Confessions of a Knit-aholic
[img_assist|nid=242|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=187|height=250]I read in The New York Times Sunday Style Section not long ago that knitting is cool. Cooler, the article said, than needlepointing or quilting or any of the other handcrafts. And that trendy yarn shops are opening up in Manhattan to cater to the young and the hip who follow the fashionable inclinations that constantly waft through the city.
It’s always good to have one’s existence confirmed by The Times Style Section. Since I’m a knitter, I read the article with great interest even though I didn’t need The Times or anyone else to confirm the merits of knitting. I’ve understood them for a long time. I knitted my first sweater when I was 11 years old. It was a white cabled tennis sweater with navy and maroon bands around the v-neck. It ended up being too big and I had to give it to my father who probably never wore it. But I remember two things about that sweater-two things that have kept me knitting to this day: the feel of the yarn and the needles in my fingers and something I think of as "the vision."
I don’t know exactly who taught me to knit. My mother may have gotten me started, but I never needed much encouragement. Once I experienced that feeling of needles in my hands and some beautiful, soft yarn slipping through my fingers I was hooked for life. "The vision" is equally compelling. I recall even now seeing myself in my mind’s eye walking out onto the tennis courts in that white cable knit sweater. Mind you, this had nothing to do with other people’s reaction to me in my sweater. It was just a mental picture of completion that I felt driven to achieve. I still feel that way today.
Friends say, "Oh, how can you be so disciplined. I would lose interest half way through and never finish."
But you would finish if you had this sense of a vision to complete. I need to know what it’s going to look like. Once I’ve seen it in the flesh I’m free. Until then, I’m driven.
It helps that I love the yarn and the feel of the needles. And the fact that I’m accomplishing something during otherwise "down time." This means I can sit and watch an entire winter Sunday of football on television and not feel like I’ve completely wasted a day. I’ve got a record in my hands of how much I accomplished. Back when my kids were small we would drive down to our house on the Gulf of Mexico. My husband loves to drive. I love to knit. I’d knit half a sweater on the way down to the beach in the early spring and half on the way back up after Labor Day.
Stratton writer Suzanne Washburn has done a bit of research in the Northshire area and has produced a wonderful article documenting the knitting boom here in our part of the world (page 38). I’m pleased to know that so many others are enjoying the craft that has brought me such a complex sensual mixture of joy, comfort, achievement and physical beauty. But really, it’s all about me. I now have a little granddaughter who looks great in clothes. Perfect! She provides me with a whole different kind of "vision" to work with.
In addition to Sue Washburn’s piece on knitting, we also check in with the skiing Caldwell clan who have contributed so much to the area’s cross country skiing tradition. Betsy Shaw MacKenzie talks about her early days on snow in the JISP program and Freddie Templeton tells us how to keep warm in these energy-challenged times. We also meet up with a couple of rescued Old English Sheepdogs, find out where to get a great cup of coffee and meet a Vermont artist who’s obsessed with whales. All this and much more besides.
