Loving the Knitting

Will has posted ever so many fantastic blogs on this sweet little blog and I have enjoyed reading them and the insightful comments of the dedicated N&UR faithful. You may have wondered, though, why, on a reportedly collaborative site, these other contributers (Charlie and Hillary) are absent. I have posted one blog, back in January, and it sapped my energy. I am a rather internet-shy person but my darling Will has inspired me to push myself...

Instead of writing about a great new CD or movie, I have decided to break my silence by writing about knitting. I am way behind with my hopping aboard the knitting bandwagon. I always thought it was too trendy and also not too useful. People knit some boring things. I LOVE a good scarf, but beyond that was not too excited. In spite of my reservations, I finally decided to give it a try because I thought it might be a good way to relax and to be productive while watching TV or chatting with people. I must admit, it has not disappointed. It has even helped me to connect to my grandma, aunt, AND mother (who I would have NEVER imagined to be a knitter). The new knitting/crafting culture is a fun one and I am glad to be getting in, albeit late in the game.

I'll share a little story about my mom's sad knitting past: My mom is not at all a Martha Stewart. She has never cooked, always had a maid (not that she was rich, she just HATES to clean enough to budget for that), and she has never been one for sewing, mending, etc. She comes from a more crafty family, though. My aunt is a master quilter, truly amazing, and my grandma is also good at pretty much everything in that arena as well, sewing, crocheting, knitting, embroidery, etc. I was raised a lot more like my mom and sort of saw shunning the domestic arts as a feminist stance. After actually studying feminism, though, I realized that it is not about doing something or not, it is actually about choice. Since then I have really enjoyed a lot of traditionally feminine activities, not because I have to, but because I enjoy a nice space.

A few weeks ago, I casually mentioned to my grandma that I had started reading Stitch 'N Bitch and was going to try to teach myself to knit. She was excited and went into the story of how she, my aunt, and my mom had all learned to knit. I thought that she must be confused but then I asked my mom and she confirmed it. She said that when she was young (college-aged) she really got into knitting and "loved it as much as Scrabble". Now my mom LOVES Scrabble. She has a sad tale, though. She told me that she had worked and worked on a green (my grandma thinks it was red, though) sweater for her then-husband, Bill. She knit all of the pieces and then had it professionally assembled and thought that he would love it. He didn't. She thought that he was just ungrateful, but my aunt remembers that the sleeves were actually much too long. At any rate, this soured my mom on knitting for about 30 years. She has been inspired to start again, though, and we're going to do some knitting when she comes up here in a month. Fun stuff.

I've learned from this story and from a sidebar in my book that one should not knit a boy a sweater, so, sorry Will. No sweaters for you, I don't want any sort of jinxes... because you're the real deal.