Beginning Knitting

[akirlu]

Plant foot. Plant other foot. Lever self upright. Wobble a while. Fall on butt. Roll over on all fours. Repeat all.

Once wobbling successfully subsides while upright, take a step. Fall on butt. Repeat all.

Well, it's not exactly like that, obviously, but there are certainly similarities between learning to knit, and learning to walk. It's a weird, unfamiliar motor skill wherein you take formerly familiar appendages and try to make them do things they don't want to do, and so you keep getting snarled up and losing your way. Instead of falling on my ass I drop stitches, or lose my tension, or knit up my tail, but it works just the same in terms of being a randomly repetetive disruption of the smooth forward motion I'm aiming for.

Yes, I have thrown myself headlong into learning a new life skill. (Ssshhh. Don't, for gods' sake, call it a hobby. Or, worse yet, a project.) What the hell. One of my co-workers is, so I gather, kind of a big deal in knitting circles. She's originally Swedish, so she knows the traditional knitting style of My People. She does schmancy, complex Nordic and Finnish knits, and she teaches classes all over the country and goes to conferences around the Baltic and like that. She'll be teaching workshops at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis in conjunction with a Bohus Stickning exhibit there. Like I say: a big deal.

She's also mad keen to get everyone knitting. She's offered multiple times to teach me to knit, most recently when I was bemoaning my lack of fingerless gloves during the Great Indoor Freeze. (I asked her if she wins a toaster oven if she converts enough people to knitdom, and she just laughed. Then she stopped laughing and explained that she's after world domination, not appliances.)

When you have a resource like that at hand, it seems downright wasteful not to take advantage of it. So I finally went down to my local yarn store (Renaissance Yarns, which is conveniently located very near my train stop) and bought myself a skein of lovely heathery green wool and a set of needles. Then at the rescheduled office holiday brunch today, we started my lessons. (Because there's nothing like picking up a new skill while six co-workers are watching and making smarty-pants running commentary. We know how to make our own fun around here, you betcha.) I got to the point where I can get a decent rhythm in the middle of a run, but things tend to go all to hell at the very ends. Gives me something to work on. Once I master knitting, I'll have to learn to purl, and then we go on to knitting in the round and then -- hah hah! -- fingerless gloves. The quest begins.

Comments

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Well, I've been eyeing the knitting thing for a while -- it's much more portable than some of my hobbies, and, like jewelry-making, you can finish projects in a comparatively short amount of time, and wear your art.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Actually, I work in the U District, but I've been deliberately staying away from Weaving Works because I know they also sell needle felting kits and I have sternly promised myself that I must finish at least one furniture project before I'm allowed to take up needle felting.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

That's why I take crocheting to Minicon. It's a lot harder to clean up jewelry makings when someone wants to look at a t-shirt. I can just drop the crochet back in the bag.

I'm sure you'll do fine -- like a lot of this kind of thing, it just takes practice.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

Duuuude! What's her name? I bet I've heard of her. I luuurve the fancy stranded stuff, not that I can actually do it yet... ;-)

See also the entry I'm about to post about Elder Goddaughter and her brilliance. World domination, one sucker at a time!

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Her name's Susanna Hansson, actually. I love the multi-colored stranded stuff too, and will no doubt aspire to doing it myself, someday. But first, we work on "not dropping stitches".

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I went within about six weeks from 'er, I can remember the knit stitch but how do I purl, cast on, knit in the round, do rib, cast off' to 'if other people have done these mittens as a first stranded project then I can too'. And, to be fair, the first mitt was a bit ropey -- but my daughter still loves them.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Yes, progress seems to be reasonably quick. My preceptress thinks I've been a knitter all my life and just didn't know it. But my forearms are sore from the death grip I have on the needles -- I'm a bit skeptical of this ever becoming "relaxing" as such.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

Heh, heh. Next stop Ravelry. Where I am BohemianCoast, natch.

I started knitting in early September and have produced five pairs of socks and a pair of mittens since then. Though I haven't picked up any knitting since dropping into Blind Pre-Christmas Panic Mode. With Christmas safely out of the way, I could reasonably start again. That meant that I didn't finish the pair of fingerless mitts that I needed to finish by Boxing Day. Which turned out to be perishing cold and I could have done with them. Oh well.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I was taught to knit by my mother and found it completely beyond my skills to concentrate enough but not too much. I don't know why, but I think the hobby fairy passed me by.

However, I wish you much joy, and will duly admire all your projects as you finish and wear them. I admire those who can knit, including my dear gtrout.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Thanks for "completely beyond my skills to concentrate enough but not too much". With most crafts, I seem to have a strong desire to learn how it's done, but not enough enthusiasm to actually _do_ it.

I did, however, some years ago, complete a belt and couple of hat-bands in Plains Indian-style beadwork (13/0 and 16/0 loom & gourd-stitch). Invariably, I'd start working on it, and return to reality about six hours later, with ridiculously sore fingers and eyes. Your phrase describes my condition perfectly, and I'm pretty sure it would apply in spades to something like knitting, crocheting, or complicated (4+ heddle) weaving, because these involve the topographic part of the mind, and mine seems to be small (by nature, despite attempts to develop it).

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

As with idea generation, possibly I got your share of the hobby fairy's blessings. I certainly don't run short of hobbies, or interest in picking up new ones. I think the trick with knitting will be giving it enough time to become automatic and therefore not requiring much concentration at all. There are, so I'm told, Aran knitters who can do it in the dark.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I got my share of gifts, so I don't mind you getting the hobbies. I would like better idea generation, but there I think I sell myself short. I certainly generated a lot of story prompts at DP, so I think the problem is recognition of the early stages of stories and not the lack of them.

What really happens is I don't like being bad at anything, and unless I'm totally fascinated by learning something, like a language, or how to write, or photography, I won't take the time to get through the beginning stages.

[wild-patience.livejournal.com]

Yay, you! It's appropriate that as I'm reading LJ, I'm winding a ball of yarn, preparing it to become a pair of socks.

[carbonel]

The knitting community on LJ is active and useful for knitting questions.

As for fingerless gloves, the Fetching pattern on Knitty is immensely popular.

[tysolna]

Indeed. I think all my family wear a pair of these now.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

Very pretty. I may come back to this pattern for a later project. The current ones are much simpler -- it's just two knits then two purls for a total of 40 stitches, turn and repeat -- knitted flat and then seamed up the thumb side to leave a thumb hole. Cabling can wait until my second or third project.

[serendipoz.livejournal.com]

When in Minneapolis?

Not that I'm a knitter, but I am partially Swedish and in Minneapolis.



Joyce

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure of the date -- I think her teaching schedule is on her website.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

When she's at the ASI here, she should eat some of the cardamom buns in the basement. They are nice.

I have no knitting advice, but I know from cardamom buns.

[akirlu.livejournal.com]

I will mention the cardamom buns, thanks! Susanna may already be au fait with the amenities at ASI -- she's taught there before, and we fell into conversation about what a fabulous building it is, with all the lovely kakelugn-type stoves and their tile work.