For over a year now, I’ve been volunteering at Turning Point, a local agency that helps women and children put their lives back together. These are women who have suffered from domestic violence and often struggle with multiple substance abuses, they have often been in jail or homeless, and many have lost custody of their children. With yarn and needles in hand we had a lesson, and then another.

Suddenly there was knitting going on all around us. But more than knitting, there was joy. These women were thrilled to be quieting their minds, and making something with their hands, tickled with the process, and delighted by the end result. There were ragged edges, dropped stitches, and uneven tension. It didn’t matter. Some were knitting with yarn too bulky for their needles, some the reverse. But they didn’t care. It wasn’t about finishing or perfection, it was about doing. We started with a baby blanket, a custom Mac & Me design. Some were done in a week, others took months. There are no fiber snobs here, if it’s laying still and isn’t already connected to something or someone else it’s fair game! At any time, with any yarn, it’s an honor to help a woman block her first knitted blanket for her child.

The process is what matters…that and the feeling of accomplishing something. What a gift, to create fabric out of a ball of yarn and two needles. How long has it been since any one of us has thought about that? We’re thinking about finding the perfect yarn, the perfect color, and obsessing about getting the right gauge, racing to chalk up another FO, or thinking about the next project.

Knitting has become a bit of a competitive sport in some circles, instead of a soothing, mindful, productive hobby. There’s too much pressure for perfection and not enough simple joy.

I say we should all pledge to make 2010 the year we find the joy in knitting, again (or maybe for the first time). The harried holiday knitting season is over, thankfully, and we can settle in and knit for ourselves. We can go slowly, we can sip tea, we can enjoy the rhythmic clicking of the needles. And we can imagine, just for a few moments, how amazing it is that we’re just knitting.

I would also ask that as you all go through your stashes and you come across a project that you know you will never knit, or find a few leftovers from projects gone by or, better yet, some ugly yarn that you can’t remember what you were thinking when you bought it, pass it on. We will devour it!

Thank you in advance and I will keep you posted on our projects.

Turning Point
The Knitting Program
5 Perry Way
Newburyport, MA 01950

Download November 2009 Corrections (266)

This scarf was born from my love of the chevron pattern, something I discovered while making the Merino baby blanket (pattern 103, the Chevron Blanket). I wanted more chevron in my life (and why not?) but I wanted it different, too, fewer straight edges , more roundness. Knit in a single color of Blue Sky Alpaca sportweight it’s a warm wrap with a more subtle, muted style…stripe it, and the style grows bolder with every row.

Of course, that’s not all there is to the Gilded Lily (pattern 104), nor does it explain the name. After designing the scarf, and knitting it, I loved it. But it needed…something more. And not just one thing, 64 things, in fact. Yes, indeed, there are 64 tassels on the striped Gilded Lily (see “obsessed” above). That’s a whole lot of tassels, but for me, it just made the design. However, even I was able to realize that this lovely scarf didn’t actually need 64 tassels, and that in fact, I was truly, er, gilding the lily.

The lily gilding is not just limited to me, though. I love it when I see knitters take my patterns and practice DIY gilding. Like the Opera Gloves pattern (#76), a lovely little luxury accessory knit in a sumptuous sock yarn. I couldn’t think of how to embellish them any further.

But during a recent gathering at Seed Stitch, a wonderful yarn store in Salem, Mass., I found that my Opera Gloves had been tweaked a bit, making them oh-so-practical if you’re using an iPod while wearing them. With small openings for the index finger and thumb, suddenly you can change your tunes, and still look stylish.

**Oh, and for those of you thinking of knitting the Gilded Lily and are a bit fearful of all those tassels, don’t be intimidated…youtube.com has wonderful how to videos, or pop in to your local yarn store for some quick advice. They’re easy and, clearly, addictive!

We are busy working on the FALL 2009 patterns but needed to take a break for something bright, colorful and quick. So we’ve taken a MAC & ME classic, #70 Firm Fingerless Gloves, and made a few changes.

Try working with a worsted weight yarn and keep the same needle sizes, we used Noro, Kureyon. Pick 2 colors and stripe, alternating every 2 or 4 rows. Be sure to just twist the yarns as you change colors. There is no need to cut the yarn and weave in the ends on every stripe.
Have fun, try just striping the lower half for a visual surprise or just the tops, and no one said each glove had to match.

Enjoy and think spring!