Wednesday, February 01, 2006
It All Started with a Knitting Machine...
As a college student, I learned to crochet in order to fit in with the other counselors at the summer camp where I worked. Over the years, I crocheted some squares for Warm Up America! but never did much more than that.
When we adopted Mickey, I learned that each kitty goes to their new home with a handmade blankie. There was only one left when we took him home; just an ugly brown thing. So I decided that I could help crochet blankets; I got one done -- hopelessly slowly. The idea of speeding up the process with a knitting machine spurred me on to enter the world of eBay. I bid on and won a Bond Incredible Sweater Machine. Two "easy" scarves later, I realized that machine knitting just wasn't for me, but in the process of "mastering" the machine, I'd learned the rudiments of handknitting so that I could understand what to do when I would drop those blasted stitches! My big realization: Knitting was different than crocheting. What I'd thought was going to be a more burdensome, complex and inefficient process turned out to be somehow more graceful and quite meditative. So I traded my knitting machine for oodles of yarn, and I began my knitting adventure. That was a year ago this past October.
My very first project was this cat toy, called the Wonton. I used skewers as knitting needles. Unfortunately, it came out a bit big; I hadn't learned about gauge yet and it was too big to be much of a mobile toy; that and I didn't put enough catnip in it.
Next, I moved on to knitting a wool hat for my DH, Mike. That went pretty well. I used "normal" needles and it actually looked like a hat! Unfortunately, my hubster is gifted with an incredibly LARGE head. He claims that he loves his hats "snug" -- they stay on better, he says...bless him. And he wears it too!
So, what else was in need of a warm layer? Ah, my Palm needed cozying. So, I summoned all of my artistic and engineering talents (paltry that they were) and designed this Palm Cozy/Carrying Case for the PDA that was already in a leather case. Frankly, I needed a way to carry it with me, leaving my hands free, as I listened to audio books. I love audio books and this was before I got my iPod -- which of course now has its own cozy carrying case.
When we adopted Mickey, I learned that each kitty goes to their new home with a handmade blankie. There was only one left when we took him home; just an ugly brown thing. So I decided that I could help crochet blankets; I got one done -- hopelessly slowly. The idea of speeding up the process with a knitting machine spurred me on to enter the world of eBay. I bid on and won a Bond Incredible Sweater Machine. Two "easy" scarves later, I realized that machine knitting just wasn't for me, but in the process of "mastering" the machine, I'd learned the rudiments of handknitting so that I could understand what to do when I would drop those blasted stitches! My big realization: Knitting was different than crocheting. What I'd thought was going to be a more burdensome, complex and inefficient process turned out to be somehow more graceful and quite meditative. So I traded my knitting machine for oodles of yarn, and I began my knitting adventure. That was a year ago this past October.
My very first project was this cat toy, called the Wonton. I used skewers as knitting needles. Unfortunately, it came out a bit big; I hadn't learned about gauge yet and it was too big to be much of a mobile toy; that and I didn't put enough catnip in it.
Next, I moved on to knitting a wool hat for my DH, Mike. That went pretty well. I used "normal" needles and it actually looked like a hat! Unfortunately, my hubster is gifted with an incredibly LARGE head. He claims that he loves his hats "snug" -- they stay on better, he says...bless him. And he wears it too!
So, what else was in need of a warm layer? Ah, my Palm needed cozying. So, I summoned all of my artistic and engineering talents (paltry that they were) and designed this Palm Cozy/Carrying Case for the PDA that was already in a leather case. Frankly, I needed a way to carry it with me, leaving my hands free, as I listened to audio books. I love audio books and this was before I got my iPod -- which of course now has its own cozy carrying case.
# posted by Judy : 2:25 PM
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