Sh*t That I'm Knitting rn
I can’t stop knitting!
Our tiny home seems that much more tiny these days and we have been staying inside much more than we would normally. Typically, we spend a lot of our little free time outside or exploring our city’s underrated foodie hotspots. Victoria is know for its restaurant per capita ratio! We love taking a walk through the park to the beach and supporting our favorite mixologist through the patronage of cocktails on weekends. Nowadays, we have to be eeeextra careful due to an elevator button each way up and down several floors filled folks of all ages. Especially our favorite elderly couple we smile and wave to from afar as they carry on their sunset laps around the terrace each evening.
While coming up for air after hours of painting a several weeks back, I came across The Sh*t That I Knit Quarantine Kit and purchased it immediately. I thought it was such a brilliant idea and I loved that it supported a small business that makes major waves in this world. My kit had been stuck in limbo at The Canadian border for a month, but that’s totally okay! I just received the prettiest shade of hot pink! I plan to knit gifts for Christmas this year, so I was elated to have an extra skein. That is a cowl for mom, right there.
Foreseeing that this would be the case, I conspired with a local shop in town to do curb side pickup- in early days of it being reported in BC. I just pointed to what I was looking for and she filled up my massive SZ Blockprints tote with yummy, chunky merino wool balls of yarn and various needle sizes. I have gone back a couple times more and can fill a full bin with my provisions. They just leave a brown paper bag, perfectly stapled once you give them a call and let them know you’re outside. Very James Bond.
If you are looking for a way to keep busy, I am a major fangirl for the STIK mission and have found pure joy in their kit! Twelve out of ten recommend.
In a day and a half, I got back into the paces, joined Christina’s facebook group and fell back in love with knitting. I organized another contactless pick up with my local, family owned knitting shop and had the second kit sent to my brother in Utah. Due to border hold up, I was delighted to continue to support STIK, still access the patterns and have a little stash for when I eventually visit state side.
Although I love needlepoint with my whole heart, it has been so nice to pick knitting back up. I first started knitting when I was just a kid and even convinced my 8th grade teacher to let me do my pre-ski projects. You bet I made leg warmers. In white, turquoise and light blue. I recall knitting along to The Rolling Stones Half-Time Show as well as the infamous Justin\Janet Super Bowl fiasco. I didn’t actually see “it” happen though, I was knitting! I knitted in Geometry class before snowboard competitions and made beanies and 80’s style headbands on the bus to and from practices and events. I knitted on my first plane ride to Europe and my first time to London. It was a thing.
There wasn’t toooo much to do growing up in Vermont that didn’t involve some sort of outdoor activity. It also gets cold AF. Weren’t really many places to haaaaaaaaang. My best friend Hannah and I would cozy up at her place and play Joni Mitchell and knit together and talk about the most recent episodes of Gossip Girl. It was honestly the best.
For the last several years, I had turned my attention to other art forms and had left it behind.
Even though I am in the needle arts industry, I am welcoming knitting back into my life like an old friend. It has come to the point where stitching, even canvases by other artists is feeling like work and takes the joy out of it a little bit. Stitching is what I used to do in my free time. Now I don’t have much free time because of all of the admin that gets in the way of something that I used to love treating myself with.
Sometimes hobby burnout is real and monetizing your hobby can exponentially make you feel that way. So, I am joyfully taking knitting back on, an hour a day for “me” time and a separation from work and play.
So far, I have made three cowls, one for my aunt, one for my cousin and one for my mom. One semi-non-infinity scarf/cowl thing for myself, one half of a baby blanket for an expecting friend on the island, 1/2 scarf from the quarantine kit for another family member, several odds and ends that will grow to be something more. I have loved experimenting with different sizes of needles, circular needles, straight needles, merino wools, eco wools, hand-dyed, Canadian, American, it has brought me so much happiness. I feel an overwhelming sense of relief when I knit, a feeling I haven’t felt in a long time as a lot of the other art mediums I use now are for work and therefore always have an underlying sense of stress. I knit in silence, I knit with the television on, I knit while I Zoom. It really helps pass the time in the best way.
Stay tuned as I am about a quarter of a way through a massive freestyled, striped number! I turned to instagram for color input and am looking forward to how it turns out!
Half-Pipes, Homemade Hats and High School
The gray hat in the left and central photos was knitted for me by my step-mother! I was really obsessed with looking for the perfect hat that would keep my ears and gaps covered as we would spend countless hours at the top of the course waiting for our runs for competitions. I wasn’t anything to write home about, but I still did the damn thing and it was a fun thing to bond over when I would visit her in Texas. The navy cowl is probably the hardest thing I ever made to accompany it. The hat in the photo on the right was one that I knit for myself on the bus to and from competitions. It was also my first shot at a pom pom and made from leftover yarn. It was also before I took color theory… lol. I wish I had photographs of my older projects, but that was before I started my camera collection :)