound for our future.  I cherish the knitting friendships I’ve made, and really enjoy the feeling I get from helping other knitters to become more comfortable with their craft.  I wish everyone could experience the joy I get from knitting. 

I love to knit, and I love to help people enjoy their knitting.  My knitting friends were pushing me to DO SOMETHING about it – write a book, submit designs for publication, open a yarn shop – SOMETHING.  Well, I didn’t want to write a book, or submit designs for publication, or open a yarn shop.  That would be work, and work isn’t fun.  I’m happy with what I’ve been doing all along – teaching knitting classes and helping my knitting friends.  Then it hit me (wham!) – THAT’S what I can do!  I can teach knitting classes and help my knitting friends!  Just like always, only more so!  And so here I am.

Is there anything I can do to help you?