Knitting Fever!
I love to knit. I’m actually in what I like to think of as my third knitting phase in my life. The first one started when I was a kid (age 12??) and my mom first taught me to knit. I wasn’t very serious about it, although I was recently reminded of some pink mittens I had made myself. Mittens? Wow. I haven’t even made another pair since! Not that I’ve finished anyway. Eventually I lost interest though, or was distracted by other interests, and I stopped.
The second phase started in my twenties when I took a job in a shop that sold fabrics and yarn. (Yeah, I know, spinsterhood here I come! - but I did eventually get married.) I was an avid seamstress, so I was very comfortable with that part of the job, but I knew I needed to relearn the knitting skills if I was going to be able to help customers. The lady who owned the shop was a wonderful knitter and a great teacher and I really value the time she sent teaching me. Before long I worked my way from scarves to sweaters. I loved it!
I probably never would have stopped if it weren’t for another really big distraction. Actually she was quite small. She was a kitten that my husband gave me for Christmas. Let’s just say that she and yarn were a really bad mix. I just adore kittens and cats for that matter, so I put my knitting away, “just for a few months” I told myself. Somehow “months” turned into years. But about a year and a half ago I was wandering through the still fairly new AC Moore that opened in our area. I got to the aisles with the yarns and knitting supplies; saw the many sample scarves, hats, etc. and was completely hooked! Again!
The yarn shop where I worked had long since gone out of business, but several months ago while visiting AC Moore with the amazing
spuffyduds we heard tell of a local yarn shop, one that was much closer to where I live. How could it have escaped my notice?! I checked it out as soon as I had a chance and found it to be a very nice little shop with many yummy yarns, some of which I could never afford. They did however have my beloved Lamb’s Pride, a wool/mohair yarn that I’ve been partial to since my second knitting phase.
I’ve become very interested in felting, which for those of you who don’t know is knitting with wool and then washing to intentionally shrink and mat the fibers together. It forms a thick wool “fabric” which is great for things like bags or hats. The Lamb’s Pride I mentioned is perfect for this, and it is available in a huge assortment of colors. I’ve decided to start documenting the befores and afters of the projects I’m doing, partly for fun and partly because it is useful to know how much something is going to shrink. Here are a few of my “befores” that I’ve been saving until I had a digital camera.
