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jreiz
New Pal
Canada
15 Posts |
 Posted - 09/01/2005 : 01:38:17 AM
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Well, I guess it was after asking Mum - Do you think I can do this? - looking at a pattern for a fair-isle yoked short-sleeved cardigan, done in Kroy fingering (i.e. sock-weight), the year I was 17, and she said: Oh yes, when you get to the yoke, it will be easiest if you do it on my long circular needles - and those were the days of steel tips, with cabled wire for the join - remember them? - the ones where one strand always pulled loose? But she was right, and I never had a fear of any pattern, (or wanting to do something WITHOUT a pattern) because of the way she answered questions; it was always: Of course you can! Hmmm, come to think of it, that's the way she responded about Life Questions too! Thanks for a great topic!
Jenni in Edmonton, up too late reading Review, and digests, going to Knitting Guild on Thursday night, yippee! |
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linner02128@yahoo.com
Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2005 : 02:10:40 AM
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| This just happened to me recently. I have been knitting a long time and was a good, functional intermediate knitter. But then I bought "Knitting the Old Way" and am making my first non-pattern sweater, thinking of pattern and shaping on my own, feeling very courageous and dreaming about math calculations at night. It feels absolutely stunning. |
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cldrury@ec.rr.com
New Pal
1 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2005 : 05:02:09 AM
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| The first thing I do when visiting a new city is open the phone book and look up the yarn shops and try to figure out how many I can visit during my stay! |
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nwilson02
Chatty Knitter
USA
214 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2005 : 05:41:01 AM
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For me it was when I quit thinking about whether I should knit that day or not, I just got the yarn out and started knitting. My knitting is the first thing I lay out when I'm preparing to travel, I look for local yarn shops wherever I go, I keep the Patterworks catalog in the bathroom (oops, should I admit that one?).
Yes, I'll admit it: My name is Nancy and I'm a knitaholic. |
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zissa
Chatty Knitter
USA
222 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2005 : 06:03:08 AM
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I've known how to knit since I was a little girl, but I only became a knitter during the past year. My fear of trying new techniques (cables, socks, etc.) is gone, my apartment has stashes of yarn throughout, and I dream of knitting at night. I think the difference for me from being someone that knits to being a knitter was the understanding that I am willing to work with wool in the middle of a Chicago summer!
www.wordsandwool.blogspot.com |
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hartel_m@hotmail.com
New Pal
2 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2005 : 06:03:36 AM
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| I became a KNITTER years ago when I realized that what was in my head (patterns, ideas, colors, etc.) was not what was in the head of other folks I knew who were knitting. |
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Schaeferyarnlover
Gabber Extraordinaire
479 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2005 : 06:12:48 AM
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| For me, the epiphany was the first time I read IK. I felt like I had found my people and I vowed one day I would knit one of the patterns. I'm taking treatment for arthritis by infusion at the hospital-- one hour total. I keep trying to figure out how to knit with a tube in one arm and a blood pressure cuff on the other. |
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spicema59@yahoo.com
New Pal
15 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2005 : 06:27:07 AM
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| I think when I looked at a knitted vest & decided just to knit it..no instructions, just the foto...Tho having Zimmerman's books & going to knitting camp really rounded it out where I AM A KNITTER became part of me.....knittinannie |
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gcelee
New Pal
USA
29 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2005 : 06:51:52 AM
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I'm normally a lurker, but this question really got my attention. I became a Knitter when I started teaching others - not formal classes, just helping them understand directions, correcting mistakes, how to cast on, turn on short rool heel, stuff like that. EZ's books did the most for making me comfortable with what I know, versus being tied to a pattern.
Carol in Prince George, VA |
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becka always
Permanent Resident
USA
1959 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2005 : 08:31:14 AM
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I've been knitting, with learning process included since late June of last year, but I think I became a knitter shortly thereafter when I put down the pattern book and started making up my own designs, albeit at this point it was hats & scarves, but I was playing around with yarn & sts from my perpetutual st a day calendar & started creating...sometimes with it; sometimes without. Then I knew I was a knitter....on a very long journey 
[IMG]http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y119/rebeccame/knitting.gif[/IMG]
Addicted to the Knit
Becka Always
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pjkite
Permanent Resident
1198 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2005 : 08:45:53 AM
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I think I became a knitter as soon as I mastered Continental knitting and did my first gauge swatch. My instructor (for the whole 20 minutes it took me to pick it up) told me that I should be able to manage on my own from that point, and I have. Thanks to discovering EZ very early on, I've never looked at patterns as more than suggestions, and don't hesitate to change them to suit myself. After decades as a crocheter and weaver and sewer, shaping things was easy for me. I've never been really afraid of any knitting technique for very long; gloves caused me the most trepidation, and that only lasted a few months. So I suppose I've considered myself a knitter from the beginning!
Pamela Kite
East Tennessee
http://fiberlife.blogspot.com/
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ella
New Pal
10 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2005 : 10:04:42 AM
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| When I could comfortably switch between British and Continental knitting methods, I felt I'd taken another step forward in my journey to expand my abilities to create with knitting. I look at last year's projects (my first year of knitting), and see that my knitting is more intricate, more even and that I enjoy knitting with smaller needles and finer yarns. I love to knit. Am I knitting or am I a knitter? I dunno. I have fun with yarn! |
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Momma78239
Permanent Resident
USA
4859 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2005 : 11:31:58 AM
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Sorry, I can't help it -
I'm a literalist so, although I understand what you all mean, I just can't get over the fact that a knitter is someone who knits. If you knit - whether you knit well or poorly - you're a knitter. Being a competent or even accomplished knitter is a whole other kettle of fish.
-WendyM
And all the women that were wise hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen. Exodus 35:25 |
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ecrisher
Warming Up
USA
65 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2005 : 12:28:05 PM
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I guess it was when during the times that I wasn't knitting started thinking of knitting and now I am always thinking about knitting!
~erica
When the going gets tough, the tough gets knitting!
check out my knitting at www.woodnknots.com/Knots.html |
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jpatriciameyer@kpmg.com
Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2005 : 1:30:57 PM
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| I learned to knit at 7 and have knit ever since, but I became a knitter in college, when I found out that I did not have to look at most of the complicated things I was making for myself and others. Not long after that, I began improvising on things and creating simple patterns for myself. Now, most of the patterns I create, are based on published patterns, to save the time of figuring out the most basic elements, before I go on and incorporate pattern stitches and color patterns, etc. to make it mine. |
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Vivian K
New Pal
8 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2005 : 2:28:42 PM
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When I learned how to knit as a little girl, I was afraid of mistakes, "wasting yarn", being criticized for not knitting a perfect sweater. One day I picked up the needles again and said to myself "I'm knitting because I want to. I don't care what comes out of it and I don't care what others say." Now I'm a knitter.
Vivian |
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mamid
Permanent Resident
Canada
1568 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2005 : 2:42:24 PM
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I'm not a knitter.
I'm a Maker. I make things. Be it out of yarn or bits of fabric. or ink and paints or whatever. I make it because I can. Because I have to.
Because its who I am.
Knitting is just one aspect of being a Maker.
Craftiness is Sanity
"Knitting is indeed manly. After all you spend a long time poking a rigid object through a flexible opening!" - Mokey |
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draymer
Permanent Resident
USA
1481 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2005 : 3:10:15 PM
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I have considered myself a knitter since junior high, when I sat in front of the Lawrence Welk show knitting mittens, because that is when my grandmother knit. Then, when I was in high school, I bucked all my feminist instincts (yes, I now know that knitting has nothing to do with feminism) and thumbed my nose at everyone who thought knitting was nerdy, and knit during my senior year, making the infamous Love Sweater. It was hideous, a taupe colored acrylic yarn, and after we broke up (I gave him the sweater, he tried to give me an engagement ring, which I wouldn't take. I would spend months knitting a sweater, but wasn't ready to make a real commitment) I took a sabatical for about 30 years. I consider myself a knitter because I don't care what anyone else thinks of it, or the looks I get, I just gotta knit!
Debra |
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Knitting Fever
Gabber Extraordinaire
USA
548 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2005 : 3:20:24 PM
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I think that I became a "knitter" when I realized that I would tackle any challenge to make what I wanted to make.
Carolyn
http://carolynh.tblog.com/ |
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mfred52@comcast.net
New Pal
4 Posts |
Posted - 09/01/2005 : 3:39:14 PM
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I knew I was a Knitter, when the first thing I did after a very hard, frustrating day at work was pick up my needles. I have a pretty set routine, shoe off & head for the little girls room as soon as I drop my purse & briefcase. I breathed a huge sigh of relief when those needles were in my hand and I realized I'd been secretly waiting a good portion of the day to pick them up.
I carry a project with me nearly all the time, but my schedule at work usually doesn't allow for time to shift gears away. That particular day, I didn't know I needed my yarns so much until I had them in hand...Wow that day is as clear as a bell months afterward.
I should probably say that I've been knitting about a year and a half now, but I've crocheted since I was a little girl and as much as I love crocheting, knitting seems to have taken over my life.
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