Why I Knit

Why do I knit?

That is a multi-faceted question.  There isn’t a way to wrap it up into a nice little package, but I’ll try and explain for my 2.5 readers.  (I’m counting you, mom.)

I started knitting trying to knit when I was a child.  I learned how to cast on and I learned garter stitch, but I had no idea  how to finish anything and I sure didn’t have a pattern that I was knitting from.  I was more successful with crochet or shall I say, I was more successful with making giant, granny square afghans, but knitting was always more comforting to me.

I think the most successful thing I knit was blocks that I made into an afghan.  I stumbled through the casting off and sewed the “thing” together.  It fell apart shortly after. 

I gave up.

I tried again shortly after I graduated college.  I made a scarf.  This was waaaay before Ravelry and I had no pattern to go by.  I don’t even know what happened to this scarf.  I think I was probably too embarrassed to wear it.  Knitting was not “cool” then.   I remember calling my mother and her walking me through the cast-off process. I quickly forgot it because I was clearly not going to EVER do that again.  What a failure!

I didn’t pick it up again until years later.  It’s funny.  The fiber-art gene runs so strongly through my genes.  My grandfather was a weaver, after all.  He had a rug that he worked on that was in the Oval Office until Jackie Kennedy redecorated, that bitch.  Way to screw up my legacy.

I was walking through one of the local craft stores in my area, The Flower and Craft Warehouse, when I saw a bag of this beautiful yarn.  It had a pattern for a shawl that had both crochet and knit instructions.  I thought that I would surely crochet and it would be a perfect Christmas gift.  I bought four bags in different colors thinking that everyone was getting handmade shawls that year. 

I came home and looked at the knit instructions and thought that I should have no problem knitting them as the knit instructions looked far easier.  Remember, I am a whiz at the granny square. 

Youtube has everything so I thought it would be a fabulous resource for knitting help.  Boy was I right. 

And thus, the love affair begins.  I started knitting and I haven’t stopped.  I never finished one of those shawls.  I started looking up patterns and started making socks, wraps, baby sweaters, hats, you name it.

So, we get back to the question at hand.  Why do I knit? 

Painters paint to stay sane, ha!  Writers write because they have no choice.  I knit because I need to create.  It is addicting to see a fabric being created by your own hands, to see loved ones marvel over a simple scarf, or to see a baby wearing a sweater and hat that you’ve made just for them, that you’ve put a little bit of yourself into. 

I knit because I’m a knitter. 

I was born a knitter.