Why I love knitting
Knitting is one of those acts that in many ways defies description. If you‘ve read my first blog post, you‘ll recall the story of my first knitted garter stitch scarf - knit from criminally expensive purple cashmere - that I made as a Christmas gift for my aunt who had just lost her husband of over 50 years. This story embodies the most important reason why I love knitting so much - knitting is an act of love. Pure, unbridled love that comes from a desire to bring the people you love comfort and joy. My aunt, God bless her, continues to wear that beginner scarf with pride and pleasure. And, being my first effort, that scarf pretty much sucks. But, what the scarf lacks in skill it makes up for with scrumptious yarn!
Knitting as an act of, and expression of, love is universally understood among all hand knitters that I‘ve met. My friend Amy once asked me, upon hearing of a new man I had started seeing, „OK Kim he sounds great, but is he knit-worthy?“ once I stopped laughing long enough to answer her entirely legitimate question, I decided that this would be my barometer for relationships - degree of knit-worthiness. At the lower end of the spectrum is the hat level, and at the upper end is the sweater (or even, in extreme cases, the blanket) level. If you hit blanket level you might want to just marry the guy and be done with it.
Let‘s not kid ourselves though - knitting is not a selfless act by any stretch. True knitters LOVE to knit. More than almost anything else. There are few things I‘d rather be doing than knitting. I love the process of knitting - the way the yarn feels in my hands, the way the needles move just so to create a beautiful fabric where none existed before. The way knitting engages your brain to solve little problems as you go along, and to watch the pattern emerge in expected (and...ummm...sometimes unexpected) ways. When I hear people say things like „oh, I could never knit, I‘d get so bored just sitting there“ I want to smack them upside the head. Knitting is an endlessly engaging act of creation. And that is the second most important reason why I love knitting - creating something entirely new and unique. By adding in the design aspect, knitting becomes an amazing creative act - one with limitless possibilities.
Those limitless possibilities create equally limitless chances to learn something new. You could knit obsessively for your entire life and never run out of new skills to learn. Lace? Brioche? Estonian? BRING IT ON!! To me, this elevates knitting far beyond the realm of „craft“ - knit designers are fiber artists at their core - as are independent yarn spinners and dyers. Enter shameless plug for small fiber artists - where you can, buy their products. They will elevate your own fiber art to a new level of uniqueness and beauty.