Philosophy

I don't know why I fell into knitting.  I mean, I've done it since I was little, inspired in large part by the Sheep Sweater¹, but until a few years ago--about the time I started dating Liam, in fact--it wasn't something I did a lot.  In fact, in high school and most of college I was all about the counted cross stitch.  I have quite a number of large, elaborate pieces I did, and Mum has a few more, and occasional other people--Emily has a piece I did for her first wedding, though it has names on it so I doubt she displays it, and a couple of my other friends.  In college I knit a cardigan for myself--long gone, I haven't a clue where we parted ways--and a pullover cable knit for AndrewGreg (years, I might add, before our eventual breakup, which appears to have been caused in large part by him being a doody-head rather than by me being clingy or overenthusiastic), but that was about it.

I don't remember having a conversation with Liam in which he asked me to knit him socks, but the conversation, or several, must have happened because I went and got a pattern and some needles and some yarn (a one-page photocopy type, Brittany birches, and a Regia space-dye, to be specific) and knit him some socks.  And then some more.  And then I thought, gee, I can still do this, and five years later I'm a confirmed knitter.  I still do other things--I have a pattern for a truly epic cross stitch piece that I'm trying to get up the gumption (and find the ground fabric) to start, and there's the Epic Tablecloth (I don't think small, usually), and I've been making some of my own clothes, and I've sort of got my eye on a quilt pattern², and there's the pysanky in spring, and I play with beads occasionally, and if I'm going to be ever doing anything SCA ever again I'll probably pick the tablet weaving and bobbin lace back up, and heck, I think conlangs count as "craft", don't you?  But in general, for the next while at least, I seem to be a knitter who does other things sometimes, which is OK.

1: Knit by my mom in the early 80s, and she still wears it occasionally.  It's knit on little teeny needles, like sock-size needles; the main body was done on US 1s or 2s, I can't remember which, which for those of you who use sensible needle sizing means something in the 2-3 millimeter range.  There are intarsia sheep all over it, mostly white and one black.  It's very cute.  I seem to recall that she made the mistake of doing the front, with all the intarsia, first, leading to having to then do the back, in plain red, on size 2 needles, with nothing to look forward to.  (Oddly, I forget whether the sleeves have sheep as well.)

2: When I finished my last, and so far only, quilt (ninepatch, smallish, nothing fancy), I remember thinking, "OK, I have quilted; I have proven my femininity and I never need to do that again."  Which is still in large part true; I am never going to be really into quilting, because it is way too finicky if you want to do a good job³.  But for a special project, I can make an exception.

3: For context, keep in mind that this is coming from someone who considers 6mm needles to be close to unacceptably large, regularly did counted cross stitch at 32 stitches to the inch, and finished a two-foot-long piece of brocaded tablet weaving using silk slightly thinner than buttonhole thread. 

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