Please Introduce Yourself!

Welcome to The Lounge! We’re delighted you’re here, and we hope this will be a place you like to visit often. We’d love to hear more about you: here are three quick questions if you’re game for sharing a bit about yourself.

  1. First thing you ever knitted.

  2. Your favorite movie/food/color/kind of shoes.

  3. Thing you would like to learn how to do.

Or anything else you’d like to share. We are particularly curious about your knitting adventures, obviously.

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My name is Jean and I have been knitting for 12 years now. I taught myself to knit at age 50 from the “Stitch and Bitch” book because someone told me it was a good book to learn to knit from. My first project was a gray garter stitch scarf with a few purl rows which I still have and occasionally wear.

This summer I worked through Mary Jane Mucklestone’s colorwork cowl class on Craftsy and learnt two-handed colorwork knitting. I like to knit projects that will teach me things. Most of what I make are gifted to friends and family. I don’t mind mistakes and frogging, it’s part of the making process.

I also sew a bit, crochet, and have tried most other yarn and fiber crafts over the years. I really love to knit, however, and I really love the knitting community.

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My name is Carolyn and my very first knit was mittens on two needles in Grade 9, in the 60’s. I could only knit left hand mitts, Mom knit the right one for me. In the past 8 years I have been knitting, felting and designing my own things. The pattern Kiki Mariko inspired me. I have made the pattern your way as a rug and as a purse that I call the Carpet Bag. I would love to share a picture with you.

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Hi Jean! Stitch and Bitch is such a great book—it just sounded so fresh and different when it first came out. (Starting with the title, for one thing!)

And Mary Jane Mucklestone is a special teacher. I haven’t taken a Craftsy class, but I would bet that hers would be excellent.

So glad you’re here!

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Hello Carolyn! Your bag (I saw it over in What I’m Making ) is so cool! Kiki Mariko is so versatile a stitch pattern–I’ve made a cowl and a pullover using it. I’ll try to dig out pix to show.

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The first thing, when I was 8, was a yellow garter stitch “scarf,” on pink plastic needles. In my teens I created two never-finished sweaters, one pink mohair (owning my vintage here) and the other a nice lace pattern in a tweedy rose Bernat yarn. In grad school, with my mom’s tutoring I made a Lopi sweater for my then-boyfriend, now-husband. It’s still in our closet.

These were all done English-style. When I started knitting for our little daughter I needed a refresher and read Knitting in Plain English, by Maggie Righetti. I had never heard of Continental knitting before, but it seemed as if that was what my fingers had been wanting to do all along. I had never been able to throw without dropping the right needle, but picking was as natural as could be.

Since then I’ve been knittingallthetime. Sweaters, socks, scarves, mittens, gloves, slippers, shawls. I like plain things with interesting details. I like cardigans. I like snaps and hooks-and-eyes. I like contrast linings. I like garter stitch and especially seed stitch. I like color.

My mom’s mom was a dealer or rep, or something like that, for Pinguoin yarns in Cadillac, Michigan, in the 1920s or 30s. I have a couple of her sample cards. They’re beautiful.

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Ruth Ann,

I have Pingouin pattern book number 21 from 1962 with an incredibly chic black and white striped top that I swear I will make some day. Skirts, coats, suits, and sweaters with incredible Parisian flair and the usual vague directions of the time.

Good on you for making the switch to Continental! I still knit English style and enjoy it, but it is slow. I am hoping to improve my Continental knitting so that I can switch off when one method gets tiring. Jean

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Ann,
I’ve taken over 40 Craftsy classes and I would recommend Mary Jane Mucklestone’s colorwork cowl class as one of the best I have taken. If anyone is interested in learning two-handed stranded color work, it is a great place to start. She even covers how to purl in stranded work and fix mistakes.

My Ravelry name is jeanfrances and anyone is welcome to look at my project page for pictures of my completed cowl. Jean

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The first thing I ever knitted was huge cream colored scarf while I was in Argentina as a foreign exchange student in Argentina. I finally finished a blanket a few years later as a Christmas gift for my then new husband. I put knitting down for years and picked it up just a few years ago. I forgot how much I love it, but oh… how much I am still a beginner! One of my first projects was a dishcloth Mason Dixon knitting. Loved them! I still knit, a lot of baby blankets as shower gifts and a few forays into special projects to try to learn things. I have so much to learn and I am way over my head on a knitting website, but it keeps me encouraged to keep learning. I did find out that I am a continental knitter – who knew! Had to be the way I was first taught in Argentina all those years ago. All my girls have picked up my “hand work” love in some way. Cross stitching, crocheting or card making – I am still the only knitter. I would love to make something that someone could actually wear. I am not counting that one pair of fingerless gloves I managed.
"

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Hi, my entire first grade class learned to knit together. Our very patient teacher had everyone stow the yarn in the precursor to the yarn bowl, aka a coffee can with a whole punched in the center of the lid. We made pot holders. My mom then reinforced the lessons and by 7th grade I had family knitting assignments. Same for sewing assignments. I enjoyed all of this…55 years later I’m still at it!

I particularly remember my mom coaching me thru a double knit scarf in three colors, then mittens, and a hat. I think we were still utilizing the coffee can method :blush:

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I have been a knitter for over fifty years, but only began to see it as a community activity with the rise of blogging and, especially, Ravelry. I’ve been entertained and inspired by your blog over the years. Although I prefer complex patterns - lace, Celtic cabling and colourwork - I do a fair bit of knitting for charity, so I’m always up for ideas for mittens and hats.
I am Somerville on Ravelry.

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Hi, I’m Michale (Mi-Kay-Lee, mjglenno on ravelry), I have no idea what the first thing I knitted was but I remember sitting on my grandmother’s couch and having her teach me, I think I was 10. I love knitting anything but these days have a hard time pulling myself away from sweaters. For a million years (before ravelry and the internets in general) I knitted mostly sweaters for teddy bears or blankets for dolls but I’m amazed at how much I didn’t know. You’re supposed to weave in ends? Maybe because she lived in Ohio and we only saw her about once a year, there just wasn’t much opportunity to discuss knitting or learn such things. No one in my family or close friends is remotely as obsessed as I am so I love places like this, where others as obsessed as me can gather :slight_smile: I taught two friends to knit last night, I hope they stick with it. I knit English with the needle propped on my hip cause that’s how I learned but would desperately love to get better at Continental so I could knit while I walk in the woods. Thank you for the Lounge!

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Hello! I’m Kate. (chalimar16 on Ravelry) I learned to knit from my college chaplain. My first project was a garter stitch scarf. I cast on way more stitches than suggested by the yarn shop owner, because it looked so narrow. It was perfect for the first five inches, as I yanked my yarn tightly after each stitch. Then I relaxed, and it was enormously wide. Despite going back to the LYS twice for more yarn, it was pretty short because I got sick of it. What do you do with such a funny-looking first project? Give it to your mother, obviously. A year later, when she saw me frogging another project to correct a mistake, she suggested I do the same with her scarf.

“But Mom, don’t you like the scarf I made you?”

“Darling, I absolutely love it. And think how much more I’ll love it when you’ve knit it again.”

Well played, Mom. I reknit the thing at a reasonable width, and had enough yarn to add fringe and make a matching hat.

That was fifteen years ago. The situation has improved since. (Although I still knit for my mother.)

Now I have three Shetland sheep, acquired a spinning wheel last year, and am learning to process and spin my own yarn. It’s a delightful challenge, and there is so much to learn.

Random trivia: I lived in Japan for six years after college. In Japanese, my name is pronounced “Keito” (kay-ee-toh). That happens to also be the Japanese word for yarn. Fate!

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I’m Susan.

The first thing I ever knitted was a pair of navy blue acrylic worsted weight mittens for myself. They came out quite nicely and I wore them for years until one mysteriously disappeared. I must have been about 21 because I remember being excited to wear them to my first real job.

I don’t have one particular favorite movie. Mexican is my favorite food. I’m also not stuck on one favorite color, though I do like cool tones. My favorite shoes. . . I’m developing an affinity for Fluevogs.

I would like to learn how to create my own patterns. I know how to do most knitting things, but I am always looking for help with technique, or ways to do things better. My very favorite knitting lately has been fair isle/stranded, which surprises me because I used to be hopelessly devoted to cables.

It’s my 2017 goal to knit everything in Stripes.

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I’m Kay. The first thing I ever knit was a pair of red garter stitch slippers with pom poms on the toe, in Camp Fire Girls. I remember loving knitting but not understanding what I was doing; my leader just fixed everything and I think she did most of the knitting when I wasn’t there. I didn’t knit again for more than 20 years and then I kind of fell down the rabbit hole. That was more than 20 years ago.

My favorite movie is A Room With a View. Well, it has my favorite scene in a movie.

I would like to learn how to throw a pot on the wheel. Really and truly. I don’t know why I haven’t made this happen yet. I’m not getting any younger.

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Cristina here!

I knit a wee garter stitch vest for my Winnie the Pooh doll our of yellow acrylic when I was a third grader. It must have been so awesome that I couldn’t bear (so to speak) to knit for the next nine grades. I picked knitting up again as a college freshman and taught myself Continental style. My second project was a crazy-complicated Aran sweater from Vogue Knitting in Classic Elite Paisley. My favorite color is indigo blue in all its range. I have thrown pots on a wheel, but I’d like to do it a lot more. And weave. I cried at “The Martian.”

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Hi, I’m Maryann, southeastern PA, knitter for 10 years now. So glad you started this! I’m leaving for a vacation in Cuba today, so I have no idea why I’m taking the time to do this… Oh, I know why — it’s about knitting, on just about my favorite knitting website.

Don’t do anything nuts while I’m gone. See you in about a week!

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Hello I’m Fi. I can’t really recall the FIRST thing I ever knitted but an early one was a very long ‘Dr Who’ scarf, it which I loved to death, it was made probably entirely from squeaky acrylic yarn (in the1970s, that’s what we

Food: I’m with Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson on this, breakfast! Color: blue/green (and orange), Shoes: either very sensible or really really not sensible, no middle ground.

Films, well, I’d have to make a list, but I do love Blade Runner a great deal.

I’ve just started learning the thing I would most like to do, which is making ceramics - it’s completely absorbing. Next week I get to THROW, I’m thinking yarn bowl…

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Hei!

Ida from Norway. (The land of sheeps roaming free, and slow tv)

  1. It was a hat. In fifth grade. I gave it to my grandmother, and she used it for years!

  2. I love grey and purple, but when I got pregnant 2 years ago I got a craving for turquise. (and lemonsoda, and coconut chocolate)

  3. I have never knitted socks. Mostly because you have to knit two of them. (Wich in my mind is not at all the same as knitting two mittens, or sleeves, and I do that all the time)

I had a kid a little over two years ago, and everyone is like "how lucky is he to have a knitting mother! I bet you knit for him all the time!"
Confession: I don’t… he is growing so fast, I cant keep up with that! I did knit him mittens for this winter, and I might knit him another hat. Maybe.

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Hi, I’m Anna. I’ve been knitting for about eight years - started with dishcloths, moved cautiously to garter scarves, then a LYS owner showed me how to kfb to make a garter triangle shawl with bulky yarn, and things moved quickly from there.
I’m primarily a TV-watching knitter, which has reduced my viewing of movies with subtitles and limited my success with lace. My happy medium: vanilla socks and British crime dramas.

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