Filed under: Uncategorized
Learning to knit… I have to say that for me it was a long and totally indirect route. I learned to knit and purl ages ago when my mother taught me. For some reason, it didn’t take. I tend to think that it’s for the same reason I never learned to sew. She is so accomplished and brilliant a knitter that it seemed ridiculous for me to try to learn. After I got married, I took a few classes at a local shop and learned a few things more about knitting. I chose projects that were too frustratingly tedious to ever finish. I guess that I just didn’t know any better.
Then, a few years ago, my daughter filmed a movie in the lovely town of Staunton, VA. Staunton is a 30 minute drive west of Charlottesville and is a beautiful place full of charming independent shops. The shop that did me in is ‘On the Lamb’ a lovely Local Yarn Shop, or LYS owned by Joe. Joe and Angel are the driving forces behind the shop. They are fantastic. I fell in love with them and the shop and the gorgeous yarns. Mom and I signed up for a fall knitting class with Annie Modesitt and another chapter opened up for me.
The class with Annie was a total eye opener. She explained knitting in a way that made me understand knitting and shaping fabric. It was liberating. Learning to make a mitered handbag and being told that I could make my stitches any way I liked as long as I understood what I was doing was exactly what I wanted to hear. I learned so much.
The second thing that happened to me during that knitting weekend was that I met the love of my life. In order to make the mitered bag for the class that weekend, we were instructed to go pick out several skeins of coordinating merino wool, but not just any merino. When I met the colors and feel of Malabrigo Worsted yarn, I fell instantly, deeply and permanently in love. The attributes of Malabrigo yarn is well documented, and I am definitely one of the junkies that knits with and dreams of its beauty and softness.
This perfect storm of understanding my knitting and meeting the perfect yarn for me made me officially a knitter and began an obsession that will last a lifetime.
That’s why I am committed to Knit One, Teach One. Learning to knit – to create wearable, useful, beautiful objects is one of the most empowering and satisfying things I have ever done and I believe that sharing that is my mission.
Leave a Comment so far
Leave a comment
