I was in grade four when I was officially introduced to knitting. Before that, I received the odd knitted sweater or socks from my Memere Pitou (mom’s mom) or my mother. But it was in elementary school that my teacher, Mme Groulx, made everyone in the class knit a headband. It was a small enough project with a simple garter stitch that each kid could get done before the end of the school year. I thought it was so much cooler than any other grade four art class assignment we might have been given.
Flash forward to my third year at Ryerson University and I haven’t thought about knitting or that grade four class until my roommate took out her needles and yarn and decided to knit me a scarf. Seeing as she made it in a few days, I was determined to make my mother a scarf for Christmas. This was in 2007. My mother did not receive her scarf until Christmas of 2010.
Maybe it was the tediousness of the same stitches over and over again, or maybe it was that after a few days it felt like I hadn’t completely much of scarf. I would go months without knitting, until hiding in the back of my closet I would catch of glimpse of the scarf and I would get back to finishing it. This cycle lasted two years. I was discouraged. I was guaranteed that this would be my only knitting project. If it had taken me that long to knit a scarf, can you imagine something else, like a sweater? What about those crazy patterns I used to see and using more than one colour.
But then I finally finished the scarf and I was hooked. Maybe it was seeing the actual finished scarf or how proud I was that it was finally finished but I knew I wanted to knit something else. So I tried another scarf again. This one for my husband (then he was my fiancé). This one I completed in less than a month. Everyone received something knitted that Christmas, including my mother and that first scarf.
Now here I am, two years later completely obsessed with knitting and in need of someone to share it with – my husband doesn’t quite get it but I still love him. So whether you’re new to knitting or a veteran, just curious or looking for inspiration I hope you find what you’re looking for.