Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Why I love knitting (the first of many columns)

I'm over at a friend's house for dinner and we pull out our knitting afterwards. She's working on a poncho for one of her daughters and had never knit in the round so I needed to help her get going. About the third row in said daughter comes in and starts watching me knit. She's not saying much, she's seen her own mother knit and she's eight-ish years old. But, then I switched to working on Aden's blanket and all of a sudden she's fascinated by the changing color blocks, the softness of the yarn, all of it. Doesn't matter that her mother is knitting a chair away. This is exactly why I had Cindy teach Sugar Bear to knit, because me teaching her initially would not have gotten her very excited.

And this is one of the many reasons I love knitting. I love watching a kid get excited about it. I can remember when I was little and my mom taught me to cross stitch. I remember the joy of it. And I think that's why I am so addicted now! Because it brings back that joy to me every time I pick up the needles.

So what gets you going about knitting? Also, if you comment, tell me where are you from...I don't mean address, just give me a state or territory or country. I keep some track on sitemeter, but I saw someone from Ireland today and I thought wow! is someone from Ireland really reading my blog????

6 comments:

Ruby Girl said...

Hi from Australia, everything about knitting gets me excited, but you are right with the fact that watching and teaching a child to knit is the best.

J. Denae said...

Hey Eleni! I'm from the midwest... and Bean (almost 10) came with me to a Knit in Public meeting and while I had tried (and failed) a couple of times to teach her to knit (Seriously, I don't have the patience to teach a cat to nap in the sun!!) but my friend Kim handed her needles and showed her how to cast on. I was knitting tonight and she climbed up beside me with her scarf yarn and started knitting, too. It was a "good mom" day.

Holly in CT said...

It was my darling daughter who got me back to knitting from a long hiatus from childhood. 4.5 years ago she spent the afternoon with a friend and learned to knit. She came home wanting to make a baby blanket for her soon to be born cousin. She picked a pattern with bobbles and I kid you not at age 15 figured out how to knit a bobble on her own. What did I know about bobbles then? Inspired by my intrepid daughter I embarked on my own knitting journey as an outlet for artistic expression. . Plus the one-more-row syndrome keeps me from eating after dinner.

aija said...

I taught myself to knit to make bay sweaters when baby was just a baby... but now he's lucky if he gets one pair of socks to my 3 ;)

Hello from Oakland, CA!

Anonymous said...

Grandma Brown is the reason that I knit today. She taught me how to when I was just 5 and I have been doing so ever since. I love the wide array of colors and texture. They seem to feed my inner soul and keep the days bright when the thermometer reads 15 degrees.

Anonymous said...

Also from Australia - I love knitting because... well, I love anything creative really. I absolutely adore the whole concept of creating a thing out of string. Just a pile of string, and suddenly you have a bag, or a sweater, or whateveryouwantittobe. The act of knitting is the best part.