Persistent Knitter

The title of this posting somewhat reminds me of "What I Did on My Summer Vacation".
Inspired by a posting at The Spinning Goth blog, I share with you how I am evolving as a fiber person.

Crochet
When I was very little (more than 4 but less than 10 years old), my grandmother taught me to Crochet. I don’t remember why, it was just a Thing One Did. I remember making tiny blankets, and useless pieces of squiggle crochet. As I grew older, I would help my mom crochet fancy tablecloths out of tablecloth string.  This consisted of crocheting with a hook so small it could easily be considered a weapon.  My first experience with gauge was that mom and I had to use different size crochet hooks to get our pieces to come out the same size.  Of course I didn’t know that was because of gauge - it just made sense to us at the time.

Hand Embroidering
While in grade school, I learned how to do stem stitch embroidery. I used pre-printed patterns, mainly from iron on transfers (Aunt Martha’s Iron On Transfers, most of which I still have today). My sister and I would embroider tea towels for the house, and other random bits of embroidery.  I also learned some other forms of embroidery - different stitches, etc.  This skill hasn’t become a hobby in it’s own right, but I use these skills in conjunction when I’m working on something else.

Sewing
I took HomeEc in school.  Thankfully, my mom had already taught me how to sew at home.  Learning to stay steady by using no thread and a dull needle while following lines on notebook paper - graduating to circles and other shapes as I got better.  We would make doll clothes, and sometimes a whole doll.  In high school, I made a huge banner for a club I was in (I wonder if it’s still being used? I just looked itup, and they have a "new" banner. I wonder what happened to the old one? Probably in the trash). In college I would sometimes copy a really neat article of clothing a friend was wearing to save money.

Quilting, Step 1
I made one quilt while I was in high school - a baby quilt for an advisor of a club (Hmm.. same club I made the banner for). I embroidered dinosaurs onto white fabric, and pieced them together with some mint green sashing, and used a white ruffle to finish the edge.  I machine quilted the thing together - not knowing anything about how to really do it.  At the time I wasn’t too impressed and thought it took a lot of work to make it look good.  Later I realized I was using the wrong batting for the type of quilting I was doing.

Cross Stitch
Cross stitching started somewhere in high school, and continued throughout college.  I did some small items, but mostly larger items for wall hangings. My first major cross stitch picture was of a teddy bears family having a picnic. I framed it, and still have it to this day.  I fell in love with Teresa Wentzler designs.  I did this dragon pattern forever ago, and finally decided to have it framed when I had my first child in 2001 (about 10 years later). It goes perfectly in her room and guards her bed.  I also really like  Told In a Garden designs.  I have a few of the patterns in my cross stitch box, one or two started, but not yet completed.

Finally my ultimate cross stitch project was Permin of Copenhagen’s "Girl with Rabbit".  It was sold as a kit, for $80 or so. It seemed like a lot of money to me then, so I had my Local shop order me just the pattern.  Later I decided I didn’t want to do it with regular embroidery thread - I wanted to use Flower Thread. Embroidery thread is shiny, and Flower thread has a matte finish to it, and produces much softer colors. I converted all the colors over from one to the other; and got started. I set it aside for years, and it became my pregnancy project in 2001 when I was pregnant with my daughter.  It was then I realized I didn’t have enough thread to finish. The frantic hunt for more colors ensued - flower thread had been discontinued.  Dye lots be damned, I got enough from various shops across the United States, and I will someday finish this project. (I’ll see if I can take a picture of it at some point, or find a link on the ‘net)

I even taught a boyfriend in college to cross stitch. I bet he never finished the small project he started.

While I still have a box of cross stitch stuff, I don’t ever work on it. It’s pretty slow, tedious work, and very repetitive. I never got past needing a pattern to create a design. Someday I will finish Girl with Rabbit since I’m over half done on it.

Quilting, Step 2
While in college, a good friend of mine had me come over and help her layer & baste together her very first quilt.  It was beautiful and totally inspired me to get involved in quilting again.  I have made more quilts than I can count; and quilts are in almost every room in the house.  I have a fairly sizeable fabric collection, and will someday get back into it.  I love the control over colors you have with a quilt. Taking out fabrics and combining them in different ways with a pattern.  At one point I discovered Batik fabrics, and never went back.

Quilting is great because you can pick amazing colors and produce a quilt top fairly quickly.  Compared to Cross stitch, quilting definately won in the speed dept. I do hand quilting (my first quilt, queen sized even, was all hand quilted), machine quilting. I love the look of applique, but it’s very slow.

Weaving
After I graduated college, I learned how to weave. I don’t remember why I wanted to learn this; I just did. There was a lady local to my college town that taught classes and individual lessons.  In class I did some samples, and a rug. I still have that rug in my kitchen today.  I bought a small loom (Schacht Baby Wolf) and wove some kitchen towels on it, a curtain for a door, and a few not-so-great rugs.  I still have my loom; but haven’t used it in forever.  My mom picked up the weaving bug from me, and she has a very nice 45" wide loom at her house.   I think weaving is a great skill to have - but it takes a lot of time; which I don’t have these days.

Knitting
My mother in law knits. She knits amazing, beautiful sweaters.  I never thought I’d want to knit things, but one visit to her house I became curious and asked her to show me the basics.  She loaned me some needles and yarn and off I went. I bought a reference book; and my first project was a simple sweater for my daughter.  That was just a few years ago. I’m now part of a great knitting group that meets for fun, socialization and inspiration.  I’ve branched out into designing some of my own patterns (socks, sweaters), and hope to always have something on-the-needles. Knitting is great because it’s super portable, and as the mom of two small kids that don’t sit still; it’s easy to knit a few stitches here and there and eventually finish something.

Spinning
My local yarn shop is a knitting/weaving/spinning shop.  At one point I was looking for some classes to take and thought it would be fun to learn how to spin. I wasn’t really sure I’d like it but wanted to learn how to do it. I bought my Schacht spinning wheel at the end of that class.  Later I bought some drop spindles, but do most of my spinning on the wheel.

I’m now involved in a great Sheep to Shawl team that competes at the Estes Wool Market (my 2nd year coming up), so my spinning skills are getting a good workout. I have quite a few fleeces in my closet waiting to be spun. I don’t know what I’m going to do with the yarn I spin, but I’m enjoying making it; and that’s enough for now.

Final Thoughts
It seems I’ve always been doing something related to fiber.  I believe I always will.   My day job consists of writing code that could be deleted by a single power surge.  It’s nice to go home, and be able to create something physical that will last a long time.  Being able to see & feel the texture of the yarn or fabric.  Working with amazing colors.  I’m always telling myself "I don’t need another hobby!", but I think every new one I learn makes me better overall at all of them.