Wednesday, April 25, 2012

3KCBWDay3 Knitting Hero


This entry is part of Knitting and Crochet Blog Week.


My Knitting Heroes are the people who made knitting "click" for me.

  1. My mom tried to teach me to knit at least three different times. In 2006, she was going into surgery and I thought knitting might be a good way to keep our minds off of it. She had recently met with me to do Attempt #3, and I still wasn't sure I knew what I was doing.  By the time she went under anesthesia, I understood enough to keep working on a washcloth until she was out of recovery. That first washcloth is so riddled with errors that Mom finally looked at me kindly and said, "Let's just bind off and start another." I still use that washcloth. It is fantastically ugly. There's a couple from Mom's church that still expresses amazement when Mom shows them something I knitted. They were in that waiting room with me, and they saw... well, let's just say they're surprised I'm still knitting. 
  2. I live about an hour from my mom, so I can't run to her whenever I have a problem. During the early months of learning, I relied a lot on Debbie Stoller's Stitch 'n' Bitch. I understood her writing style. I am hoping to use her Happy Hooker book to learn crochet. Stitch 'n' Bitch is still the book I recommend when people want to learn how to knit.
  3. My third knitting hero is Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. I learned to knit socks from her book Knitting Rules!; the made them make sense so I can do them without a pattern. I believe it's because of her writing that I don't feel weird about loving to knit so much. She makes me feel less alone.
What about you?

3 comments:

  1. I learned to knit through Stitch 'n Bitch and I love Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts off is one of my favorite of her books.

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  2. I love the Happy Hooker book and learned quite a bit from it! (Wow, if taken out of context, that sentence really has "issues".)
    I taught myself to crochet from the book. And I have Knitting Rules sitting on the night stand--you've given me the push I needed to get in there and finally tackle her "sock" lesson. Oh to be a sock knitter! You've inspired me! Thanks for sharing Bonnie!

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  3. I don't do socks, but Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is definitely someone I read all the time. She definitely has a hero's approach, no?

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