On knitting

One of the things that I find most interesting about knitting is that different yarns have different personalities. Some yarns have too much going on in them to be articles of clothing with long stretches of stockinette stitch. Other yarns have great definition but aren't interesting enough to be scarves.

But the best of all is when you find a pattern that fits with a yarn that you have. This happened to me on Thursday. I've had these three skeins of forest green acrylic yarn since fall of 2003. This wasn't long after I'd learned to knit, and I'd picked it back up with a few other girls in the sorority. (I totally have to credit my amazing sister-daughter, Ashley, for getting me back into knitting. I adore Ashley like I adore few people in this world!) I went to this funny little store in one of the underground tunnel stores in Toronto (I think it was near Yonge-Bloor) and bought a bulk package of this green acrylic, and some varigated pastel acrylic.

I set to work on what became my first gifted knitting project ever, which was a pathetic garter stitch scarf for college boyfriend Tim. It was, well, not pretty, but he was nice and wore it with pride until it fell apart. There was a point where I was planning on knitting him a hat and mittens, perhaps, out of the remainder of the yarn, but that never materialized. I think that's why I've felt so off about this particular yarn--almost as if knitting with it made me unfaithful to Ryan! Obviously, that's a ridiculous idea, but I think because knitting is so personal, so painstaking, that it's hard not to associate certain yarns or a certain pattern with people or times in your life.

Actually, it's impossible not to!

I look at my white acrylic bouclé and think of Annaliza, who knit a scarf out of the same yarn but then gave it to me, because she made it too long for her 5'2" frame. The variegated pastel makes me think of Chelsea, because I made her a hat and mittens out of it, but haven't spoken to her in a long time (I really must call her!) Yarns that were store-bought items of clothing that got frogged obviously have memories, because I wore them! I prefer them the way they are, but the lavender potholders and hand towel that I finished not long ago will always remind me of shopping with Grandma at American Eagle. The camel bouclé will make me think of the shawl I wore occasionally to my shifts at Barnes & Noble.

So, I've devised a pattern that really made me want to knit up the green acrylic that I've felt so weird about knitting. And that's the way it should be. I devised a pattern for a bag that's seed stitch, with a Celtic knot cable up the middle. I've only done practice items in cable work, I've never done a project, so I'm really throwing myself into the deep end on this one. But I'm loving working on it right now! That makes me feel so happy, that I have a project that really works for this particular yarn... it's almost that I've figured out the yarn's personality. It's itchy and not very nice against the skin, so it's not meant to be any type of clothing. It's very sturdy, though, so I think that it will hold up nicely as a handbag, and the cable looks really great on it so far. I feel really good about it, like it's the reason that I moved this yarn back and forth between Minnesota and Toronto several times, and throughout Minneapolis up until now.