coming up to speed

Dear Reader,

     Thanks for visiting my blog! Here is my story (apparently the long version) of how I became the knitter I am today. As always, I welcome your comments and feedback.

     About 7 years ago, my best friend Becca got back from a trip to New York City. She said she had seen a girl knitting on the train, and decided that we needed to learn to knit! Since I was already into cross stitching, latch hooking, needlepoint and crocheting, I was all about it. So we got some books (Stitch and Bitch Nation - yeah!) and began the journey into the wide world of knitting.

     The first project I ever made was a scarf, black, on size 15 needles out of fun fur. It's very long and skinny, has tons of mistakes (but you can't see them) and I still wear it!  Another one of my early projects were multi-colored striped socks, made out of acrylic yarn (Red Heart). These two projects illustrate not only how little I knew about knitting at the time, but also display how far I've come with the craft.

     Becca and I taught ourselves and each other to knit, and then we started teaching our friends. I first learned that I was a continental knitter one day when Becca (an English style knitter) was showing our friend how to knit, and I was showing her how to knit, and the friend became really confused. Becca asked me why I was doing it backwards! I was like, I don't know! This is just how I do it. My guess is that it came from the way I hold the yarn when I crochet (which my mom taught me to do when I was very young).

     I discovered my LYS (local yarn shop) when on the search for a size of knitting needles that I was not able to find at Hobby Lobby or Michaels. But I found more than just needles there, I found out about the whole world of Real Wool!  I walked around the shop just touching everything. Wow!! Not only was that great but it was a lot closer to my house and seemed so much more personable of an environment for pursuing my new hobby, not to mention a great place to get help when I got stuck.  And then there was the 'Knit Knites'! Bunches of knitters (and crocheters) getting together at the shop to chat, eat, and of course knit!

     I found myself going back to the LYS for all the fun accessories and lots and lots of yarn. After winning a prize in a March Mad Hatter's contest, I found myself being offered to teach a class! Now I've been teaching knitting classes for about 4 years. It's funny because I struggled so much with my first project, not knowing that you shouldn't start with black yarn (it's hard to see) and you should probably choose something simpler to knit with (i.e. not fun fur). I've also learned that using acrylic yarn (unless it is the uber-soft variety) is kind of a faux pas - at least it isn't kind to the fingers if you knit with it a lot, and you won't find much of it in your LYS.

     I haven't always been a knit-a-holic. In the first few years there would even be whole months where I didn't knit anything. But the last 4 or 5 years it has turned into a real obsession. I have over 130 projects posted on Ravelry and find myself keeping several going at a time. My yarn stash has grown and taken over half the closet in my home office (still somewhat small by some standards), but I've earned quite the reputation for myself amongst my friends, family and coworkers, who are more surprised to see me without yarn and needles in hand than with. I do still find a little time to work on some cross stitching projects, but the knitting is definitely my obsession. I knit on trains, planes, buses, in waiting rooms, standing in lines (post office, grocery stores), in the dentists chair - I even bought my purse specifically because it was small, but could also fit my knitting.

     After tons and tons of suggestions by friends and impressed strangers to sell things I knit, I set up an Etsy store (wildvinedesigns.etsy.com). It seems like a bit of a saturated market tho, so my shop may remain a bit empty for the time being. However I do have plans to populate it again, most especially coming up with items that do not end up selling at this year's Colorado Renaissance Festival (Raven's End booth).

     I also have gotten into designing my own patterns, and plan to write some knitting pattern books.  I will probably also try to sell some of the patterns (as well as offer more free ones) on Ravelry.  Additionally I want to write some books on knitting instruction, to share the many tips and tricks I've accumulated at many a knit night. So stay posted to this blog for all of that. Or just follow me on Twitter: wildvinedesigns. :)  Thank you kind reader.

Sincerely,
Genevieve