The Knit Geek

I spotted this article, written by Holly Burnham, at Search Warp. Not only can I personally relate to her story, but I was attracted to her beautiful, tongue-in-cheek writing style. I am a sucker for well written prose.

I wrote to her and asked if I could reprint her beautiful words here, and she graciously gave her permission.

Enjoy!

I Am a Knitting Addict by Holly Burnham

If you are a passionate knitter; you know who you are…..you are the person who, just for a fleeting second, wonder if it might be worth taking your knitting into the bathroom with you instead of a magazine. You are also the person who feels a smidgen guilty you spend too much time fondling yarn.

Recently there was a topic thread on a knitting forum I visit asking how much time we all spend knitting every day. I lied. It was a forum; I didn’t know any one personally on it….and I lied. I believe I recorded a quarter of the time I actually do knit every day. That was a clear cry for help.

That was also the day I started to think about my knitting passion and how it affects my life.

I am lucky enough to be a stay at home wife. My children are grown and have homes of their own, so I also have a lot more free time than I have had at any other point in my life.

You might think my house is clean, orderly and well run; that I make a point of keeping in touch with good friends; spend time nurturing my relationship with my children and projecting the essence of grandmothering onto my eight grandchildren by making and sending them cookies as a treat. You’d think my husband would be greeted by a delicious home cooked meal every night when he came home from work and that my gardens are visual delights for neighbors who stroll by my home. You’d think……but……I knit. I knit all the time. When I’m not knitting I’m reading about knitting, or I’m in knitting chat rooms talking about knitting. (more…)

How to Knit Invisible Stitches - Grafting by Karen Lonergan Karens Variety

I will be trying her instructions when I finish my son’s sweater. I have had the hardest time getting this right!

Okay, many people will read this and say, “So what?”, but here goes.

Yesterday I was itching to work on my sewing pile, but I wasn’t sure what ‘big’ project I wanted to work on, so I started in on the little tailoring, touch-up stuff. Hubby’s dress slacks have sat on my work table for about 3 months, needing to be refit around the waist, and to have the hems let down. I refit the waist (twice, since it wouldn’t lay properly the first time, pushing me into mutterings of cursing fit for a drunken pirate), and then I ripped the old hems. I ironed out the old creases, pressed in the new hem, and sat at my machine.

I knew that these fancy pants deserved better than my usual straight stitch, but I had tried my blind hem stitch several times before, and ended up damn near throwing the machine out the window each time. Then I remembered the dusty pages printed out a couple months ago, from a link recommended by someone on Craftster. I dug through my binder and there they were. After carefully reading through, I gave it a whirl. Could it really be THAT easy after all my failed attempts? It sure was. I successfully hemmed both legs in an attractive, unobtrusive manner. EEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!

And now, for those of you too proud to admit you are as clueless about blind stitch hemming as I was, here’s my secret weapon.;-)

We got back last Tuesday, and boy were we tired. We were all up from 11:30 EST to about 6:00 PM the next day. Then we passed out. Our 3 year old did brilliantly on the flight back, which was appreciated. He usually drives us mad.

My MIL took me to the only fabric store in Frankfurt an der Oder (where we were), and the woman was SO pushy, and things were so expensive. Later that day I stopped in the LYS up the street from their apartment, and the woman was a pleasure, and didn’t even cringe when I forgot to use the formal German speech with her (which hubby quickly corrected). The yarns were beautiful, and so inexpensive in comparison to some of the ‘fine’ yarns here in the states. I got this lovely, soft chunky cotton for a sweater pattern I found in a German knitting magazine I picked up over there, and several skeins of this wild black and grey animal print fabric yarn that was marked down. I have no idea what I’ll make with it, but it was too cool to pass up. I also picked up my first set of Addis (much cheaper than I would have paid here). It was like going to an amusement park for me.

Anyway, we’re back now, and as promised, I will soon be posting my first knit pattern - the Kimono Shrug.