At Knit's End (8 page)

I will try other knitting needles, particularly if one type consistently sends me to the emergency room.

 

You don't get harmony when everybody
sings the same note.

— D
OUG
F
LOYD

A
s long as there has been knitting there have been battles about it. There are self-declared “yarn snobs,” who frown on using anything but natural fibers; “gauge snobs,” who wouldn't be caught dead with chunky yarn; and “experience snobs,” who claim you can't declare yourself a real knitter until you abandon novelty yarns. The truth is that the knitting world is a tiny metaphor for the real world. It takes all kinds.

I will not allow myself to feel bad if someone disapproves of my knitting. I will also resist the urge to stuff his mailbox full of chunky acrylic fun fur at 3:00 a.m.

 

5
things to keep in your knitting bag:

A crochet hook for picking up dropped stitches

A yarn needle

A measuring tape

A photocopy of your pattern

A fair bit of chocolate or hard liquor, depending on the project

I will recognize that being prepared will make me a better knitter.

 

One of the few pieces of Newfoundland
knitting in a museum is a pair of
long underwear dated 1900 and
collected by Dorothy Burnham for the
Canadian Museum of Civilization.
They were knit of homespun wool in
an outport [a remote fishing village].

— G
LORIA
H
ICKEY

C
an you imagine the whole knitted long underwear thing? In many (cold) parts of the world, knitted long johns were commonplace, and necessary. Whole pants and shirts were knitted of wool so fine that the garments didn't bunch up under your clothes. I don't know whom I feel sorriest for: the knitter who had miles of underwear to knit, the poor soul responsible for hand washing it all, or the desperate victim who had to wear the itchy homespun next to his most delicate parts.

 

You know you
knit too much when …

You think that a stitch or
row counter you could work
with your feet is a really
brilliant idea.

 

God gave us our memories so that
we might have roses in December.

— J. M. B
ARRIE

S
ome of my stash is silly little balls of yarn that non-knitters (and some knitters) think I'm out of my mind to keep. Here's what they don't know: The white is the yarn I used to knit the baby blanket I wrapped my first baby in. The blue is from the sweater my husband wore on the boat on our anniversary. The purple is from socks my second daughter wore the first day of school. The pink is from the scarf my youngest learned to knit on. They are soft yards of wool, each one a postcard from the life I had while knitting.

People may laugh at me, but I will remember that some of them collect rocks.

 

It is essential to use X brand yarn
to achieve these results.

— E
VERY PATTERN PUT OUT BY A YARN COMPANY

I
was in a crowded and bustling yarn shop when I overheard a young and attractive woman utter this sentence out loud.

“It's too bad that you can't substitute yarns in a pattern; none of these colors really appeals to me.”

The silence that descended upon the yarn shop was complete. Heads swivelled around to get a look at her. Knitter after knitter stared incomprehensibly at her. Moments later, as we all recovered, the woman was virtually crushed as we rushed to her side to enlighten her.

I will remember that substituting yarns is not only possible, but, at times, virtually demanded.

 

Inanimate objects are classified scientifically
into three major categories — those that
don't work, those that break down
and those that get lost.

— R
USSELL
B
AKER

E
very knitter knows that yarn needles disappear at a rate competitive with socks. I've bought hundreds, lost them all over my house, and have never, ever found one. They are simply gone.

I know that I can't be alone with this problem because often, when I go to buy more from the yarn shop, they are sold out.

I imagine that in five hundred years, when the archeologists of the future are sifting through the rubble of my home, they will find millions of them.

I will resist the urge to laugh myself silly at the idea that they will think the sheer quantity of these little metal sticks must mean that they hold a special significance.

 

Envy can be a positive motivator.
Let it inspire you to work harder
for what you want.

— R
OBERT
B
RINGLE

B
rowsing a knitting magazine at the library, I read of a knitter who had managed to procure some lace-weight cashmere. She wrote so compellingly about its legendary softness, its luminous color, and the pleasure she had working with it. She told of the heart-achingly beautiful wimple that she had knit from it, and how it was the envy of all the other knitters she knew, that it was simply the most beautiful wimple ever.

I will realize that before I whip out the credit card and order myself a kit to make a cashmere wimple that I might want to take a minute and try to find out what the heck a wimple is.

 

Real success is finding your lifework
in the work that you love.

— D
AVID
M
C
C
ULLOUGH

M
ost knitters can't imagine anything better than spending their days curled up knitting, shopping for wool, and getting paid for it.

I will resist the urge to approach knitters in shops and ask them whether I can be their personal shopper, just so that I can spend somebody else's money on wool.

the act of taking the knitting off the needles and pulling the working yarn to undo the stitches. This is done to unravel knitting completely or to pull the work out to a point before an error, when the knitting is replaced on needles. It is called “frogging” because you “rip-it, rip-it.”

I
t is important for knitters to know two things about frogging: that cats are capable of this knitting action, and even seem to enjoy it and seek opportunities to do it; and that foul language is a normal, healthy accompaniment to frogging, whether it is you or the cat that accomplished the task.

I will allow myself the full expression of human frustration should I have to frog anything.

 

The future belongs to those who believe
in the beauty of their dreams.

— M
ARIE
C
URIE

T
his is surely the motto of designers who work in knitted lace. It can only be faith alone that drives them, because, before it is stretched and blocked, lace in progress often resembles Chinese noodles.

I will reserve judgment on my lace in progress until the magic of blocking has worked its charms.

 

It is not down in any map;
true places never are.

— H
ERMAN
M
ELVILLE

A
portion of my stash is not for knitting; it is souvenir stash. The soft white wool that I bought in Newfoundland, the wool that I got in Hawaii (as an aside, this particular wool is probably worth keeping simply because I believe that it is the ONLY wool in Hawaii), the tweedy yarn my friend brought me from Ireland, the cotton from Italy. This is remembrance yarn. This yarn is not for knitting. With this yarn I can document every trip and yarn shop of my life. Who would knit that?

I will remember that yarn can serve many purposes, and that it is possible non-knitters will never understand this.

 

The secret to creativity is knowing
how to hide your sources.

— A
LBERT
E
INSTEIN