My mother said that she tried to learn to knit when she was a young mother. The baby toddled up, lost her balance, grabbed for the needles -- and that was that. The knitting came off and Mother wasn't experienced enough to pick up all those stitches. She gave up knitting in favor of crochet and never practiced knitting again.
Knowing that Mother didn't knit but that my half-sister Harriet does, I asked Harriet who taught her. Here's what she wrote:
"I taught myself. I bought a beginning book, some yarn and needles, and read what to do. I think my first item was mittens. I started knitting when I went to meetings in my sorority in college and everyone else smoked. I needed something for my hands to do so I bought some yarn and a book. I think someone in the house told me how to tie the first knot, and got me started casting on. When mother was expecting you, I went to a shop in Moscow, bought some baby yarn and a pattern and knitted a sweater for you. If I got stuck, there was always someone in the sorority who was a knitter and could help."I used to think that being self-taught was somehow a lesser method of learning than taking instruction from an expert, but I now wonder if perhaps any craft we would learn doesn't carry with it the element of self instruction. Once you know the basics, you can carry on. Maybe you can single crochet and double crochet but you don't know how to treble crochet. There's plenty of self-help info out there. You don't necessarily need an expert to show you, unless of course, you know where to find one. You really have to develop the confidence just to wade in and work through the issues.
To this day I admire knitters, but I've never taken it up. But when I was in high school, I flirted around with it some. Again, motivation is key. I wanted to make this little doll sweater for one of my diminutive baby dolls -- so I did.
[The first photo is of Harriet and me sitting on the steps at the house in Orofino -- maybe 1952. Look -- we're holding hands. I was so pleased to be able to scan this picture from my baby book because I've never seen it anywhere else. The second photo is one that L.J., Harriet's son, forwarded to me. The background looks like a campus to me -- maybe the University of Oregon where she completed her journalism degree.] KW
That's an adorable photo of you and Aunt Harriet.
ReplyDeleteBesides the obvious that you complete a project, the act of knitting/crocheting is often doctor recommended. My aunt Lorraine had terrible arthritis at a young age. She began to crochet in order to keep her hands flexible. She made afgans, caps, scarves, you name it. Everyone in the family benefitted from her handmade gifts.
ReplyDeleteMe, I knitted two things and crocheted one. A knitted afgan took me 9 months to complete, but it was perfect. I ripped out a few rows when I made mistakes, but I finished it. That was in the 70's. I preferred knitting (can't tell you why, really) but decided that I didn't want to continue with it. Maybe I should have done smaller things and then I would have kept up with it.
Kathy, your little doll dress is wonderful.
What an adorable little girl you were, Kathy. Just love that picture.
ReplyDeleteI think knitting and crocheting both teach us that we can't build on a mistake. And I am learning the benefits of thinking in terms of smaller projects.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliments on the photo. I'm so grateful that Hallie helped us download a better scanner program that enables me to crop a specific photo from a page.
The little sweater is adorable, and it wasn't easy to make! You did a beautiful job!!
ReplyDeleteAdd my smile to those who love the photo--it's a keeper for sure.
I'm a self-taught crocheter and now it's been so long since I've done any, I think I'm back to being a beginner. The last things I did were some little dresses for my l0" Mary Englebreit dolls and that must have been about twelve years ago.
And how interesting that sorority girls "back in the day" were knitters. I wouldn't have guessed that.