Yes, I Am A Knitting Addict

I think my kids grew up hearing “Just a minute, I’ve got to finish this row.”

Need a sippy cup? I’ve got to finish two more stitches.

Want to rock-a-bye? I’ve got to count the stitches in this last section.

Need a diaper change? Where’s your dad?

I am a knitter. I am a very avid knitter. I can barely sit in one place for long if I don’t have a pair of knitting needles in hand. I can’t remember the last time I just sat in front of the television without my next project in my lap. I don’t know if this is because I have a lot of pent up energy, or if I have so many projects to do that any spare minute has to be spent knitting. Whatever the answer, one thing I know, knitting keeps me out of trouble.

I just love to knit. I love the way I can create something out of nothing. I love how I can solve the day’s problems when my mind wanders as I work. I love the smell of new yarn. Yes, when I go yarn shopping I have to feel the yarn, and sometimes I even smell it. I know, I am weird.

Other avid knitters will know exactly what I am talking about. There is something about the allure of a bright ball of yarn. I haven’t really met a ball of yarn I didn’t like, or at least one that I wasn’t already planning what I could make out of it. When I see yarn, I see a new baby sweater with matching ribbon or a felted hat with kicky beads. It’s a problem I am learning to live with. It’s a problem my husband is learning to pay for.

I actually learned how to knit when I was in college. I was living in Norfolk the summer of my Junior year, doing an internship at the Norfolk Daily News. My landlady loved to make afghans and attempted to introduce me to knitting. I didn’t really have time to pick up the habit back then, but it seemed like something I could enjoy doing if I had the time.

Once I graduated and got my job writing for a computer magazine, I still didn’t have time. When I got home I just wanted to veg on the couch or go out for the weekend. Then I had Mandy. Granted, I had no spare time and even less sleep, but I needed something that challenged my brain.

I joined a Mom’s group and made a really great friend, Julie. She loved to knit and had a little girl a few months older than Mandy. She reintroduced me to knitting. I couldn’t remember exactly how to do everything, so I got myself a how-to book and relearned how to cast on and knit. Then Julie and I would go to the Mill, a local coffee house, and work on our knitting and drink coffee. It was almost like we were real grown ups, drinking real coffee. We left the babies home with our husbands and talked and cackled and knit. Really we were just so glad to be out somewhere without someone clinging to us or screaming in our ears. But enough about our husbands. J

This knitting was a real sanity saver. Staying home with your kids 24-hours a day is a difficult transition from the 8-to-5 working world. At the end of the day, it seems as if you don’t accomplish a thing. Plus there is no paycheck making you feel as if you don’t actually contribute to the real world. You make a meal – and then there are the dishes. You do the dishes – and then it is time to make more food or a bottle. You can clean a room – but once you leave the room, the toddlers tear it apart again. You do the laundry – but they have already spit up all over the clothes and blankets they are wearing. It’s an endless cycle. At the end of the day nothing stays done. Nothing was ever actually accomplished. Of course I was raising two beautiful, wonderful children. In my mind, I knew that. But I’m the kind of person who has to see a physical result of my work at the end of the day to feel validated.

And knitting did that for me. Even if I only knit two rows that day, I accomplished two rows. And all the dishes and laundry and toys and crying couldn’t undo those two rows. It was the way I clung to my sanity. In the evening I would think “but at least today I knit two rows.”

The first projects I made were not fantastic and I wouldn’t have given them to anyone other than my immediate family. As my kids grew and my skills advanced, I knit the kids blankets and sweaters and hats and scarves. During my kids formative years they each heard “just wait until I finish this row” whenever they needed something or were tired. I suppose that is why my kids drag their feet whenever I ask them to do something for me now. I have come to the certain conclusion that I am never going to hear “how high” when I tell my kids to jump to it. Or, they might have learned that from their father, that and how to roll their eyes.

Along with baby sweaters for my own children, I made lots of baby gifts for my family and friends. The gifts must have been well received because eventually these family and friends would ask me to make gifts for them to give to their friends. At first I used patterns to knit things. But once I got the basic idea of how to shape things, I would just knit by my own design. Often I would make up my own designs. Sometimes I think these were even better than the stuff out of the pattern books.

And so a business was born. Now, in addition to making items to order for friends and relatives, I knit purses, baby sweaters, hats, scarves, vests, washcloths, bike bags, and other paraphernalia year round. I created my own craft business, called Knitting Novelties. I sell thousands of dollars worth of my own creations. I have a strong following and have even had numerous items at several stores around Lincoln – per their request. I’ve been in an art show at a local art gallery. And every once in a while I actually see a lady wearing a hat I made or a baby wearing one of the baby dresses I knit while I am out and about Nebraska.

I do a few craft shows outside of Nebraska. I do the Rockbrook Apple Days show in Omaha, the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs, the big Seward fall show (once I did the July 4 show), the Odell Thanksgiving show, the Columbus Scotus December show, the St. Marks Lincoln show, the Clarinda, Iowa show, and the Hillsboro, Kansas show. At several of the craft shows I now attend, the organizers actually contacted me to be in their show. People occasionally come to a certain craft show because they know I will be there; they have actually told me that. It seems inconceivable that other people would like my stuff so much. I can’t believe that other people would like – and especially pay money for – the stuff I love to create.

So now I get to do what I love and support my family by doing it. I can’t think of a better way to live life. During the fall and winter I spend all my time restocking my craft booth or making special orders. Before Christmas I am just overwhelmed. Sometimes I only have a few days or a week to do most of my Christmas shopping. But I love it.

Now I spend my time during my kids’ sporting practices knitting. Coaches and parents often ask me what I am knitting. I’m sure they are wondering how many scarves one lady could need. Or else they are really wondering how many babies I have at home. If I can’t get my knitting done during the day, I often stay up until midnight trying to finish the projects I have to get done for the week. Every once in a while my hands might get tired or my fingers might swell. Or, I might actually get sores on the end of my thumb because I had to make so many wool hats a day to fill an order. Wool just sucks all the moisture out of your skin.

But I love it. And I plan to keep on knitting as long as people keep on buying. I rarely get a chance to knit things for my family and friends anymore, although I try to make the time when it is important. If you get the chance to go to a local craft show, look me up. I have a Facebook page now for Lincoln Knitting Novelties with my craft show schedule and pictures of some of my stuff. (The pictures, however, do not do the stuff justice.) Please don’t feel like you ever, ever have to buy anything. I’m not having trouble making ends meet and I often run out of some things by the end of the season. I just love to visit with the people I know, I don’t mind letting you take a breather to sit in my chair, and I generally have change to break a twenty.

And don’t ask for knitting lessons. I refuse to give them. Mainly it’s because I knit backwards. Yep. I am a right handed person who knits left handed. I guess that’s what comes from teaching yourself out of a book. And I don’t want to mess anybody else up for life.

But I am looking for a new knitting/coffee buddy. Since Julie moved to Minnesota, the Mill just hasn’t been the same. So if you are looking for a break from your kids, like to drink coffee, and don’t mind a little cackling, look me up.  I’ll be there as soon as I finish this row.