The Unintentional Knitter - Never Leave Home Without a Project

During the Summer of 2015, I spent time on the road to Virginia to visit my mom.  Unbeknownst to me there was a huge traffic jam on 1-81 around Harrisburg, PA.  I was traveling alone as my sons were off working for the summer at Boy Scout Camps and my husband was saving time up for the Boy Scout Wood Badge training weekends ahead. 

My journeys to my mom's in Virginia usually begin way before dawn as I travel the length of Long Island and into Manhattan to cross into New Jersey and avoid several expensive tolls along the way.  I stopped at the Welcome Center just over the Pennsylvania only to learn that my drive time was about to become very long!

I made a decision to  stop at each rest area, walk a little and lo and behold knit a little!  I was gradually working my way through the Leisure Arts Learn to Knit book and was working on Hand Mitts.  Sitting at or on picnic tables in a shady area was perfect for relaxing and knitting a few stitches as I watched the progress of the traffic flowing on the interstate. 

My normal 7 hr trip took over 10 hours and by the time I reached my mom's in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia I was ready to cast off the first of the pair of hand mitts.  I think my mom was worried about my mental state, but in reality I was really relaxed.  The drive may have been endless but I had accomplished something along the way!

My mother however, could not see the value in a pair of finger-less mittens.  Of course in our texting world, they were invaluable!  By now, only 2 months into my foray into the knitting world I had completed at least 4 projects and had 2 sets of Christmas gifts ready for wrapping.  All thanks to a little booklet from Leisure Arts. 

I also would never leave home without yarn, a pattern and needles again.

The Unintentional Knitter

My First Unassisted Project

Lots has changed since I have written in this blog!  Boys have graduated from high school, the oldest one from college even.  Life at our house is much quieter and it is me, my husband and 4 cats.  Can I say there is less clutter with 2 less humans in the house?  Not really.  Those 2 young ones have left behind bins of special memories and other assorted belongings in a place they still refer to as home.

I am guilty of adding to the stuff.
10 bins of yarn which I never dreamed of ever possessing reside in my basement laundry room.

That's right never intended.

I was 10, maybe 12, and staying for a visit of a few days with my grandma and grandpa-at-the-house. (I had one set of grandparents who owned and lived above a deli, they were grandma and grandpa-at-the-store.)  My grandmother had already enhanced my ability to sew and embroider and she was nit picky on how the reverse side of everything looked.  There were no loose ends and all ends were very neatly woven into the stitching on the backside of every project.

Grandma had first taught me how to crochet, an afghan stitch was the first stitch I learned, I made doll blankets.  I think today's term is Tunisian Crochet.  Fancy word for what looked like embroidered blanket stitches on the front and knitting on the reverse.  None of my friends recognized this as crochet.  So I could do a chain, pick up stitches and make small doll blankets.  A few years later I must have learned more because I did make 2 ripple stitched afghans that took a year each to complete.

But let's get back to that unintentional knitting thing.

It seemed according to grandma, I mastered the art of using 1 needle, so it was time to try using 2 at once and out came the knitting needles and a simple ball of yarn.  Also came the stories of how my grandmother learned to knit in school and how she and her classmates all knitted their own stockings back in a small town in Northern Germany.  My grandmother fed my imagination with her memories and she was so precise in all that she did.  Her darning of socks and worn elbows in my sweater sleeves were basketweave perfection.

Perfection.  Perfection. Perfection.

Now as the loving and dutiful granddaughter, I hung on her every word and I adored her.  I adored all that she did and lovingly created as well.  Putting 2 needles and yarn in my hand, well, that was a different story.  It seemed that to knit, one had to wrap the yarn around the fingers in a special way, one had to hold and wrap the yarn a very specific way and when it came to knitting at the age of 10 or 12 I was all thumbs and the lessons did not end well.  In fact, they ended in tears.  After that particular visit I never held a pair of knitting needles again.  I felt I had failed to learn the lesson and I let my very German Grandmother down.  I was heartbroken.

My future visits with Grandma & Grandpa-at-the-house would be spent making doll clothes, sewing my summer wardrobes and embroidering and making crewel work wall hangings that I treasure today.  I never could master the art of a beautiful reverse side as well as my grandmother.

But I digress.  Fast forward to 2015. By then, my grandparents along with all the memories and love they shared with me must live in my heart and I carry them with me each and every day.

The year 2015, the summer was about to begin and the programming for Women-in-the-Woods at Camp Ma-He-Tu needed to be finalized.  It seemed that several of my camp friends wanted to learn how to knit.  I could not imagine why.  But I think Andrea and Jennifer had much to do with their curiosity.  Andrea and Jennifer brought their knitting projects to camp and knit at meal times, at the waterfront, in the Rec Hall and up in their tents.  Socks, shawls, blanket squares and hats were just some of the items they created while at camp.  Their hands were never idle. They seemed like the perfect pair to teach and introduce our WIWer's to the art of knitting and when asked they agreed.

So on sunny Sunday morning, after chapel and before lunch I scheduled a learn to knit session with Andrea & Jennifer in the Dining Hall.  They brought out colorful balls of cotton, size 7 knitting needles, directions for casting on, knitting, casting off, and a pattern for making dishcloths in neat kits for everyone who wanted to learn.  I sat in my makeshift office catching up on the paperwork I needed to complete to keep the Women-In-The-Woods program going smoothly and loved hearing the laughter and conversation over learning to knit.  I did not join in knowing already that it would be pointless as I was experiencing a PTSD episode with grandma memories and tears.

Andrea would not take no for an answer, when she asked me to come over to the tables.  She placed a package in front of me with hot pink cotton yarn and needles and encouraged me to pick it up and try.  I protested, but she, nor did her sister insist on me holding the needles a certain way or worse wrapping the yarn around my fingers just so. It turns out that even though I am right-handed, I know I do much with my left hand as well in many activities.  It seems I am a continental knitter and I hold the yarn trailing from my left hand.  To me, it seemed more efficient to pick up the yarn than toss and wrap.   I had to let go of my memories of grandma scolding me to keep the yarn just so.

Turns out that casting on was easy, like tying knots, which I love to do.  Making the first stitches was awkward, but  with encouragement got to the end of the first row.  Turns out garter stitch was pretty simple.  35 stitches across, about 25 rows up, by the end of the day I had a square!  Excited and pleased and so surprised!!!!!  Before dinner I learned how to cast off.  One washcloth.  One project and I had yarn left. "Cast on," Andrea said, "and I will teach you to purl!"

Monday, that week I thought I mastered purling.  turns out my improvised knitting maneuvers just caused all the stitches to twist.  Rip! Rip! Rip! PTSD was setting in.  Try again, then they spied my improvised techniques and realized I was just wrapping the yarn the wrong way around the needle.  With a little gentle push in the right direction, my purl stitches flattened.  So knit in one direction, purl going back, and I had a stockinette stitched piece on Day 2.  Jennifer and Andrea declared they had created a monster.  I now carried those needles and balls of cotton yarn everywhere in ziploc bag and knit whenever there was a lull.

I had never imagined.  I unintentionally became a knitter.  I went home from camp that Wednesday and stopped in a craft store a purchased a small pattern book for beginner knitters and in 2 weeks created that blue cowl.  I haven't stopped yet.  The unintentional knitter has found her way into new friendships and new adventures.  I can't wait to share more.