Rissie Zeenberg, my maternal grandmother, taught me to knit one fine rainy afternoon. I’m going to guess it was the fall of 2002, although I’m not a hundred percent sure. She gave me some pink plastic needles and some Day-Glo Orange Red Heart and set me on my way. My grandmother is definitely more of a seamstress than a knitter, although she’s knit lots of great stuff, and she’s always amazed at what I can do with two needles, some yarn and one very quick lesson. I guess it was the right place at the right time because I’m not the only grandchild to ask her to teach them how to knit, but I’m definitely the only one that’s really stuck with it (read: become obsessed.) What she says, though, is that I remind her of my other grandmother, my paternal grandmother, Harriet Davis. My nana stopped knitting after suffering an aneurysm and a massive stroke when I was nine. She was the real knitter in the family, as my grandmom likes to say, churning out Arans of every size for the whole family. I remember those sweaters very well – but I have no idea what happened to them. The really sad part is that I have no memory of my nana knitting. As I said, she had the stroke when I was nine, and while she recovered enough to live on her own for another ten years, she was never the same afterward. She had to relearn to walk and talk and her left side was always very weak. Sometimes, though, when I knit night after night, I like to think that I’m like her, this grandmother I barely knew – I’ve got her knitting gene. And that makes me so very happy.
Rosie’s Yarn Cellar, one of my favorite Philly knitting shops, has decided on a new book policy for the store (via Go Knit In Your Hat.) They’ve decided that they’ve had it with books insulting their grandmothers. You know the ones – they claim a million hip trendy knits – the “not your grandmother’s knitting” knits. On the store’s blog, they talk about beginning knitting books that dumb everything down, with lots of big needles and lots of scarves. And how, at their store, they challenge their beginning knitters with fair isle and dpns. I’ve knit exactly ONE scarf in my life, and I hated just about every minute of it. I’ve knit three hats – okay four – if you count the fun fur extravaganza. I don’t wear hats and I don’t wear scarves and I pretty much knit for myself so that’s that. My first real project, after a million and half swatches, was a 5’x6′ four color slip stitch blanket that I knit with acrylic. It was also my foray into circular needles (for knitting flat.) We use it all the time. The only lesson I had had was my grandmother teaching me to knit and purl. That’s it. Whenever people email me with questions – they can’t do this, it’s too hard – what’s too hard? Everything is either knitting or purling with some variety thrown in! That’s it! And the best part about knitting is if you try it and it doesn’t work, you can rip and try again. And again and again and again. Eventually you’ll figure it out.
Anyway, back to the books and grandmothers. For the most part I agree with Rosie’s policy. Part of the problem is that I don’t think there’s enough variety out there in knitting books. It all sort of seems the same to me. That’s what I thought was so fantastic about Mason Dixon Knitting – if you were something of a beginner – there were plenty of projects to knit and feel comfortable with. If you were a more advanced knitter, it was the perfect jumping off point for boundless creativity. (Visions of log cabins are ALWAYS dancing in my head….) And the best part of the book was WHATEVER your skill level, it NEVER SPOKE DOWN to you! Never assumed you couldn’t knit anything you put your mind to. Maybe that’s the problem with all these “not your grandmother’s knitting” books. It’s not that their’ knitting scarves on big needles, it’s that they’re actually assuming that my grandmother’s knitting was too complicated and intricate and time-consuming for my whirlwind fantastic super fast super terrific life. Why would I want to slow things down, with small(er) needles and charts and new skills? We are, after all, an instant gratification society. I also think that books like these – Knit it fast! Knit it fun! – and their publishers buy into the whole “knitting as trend” philosophy rather than the knitting as art or knitting as craft (or knitting is FOREVER) attitude. Popular or not popular, I have no plans to stop knitting anytime soon. Just some thoughts. Talk amongst yourselves.
Speaking of knitting, things are finally going well with my Central Park Hoodie. I’m a couple rows away from my fourth cable turn and all is well. I’m loving the yarn. The pattern is easy. I’m doing the back and fronts all in one piece up the armholes, and once I figured out how to read a chart, it was smooth sailing. I basically have taken out one stitch at each back end and one stitch at each front end (where the fronts meet the back) so that the ribbing all matched out. These are the stitches that would’ve been used for seaming – and since I won’t have any seams in the body – I won’t need them. I’m planning on doing the sleeves at the same time as well.
The yarn, as you know, is Beaverslide‘s 90% Merino/10% Kid Mohair in the Huckleberry Heather color. I’m really enjoying knitting with it – even with the 10% Mohair. I don’t notice it all and the yarn is soft enough and it’s about as hairy as the Cascade 220 Heather I used for Ariann. So no problems. I will mention that every now and again I come across a knot in one of the plys of this two-ply yarn. It’s not that big of a deal – I just snip the knot out and spit splice it all back together. No biggie. It might bother some people though, so I thought I should mention. Other than that, I’m enjoying the yarn so much I bought enough for two more sweaters! Excellent value too. Each skein holds at least 200 yds.
I’m having fun with the cables – it seems like a long time since I’ve done cables. And, yes, I use a cable needle. I LIKE my cable needle. I can see if you were doing a really complicated piece where you had to cable every five seconds you might want to master cabling without the needle, and maybe I will someday coughAmKamincough, but for now I like my needle. I also came up with a handy dandy method of keeping track of my rows. I don’t like all those row counter thingamabobs and I like my stitch markers very plain, so every row that I turn the cable I loop a long piece of thread through the first stitch and that’s how I keep count. Want to see?
I like it nice and long because that way it doe
sn’t fall out. Not brain science in the least, but it works for me and since you all seem to like the tips and things…. Thanks for all the nice comments about my brief tutorial yesterday. You’re very kind, but don’t expect to see that kind of stuff around here very often. I’ll leave the lessons to the experts. I’m just fuddling along like everyone else!
One last thing – I’m THRILLED to tell you all that G-ROCKS and January One are now for sale over at Blue Moon. Their website’s working just fine and you can all go buy buy buy! THANK YOU!
Nice! I really love the color on the hoodie. The cables aren’t bad either!
I agree with Rosie’s that there’s way too many crappy knitting books hitting the shelves these days, but why did they have to say that knitting is easy and everyone can do it? That’s just as insulting as the books! I’m so sick of the attitude that “knitting is easy” — we knitters put ourselves down when we diminish the skill and dedication it takes do do what we do, and to do it well.
Anne and I had that very conversation at dinner last night. We were bemoaning the fact that so many publishers ‘dumb down’ knitting. It’s true you can knit anything…you only need the desire to learn. I’m so in love with the color of your CPH!!
Amen.
My mom taught me how to knit. One lesson that I remember, we went to kmart for some yarn – love the 80s – I picked out a pattern. She showed me how to keep track of where I was with little hatch marks in the margin and I went back to school and knit a sweater.
16 years later I bought some novelty yarn on a whim, looked in Maggie Righetti to remember how to cast on and the rest is on the blog. I’m not the most accomplished knitter – mostly because I jump around and rarely finish things. And I have knit scarves and hats, I like ’em.
I’ve had plenty of help, of course, but nothing is too hard to figure out with a little effort.
CLICK! Why didn’t I think of this? It makes such sense and now I see why my daughter picks up knitting and and puts it down again but doesn’t stick with it. She says she likes it but… I wouldn’t stay with it either if all I did was that same scarf on size humongous Addis. Next time I see her, I think we’ll visit the LYS (or my stash) and find “real” knitting that she’d like and have fun doing, something she can wrap her brain around. Thank you for this brain prod.
it’s gorgeous! I really need to purchase some color cards… that yarn looks beautiful. i hear you on the “grandma’s knitting” – I always took it to be that some patterns were old fashioned rather than complicated… bring on the complications! (heck, if my life has them why not my knitting 😉
oh and, you sure you won’t say bye bye to your cable needle? really? it’s soooooooo easy. (i feel like a Pusher)
I think I actually gave myself Keyboard Burn, so fast did I run over to Blue Moon to get a hank of G-ROCKS and a hank of January One to call my own. Thank you for sounding the call! 🙂
I thought Lisa’s post was terrific and thought-provoking — and I totally agree with you about Mason-Dixon Knitting. I gave a copy to my mom for her birthday. When she first opened it, the look in her eyes was about 75% “New knitting book! Cool!” and “A hardcover book full of things that will probably be too complicated to knit.” Fortunately, she’s a smart and open-minded woman, and she’s *this* close to starting a log cabin of her own.
As far as that whole “Not your grandma’s knitting!” idiom goes, I tend to rant about this attitude a lot when it comes to cooking or baking. Like knitting, cookery requires a certain level of engagement, skill and enthusiasm; the more you work at it, the more skilled you become, but you need not be a genius to do it, nor do you only get good at it by starting when you’re five years old. While there are plenty of easy and fast dishes to cook, not all cookery is fast, nor should it be. Moreover, cookery does not need to be sold to us by hip sexy young things to be relevant. Now, I love Jamie Oliver just fine, but not because he’s cute, or hip, or he lives in a fabulous apartment with his fabulous wife and babies, or he zips around London on a scooter — nope, I like him because he knows his stuff, and he believes that anyone who wants to learn said stuff can learn it and turn out really good meals on their own. I love Maryann Esposito (who is certainly not hip or trendy, but is bucketloads of fun to watch) for the exact same reason. The day I really lost my cookies, though, was when I saw some Hot Boy Chef on Food Network demo an apple pie recipe. The pie itself was great — butter crust, three different kinds of apples, slivers of candied ginger, and a little slug of bourbon — and I was all set to make it until he announced, “Trust me, folks, this ain’t your momma’s apple pie.” That sealed the deal for me; any pie that fancies itself as Too Fabulous for the Room and/or Too Hot for Mom to Handle can, frankly, bite me.
Erm…I seem to have veered from the point a bit. Sorry. 🙂
Okay, leave it to me to hit “send” before a) mentioning that any fears that my mom had about MDK being too tough for her evaporated the second that she started to read it, and she wants to make pretty much every project in the book, and b)telling you how impressed I am with the cables on your hoodie. You really give fuddling along a good name. 🙂
Your CPH is looking gorgeous. I love the color and how smooth the cables look. I am actually finishing a CPH right now–it is my little sister’s Christmas gift (a little late) and I wish it was for me. I am such a little selfish knitter.
And for the record, my knitting is not slowing down anytime soon either. Trend or no trend, I love it. It is my thing. I am glad to know I am not alone.
We must have picked up on the same brainwave, because I was just thinking the same thing about the new books, and was starting a mental list on “why most of the new books on knitting suck.” Maybe I’ll write a companion post to your piece. And by the way, I love my cable needle too. It’s hand forged bronze – what’s not to love? I have no desire to be “freed” from my cable needle!
The middle, double-cable reminds of something I saw at a Cirque du Soleil show in Amsterdam once. Three performers were doing their contortionist thing together: a man in blue, a woman in yellow, and a child in white. The way they circled themselves together (the woman holding the child and the man holding the woman) looked very similar to that double-cable part, or whatever the fancy term may be. They looked like one entity, even though you knew there were three people. It was beautiful, and so is your hoodie!
Very interesting post. I agree-I see so many books that are not original, and that dumb things down. Especially for teen/younger knitters-obviously not children, but I was 15 when I learned to knit, and there were no projects or books geared to me that weren’t just hats, scarves, and ipod cozies. And I love to wear scarves, but now when I make scarves I use them to explore different techniques-my first cabling, lace patterns, and new yarns to make sure I’m comfortable knitting with it before going into a garment. I work occasionally at the LYS, and I see so many people who only knit scarves, who are good knitters, but who are too afraid to go anywhere past that. I enjoy knitting so much because I get to do new things. And, yea, making mistakes and ripping back sucks, but it’s something you deal with. And I am the least crafty and focused person I know, and I do stupid things all the time. And yet I still manage to make socks and sleeves. Anything is possible (to end on a positive note)
What a great post Cara, thanks! If I didn’t wear scarves there is NO WAY I would knit them. Turns out I wear them constantly- store bought, hand knit- it doesn’t matter. I do find them to be great when things are a bit overwhelming and I just need to be knitting- not thinking. Simple socks are creeping into this category for me too. Both are great when I am not prepared to hunker down (like now). And about the “not your grandma’s knitting” AMEN! My Nana did knitting that would make some of those authors wet themselves. Entire suits- long skirts and fitted jackets on size one needles in cashmere. I double dog dare them to knit like my Nana.
Amen
Love the color for your hoodie! I have yarn in a similar color for the hoodie! Great idea for counting your rows! I may have to try it out!
PS I ordered a skein of the January One from STR yesterday!!
One of my students is working Central Park and we made sure to decrease in each cable along the top before binding off or 3 needle bind off. I also taught her to graft her hood together and it looks gorgeous! Yours is looking gorgeous. Must. Resist. The. Temptation.
My grandmother taught me how to knit when I was very young and she passed away while I was just really getting back into it again. I often think of how I would love to share what I was knitting with her and talk about it and how proud she would be of me and it makes me miss her a lot when I knit. I wish I could have learned more from her.
You helped me figure out why I never buy knitting book. They are always so simple and condescending. Just a bunch of accessories or simple sweaters,if that. How will beginners ever advance if you don’t provide the instructions to encourage them to do so. I get tired of the grandma knitting comments too because I’m quite sure grandmas started knitting well before they were grandmas.
Thanks! My aunt, who lived far away, taught me while visiting. I was 9ish. I jumped right in no fear with a crew sweater and got stuck several times when she left. My mom (nonknitter), who forked over for the yarn, severely berated me for not being able to “finish”. I didn’t knit ’til 3 years ago. Since then I knit any chance I get (felted purses, socks, small stuff) but am still afraid to do a sweater. (Thanks Mom) I’m gonna do this CPH tho. Berroco Ultra Alpaca. Thanks for the kick in the ass. I can do it. B.
agreed, agreed and agreed-I taught myself last year. Well, Dec 04 and never dreamed I’d be doing what I do now. You said the one thing I read and remembered: it’s all knit and purl. Bet your grandmother would be immensely proud of you!
How timely for me to hear all these comments, as I’m wrapping up my book work over the next 5 weeks! I have so many opinions on this subject, of course (hee hee) but I will just say I think there’s a great difference between being simple and being condescending. Some of the most fun patterns I’ve ever knit (log cabins, the pinwheel blanket, a diagonal dishcloth) are dead simple. But they have an elegance that makes them wonderful, and no one presented them to me in a way that made me feel stupid or small.
And my grandma’s knitting? Was simple in that same elegant way, that way that is not complicated because it doesn’t need to be. And guess what? Nearly all of my knitting IS my grandmother’s knitting. Duh.
The books…they are porn of a sort. That’s why everything keeps getting repeated so much. At least MDK had a story, which made it new and fun. It went beyond the hot plumber coming to fix the sink, y’know?
Oh I’m sorry, I can’t stop!
I have always maintained that a great beginning project is a sock. People are so daunted by the idea, but really it teaches you practically everything you will need to know to knit happily for decades. And I think beginners can totally do socks.
My nana was a constant knitter but she never taught me how. I like to think that somehow she knows that I’m a knitter, too.
Wow, was that a post! I mean that in the best way, it was great and thought provoking. Anyway, the funny thing about those books to me is that neither of my grandmothers were at all domestic. My mom was the crafty one, not my grandmother. Of course, neither of my grandmothers really cooked much, and the one that is still alive is in her late 70’s or early 80’s and still works 6 days a week (she’s certainly not the typical picture of a grandmother). So, the assumption that grandmothers knit just makes me laugh. On a completely different note, I must make that sweater…your Central Park looks amazing. And, I also like my cable needle. I understand how not to use it, but, for now, I like it better.
I agree that the books are so into the fast and quick knitting and that if you are a beginner you can do nothing but scarves. My LYS has always said that if you can knit or purl than you can do anything. Sadly I have ran into a few stores that think the opposite. When I first started I was told from a store (not my LYS) that it was too hard for me I should stick to the garder stitch scarves for a while. Needless to say I don’t patronize that store any longer.
Love the Central Park Hoodie. It is coming along nicely and the color is so pretty. I have tried cabling without a cable needle, but I just don’t like having to squeeze the stitches so tight in fear that I might loose them. I stick with a cable needle as well. Not that I have done that much cabling anyway. LOL
You’ve made me think about how I started knitting and the projects that I began with. No scarves, no little pillows, but Fair Isle and Arans – big projects that took months of my high school years. In my 20’s I knit a huge, wooly Lopi Icelandic sweater..it was 1985 and I wore that sweater yesterday. I was simply taught how to knit and purl and was left to my own devices.
My 13 year old did start with a scarf, and her second project was a pair of socks on dpns. I’m trying not to force my design ideas on her! She’s not been intrigued by the books she’s seen so far.
But there’s lots to think about. Everyone hates to be talked down to. And Rissie…that’s my daughter’s name – how unusual! And nice!
Nicely put! I have occasionally wondered what it is about “not your grandmother’s…” knitting books that bothers me. I think you’ve hit on it here–my lifestyle just isn’t that super frenzied, and I’m still going to be knitting 6 months from now, and I really don’t want to *wear* a thick quick scarf, so why not put in the time?
(The sweater looks *great* so far!!)
I always say, ‘It IS your grandmother’s knitting!’ I mean, it IS! It’s not like today’s super fantastic super fast super trendy knitters are knitting with their feet or something.
Thanks for the sweet props doll. xoxo Kay
I find this with any of the crafts I pick up- after about 2 projects, I find myself abandoning modern books and turning to the specialist secondhand dealers. The 1950s/30s/00s books might be funny looking, but they know their stuff, and they assume you have a brain to work it out. How refreshing!
Knitting as Trend vs. Knitting as Forever — you described that perfectly. I’m with you — defnitely in the Knitting as Forever camp!
I’m with you! When I first thought about knitting, I dreamed of doing cables and fair isle, not some boxy hat in bulky yarn! Yuck! My first “real” project was an rather difficult intarsia one, where deciding when to start new yarn, when to carry yarn behind and weaving in ends was much harder than the knitting part. The knitting wasn’t perfect, carrying the yarn behind made it bunch up in some spots, but I felt like I had accomplished something! Then I made it my ultimate knitting goal to recreate and write the pattern for a very intricate Aran pattern. Knitting to me isn’t about quick and easy, if you want that, just buy it! It’s about the process, the pattern selection, the yarn selection, (sometimes) swatching. I’m glad to see that there are people who are standing up for this art, instead of just allowing it to become a trend.
Spit Splice! Whoa! Just bookmarked that page because I WILL be using it! I hate the knots in a skein! My dad loves to see me knit, reminds him of his mom and her sisters (the last of them died last year…they all lived to about or over 100!), which sadly for me I am not genetically related to. They used to go to “Frenchy’s” (a Goodwill type store found only in Nova Scotia and I’ve heard from a NB native is the butt of some jokes by those in New Brunswick), purchase cheap sweaters, and rip them out to make socks. What a lot of work! But, then, consider they were born circa 1900, there were 13 kids that survived infancy, and they lived in what we would consider poverty (and on blueberries and lobsters).
Great post! And amen. I learned how to knit from my aunt when I was about ten. My first project was a lace afghan because no one told me I couldn’t do it, that it was too hard.
When I took knitting back up a couple of years ago, my first project was a simple, knit and purl wrap. My second – socks! I’ve made a few scarves, but none were plain, and my true loves are socks and shawls. I have many knitting friends who just won’t believe me when I tell them that they can do it too, so they persist in knitting fun fur scarves month after month never getting anywhere with their skills because they’re afraid to try. *Sigh*
My grandfather taught me how to knit on Red Heart acrylic, it didn’t stick because I was 6 or 7 and knitting a scarf out of acrylic in Florida wasn’t all that fun… 20 year later when I saw a Nancy Bush book, I knew I had to relearn… it’s all about the vision… I can’t envision myself wearing a chunky scarf made on size 35 needles…in Florida or elsewhere…
I love the way your CPH is turning out. It’s good to know about the Beaverslide yarn too, thanks for cluing us in!
Very good and thoughtful post. I find that I’m like you – I like to knit things that have some work to them. I’m a new knitter, but I’ve found that the beginner things I found to knit get boring and I start dreaming about the next project. (Luckily, my stash is too small for me to put down the needles and start something new!) I can’t wait to try color stranding and cables and lace and … well, you get it.
BUT, I do think that for some people, the easy-peasy scarves are good. I got back into knitting by having one of my friends, who knits scarves like there’s no tomorrow, take me to JoAnns to buy needles and yarn. Sure, I’m bored out of my mind with a Lion Homespun yarn garter stitch scarf on size 15 needles, but she can’t get enough. To each their own, I say. 🙂
BTW, your posts about Socks that Rock are enticing me to go buy… I’m sure I’ll be singing their praises soon enough!
My maternal grandmother taught me to knit. I also named my daughter after her. When I sit down to knit in silence or anytime really, I feel a kinship with her. I know she is still here with me. I like that feeling. Thank you for letting think about that today.
Lurker coming out!
About ‘not your grandma’s ___’ (fill in the blank), I totally agree. Here’s a slightly different spin. Remember, many of those ‘not your’ books are geared to appeal to the younger (not to be confused with new) knitter. Could it be that marketing department focus group research has determined it’s VERY IMPORTANT to reassure the target-market knitter that knitting will in NO way identify her with any other quaint customs of ‘the olden days’. Hmm…let’s see now, what other quaint customs of the olden days might be considered waaay more ‘old-fashioned’ than knitting?
It is just knit and purl. Fear not. What’s the worst that can happen? You’ll mess up and have to do some frogging. And this is scary…how?
Well said!
My grandmother taught me to knit when I was 10 with a simple slipper pattern that involved ribbing – so I learned both the knit & purl stitch in the first 5 minutes of my knitting career. I get really irritated with knitting books/teachers that act like the purl stitch is SO much harder to learn that it should only be attempted once the student has ‘mastered’ the knit stitch (by knitting umpteen garter-stitch scarves, one assumes.)
My favorite thing about knitting is that there is always something more to learn – a new (or old) technique to try, a new (or old) construction method, etc, etc. I love the old knitting books for their richness, and their assumption that you’re willing to put in the time & work to make something worth making. No 5-minute scarves or 3-hr sweaters…
Love the cables & the color of your hoodie! Now I’m tempted… like I need another project.
I use bits of yarn as markers, too, though once while I was knitting, my husband pulled out my marker for me, thinking I had gotten a scrap of yarn tangled in my work. Thanks, honey…
I love the split splice! I had no idea there was a way to deal with knots… Yay! I love learning new things.
And like you, I don’t disrespect the grandmothers. They had amazing skills.
oh cara… i loved this post! i feel the same disgust towards the “not your grandmother’s knitting” books… i love my grandmothers and i am inspired by them in every art + craft project that i undertake. they are the reason that i craft. the idea that i would not want to knit like them, talented and wonderful and delightful and gorgeous, just pisses me off to no end. and i don’t *want* giant sweaters that make me look like a whale– even if i can knit one in a weekend, which i don’t want to do. i really feel irritated about this as a feminist issue too… rejecting domestic/craft work as “grandmotherly” but coopting the 3rd wave feminist language at the same time. grrr. so, thanks for writing this and pardon this mini-rant 🙂
warmly
amisha
i enjoyed your post (and your blog- as i read it daily). maybe it’s just me, and the fact that i’ve never really picked up a ton of knitting books, but i always took the “not your gramma’s knitting” thing to just mean that probably what your gramma knit was fugly, not that it was too hard. of course this was probably not gramma’s fault, as the yarn and pattern selection was limited (same problem with other needle arts like needlepoint and such) and the tastes were different. i also learned everything about knitting (past knit-n-purl stitches which were taught to me by my coworker) on my own by reading blogs and magazines and, on occasion, books. 🙂 it’s really given me a lot of confidence in my crafting and i am currently at work on my first sweater (sunrise circle- why start with something plain?). it’s pretty much the only thing that i have been devoted to in my life and i am really enjoying it. anyway- i love reading your blog. i hope you have a most wonderful day!
I agree, I’m always rolling my eyes when I visit the LYS with my current projects and someone who claims to be a knitter is so amazed that I can make a sock, sweater, colored thing. The whole big needle, fun fur scarf thing delt the knitting world a wounding blow. Glad it brought us some new knitters, glad the trend is fading fast.
I have been knitting for 52 years. No one–not one person has asked me to teach the technique. (I have sons and dozens–hundreds–of girls walked through this house seeing me knit and never did one ask to be taught. . . until yesterday. I am thrilled and will begin on Sunday with lesson #1. We are meeting at the yarn shop so she can see the beautiful fibers. Your post has given me some inspiration. Thanks. BTW I knitted the English method for 50 years and recently changed to Continental style. How do you knit?
i hate that whole “not your grandma’s knitting” stuff. it’s possibly one of my biggest pet peeves ever when it comes to articles or books about knitting.
and cabling without a cable needle? it’s not necessary for every project. i still use my cable needle when the stitch gauge is rather tight. everything has a purpose!
Yes, I agree – it takes a lot of effort for me to tune out all the ‘beginner’ and ‘trendy’ and dumbed-down books when I go to the bookstore. From what this yarn store says, I ought to just go to the knitting shop for book browsing. And thanks for the grandma props. Although I am not necessarily interested in wearing the same thing as my grandmother, I have mad respect for her as a knitter and seamstress, and I have learned from observing her FOs.
Rissie Zeenberg is an amazing name. I resemble my paternal grandmother more though too, and her name was Mary Helen Davis.
I think I got my grandmother’s knitting gene too, and I’m very thankful she took the time to show me how. Even before “combined knitting” had a name, that is what she and I were doing.
But now that I’m old enough to be a grandma (even though I’m not), and I’ve been knitting for more than 40 years, I find the “not your grandma’s knitting” titles a bit insulting. I attribute it to another instance of Baby Boomers trying to be “cool” (which, of course, is impossible). I’ve not really looked closely at the books, but I do look at the magazines that show garment shapes (mostly fitted waists) quite different from the kinds of patterns that were available in the past. And I really like them!
My grandmother never implied that anything was too hard or beyond me, and my first project was a sweater. I do like scarf knitting though, as I describe in a recent blog entry, as a way to try out new yarns and have something more than a gauge swatch to show for my efforts. Perhaps it is old age (!), but I do like a warm scarf around my neck.
I agree with you wholeheartedly.
I taught myself to knit and have since taught others. I recently started one person out on socks. No teaching by scarf knitting for me!
My friends taught me to knit a couple years ago (i’ve been doing needlework for decades.. why have I never knit?). Until this year, the ONLY thing I’ve knit is socks. Socks were the reason I wanted to learn to knit. Everyone said they are hard. But I say they are just knitting and purling.
At the moment I am knitting my first scarf for the Dulaan project. It’s so boring, I’m certainly moving on to hats or mittens from here.
Love the ideas in this post. Less “fad” more “forever” in publishing.
I learned to knit in February/March of 2005 at http://www.fiberartshop.com/knclbg.htm – I never really knew either of my grandmothers and my mother was a crochet-er. I wish I had had a nana to teach me!! I am grateful for the 4 short video lessons at that website – cast-on/knit/purl/cast-off – I went out and bought the recommended circular needle, some inexpensive yarn at WallyWorld and knitted and purled for days. Initially I didn’t understand the concept of the purl being the “back” of the knit so I’d pick up my work to start again and because the needles were circular I’d start with the wrong stitch – confusing – added stitches – more confusion – until I had my ah-HAH moment (maybe a week into the process.) I was inspired by your Jaywalker KAL to do my first pair of socks and honestly now I feel like I could do most anything and I am venturing out slowly but surely. My husband’s niece has been knitting a little over a year and she always reminds me that she has never met “Aunt Purl” to which I reply – come on over and I’ll introduce ya’ – she’s really an easy goin’ gal!! For some reason she’s gotten it into her head that purling is WAY harder than knitting BUT one of these days she’ll get it. Thanks for the spit-splice info AND all the inspiration you provide. Your sweaters are beautiful! And duh – I really thought you’d been knitting for YEARS and YEARS – like since you were 4 or something!!
The sweater looks fabulous. I agree with you that books (well technically the authors of books) shouldn’t assume that all new knitters want to knit scarves. That’s what I love about the blog world – there are knitters out there who will tell a new knitter to knit whatever they want. Nobody holds anybody back around here.
I rever my grandmother’s knitting. I have a half-finished afgan that she never finished before she died. I’ve got her knitting genes too :)Amen for Rosie taking a stand on this. She should send a letter to the publishers. Humph.
One of my favorite Grandma memories is her with her box of left over yarns. It fit in her closet, so she wasn’t much of a Stash Queen like her 2 grand-daughters. I wonder what she’d think of us?
I was just going to email about the G-Rocks and Jan. One colors! I can’t wait to give STR a romp on the needles.
In one respect it ISN’T our grandmothers’ knitting — in this country anyway, none of us has to do it to stay warm or put food on the table. I keep that in mind, and I think about everything those women gave us, and how we’re connected to our mothers and grandmothers and also to the knitter sitting next to us, working maybe on those big needles, and she too has a long line of mothers and grandmothers behind her, their needles too quiet to hear.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with knitting scarves on big needles, or with selling books full of patterns for them — everyone’s gotta make a living, after all, and no law says you have to buy them. I won’t buy any book that thinks I’m too dumb to knit socks AND too cool to hang out with people who do — I can handle my own social life, thank you very much — but a knitter is a knitter is a knitter, all connected, like stitches on a sock.
LOVE your hoodie! I may have to think about knitting one myself.
I’m kind of an oddball (in more ways than one). It was my grandFATHER who taught me to knit! My grandparents came from Poland in the 1920’s, and all my grandpa ever did was farm. They settled in Michigan – which after he tended the animals, there wasn’t much else for him to do in the winter. Grandma worked in the school cafeteria, so she was busy at that time of the year.
Anyway, the winter I was in fourth grade – grandpa taught me how. I started with those little garter stitch houseslippers and then went on to knit for my Barbie dolls (another obsession). I always think of his rough, worn hands gliding like silk when he knit.
Thank you for bringing up some warm, wonderful memories for me.
I taught knitting for a couple of years at an LYS, and now I work for a new online business that, as part of it’s goal, wants to help knitters build their skills. I have never had a problem telling anyone knitting is easy — it is. Knitting a particular project may be difficult — the beauty of this craft is that you can make each project exactly as challenging as you want it to be — but knitting itself, the basic act of forming stitches, is elegantly simple. All great things are, I think, built from many simple acts.
That is so smart of you to do all three pieces together. I am working on this sweater too, and I wish I had thought of that. I only did 1″ on the bottom rib. Less tedium, plus I learned my lesson the hard way (Mariah from Knitty) about that much ribbing around my hips.
Can’t wait to see how it turns out!
Your post today reminds me of when I was learning to sew. I had joined 4-H, and the first project was a horrifying gathered skirt that was easy, but not anything that any self-respecting 6th grader would EVER wear. My mother, an excellent seamstress, took one look at the pattern and marched me to the fabric store to buy a real skirt pattern for a flirty little a-line skirt. She told me that if I was going to learn to sew, it might as well be on something that I would wear when it was done. I was worried, but I think the 4-H lady knew better than to cross my mother!
This may have been said already (I haven’t read all the other comments) but of the whole “knit it fast, knit it easy” trend has a lot to do with what sells. People who want to be part of the trend run out to the knitting store, buy 80 dollar yarn and 20 dollar needles and a 30 dollar book and run back home to “knit it themselves.” I would wager they don’t give a damn about technique, or learning – they want to do it NOW NOW NOW (and making sure that someone sees them doing it.. like at Starbucks or on the subway, so we can all see how subversive and hip they are). Maybe unlike our grandmothers’ generation where the accumulation of skill was something to be admired – putting hours into a small project, working at it, learning, getting better – nowadays people just want a professional-looking product in as little time as possible, and with as little effort as possible, too. And although there is obviously a market for books and products that cater to those who want to improve their skills, anyone can see that the faster the turnaround for a project, the more yarn you’ll sell. After all, you have a set amount of time before the person gets bored (or the trend runs out), so you’d better make sure to sell as much yarn and as many books in that time as possible: it can be one lovely pair of socks or five big scarves -which will make more money? This also reminds me of the “Sez Who?” article in the most recent Winter Knitty. The commodification of any skill or artform is troubling enough, but it’s especially frustrating when it takes a hobby that you’ve put years of work into and turns it into the trendy blip of the week: “Oh! You knit, TOO?” Then again, maybe it’s just my inner grandmother speaking: “Back in my day we knit on 0mm needles with hair that we picked off the dog!” Or worse – acrylic! Oh well.
Nice work on the hoodie already, and a clever idea to knit the back and fronts together, wish I had thought of that! Your writing style is so entertaining – love it!
Too true about the knitting. Like with school, if you teach to the lowest level, everyone comes down to that level. But if you raise the bar, the class will strive to do better.
Knitting is not my fad – it’s my addiction! lol
I’ve found first hand, working part time at my LYS, the difference between knitters who say I can’t and those who say I don’t know how (yet). I also love meeting the new knitters who have taken on a very complex project because they liked it and no one told them it was “hard”. But, if someone loves knitting garter stitch scarves, I’m happy for them too.
Sometimes I make a point of learning new knitting skills just to learn them. Challenge makes mastering them more rewarding.
I hate that “not your grandmother’s knitting”! My one grandmother I can’t acutally picture knitting and the other knit, crocheted and embroidered beautifully but died in her early 50’s when I was a baby. I wish my grandmother taught me to knit. It’s so disrespectful and dismissive.
Cable needles are a good thing. I can’t bring myself to take that leap of faith the whole thing won’t unravel without them.
Your Central Park Hoodie is looking good!
I’ve found that the “not your grandma’s _____” is a trend in marketing that I absolutely hate. It’s everywhere now! I even passed a local church with “not your grandma’s church” on the billboard outside. I find that totally bizarre.
I am one of those new knitters. I didn’t come to knitting because of a trend. In fact, I had no idea it WAS a trend until after I started. I have an extremely stressful job and wanted to find something relaxing to do in the evenings. A friend mentioned she was learning to knit and I decided to try it. So I’m learning to knit at 30, when most of you learned in your teens! I had no personal instruction, so I had to learn everything from books and online sources. I’m horrible at looking at a flat picture and trying to duplicate it in real life, so the descriptions in the books were not helpful to me. I found some online videos that helped a lot and off I went! I am working on a scarf right now, trying to finish my first project, but I also just started a log cabin blanket because of this site. I’m slowly but surely learning different techniques from the same series of online videos. I saw one about making cables the other day and am itching to try that!
Anyway, I guess what I’m saying is, I don’t like the “not your grandma’s ___” either. However, I do understand why some beginner books are a little simple. There are people like me out there, who really need everything explained, and even then they don’t get it. I do think beginner books should have a section at the end with more advanced techniques. An instruction book should be easy to follow for a beginner, but should also let the beginner know that there is more out there than just scarves and hats.
It looks really awesome so far! Also, I think the whole “not your grandma’s blah blah” is so funny because a lot of the patterns are things I’m not into but my grandmother would be just on a whim.
What an interesting post! Your hoodie looks beautiful. I think many people who are sticking with knitting (such as myself) are moving beyond those early books towards others that’ll go into more detail about socks or fair isle or lace or whatever their specific interest is. “Not your grandmother’s book” is an advertising trick to lure in potential customers who need to be told that knitting is new, interesting, hip, whatnot. If they start and take to it, they’ll then move beyond the initial “hook” to a deeper engagement. I think that I knit for a combination of reasons – sometimes it’s just for relaxation and all I want is something easy. Or sometimes I just want a quick little project because others are dragging on or are uninspiring at the moment. Other times I enjoy the challenge of learning a new skill and branching out into new types of patterns. Just my 2 cents!