Yarn Kisses

The last time I posted here, I had just found out that I was pregnant.  Finally pregnant, after nine months of trying. After knitting for other people's babies. After stocking up on baby pattern books, baby yarns, and baby buttons in anticipation.  I was finally pregnant.

And I didn't stop knitting.  Oh, far from it.  Between last October and today, I've completed two dozen projects.  Several were gifts or commissions, a few were just for me, but ten of them have been for my precious, beautiful, amazing, perfect little girl.  I just can't stop knitting for her.   Even knowing that she'll grow out of any and all of it much faster than I'd like.  Even though one of the projects never properly fit her at all.

In the beginning, before we knew if we'd be getting a prince or a princess, it was gender neutral accessories:

Then, once we knew we were having a girl, I started in on the lovely sweaters - and who says powder blue isn't a gorgeous color for a girl's winter ensemble?

Then, with a book of toy patterns received at the baby shower, I suddenly went nuts for knitted plushies!

Most recently I completed a lace pullover that will hopefully fit her next spring.  This project was the one that bridged the great divide between pregnancy and motherhood. Cast on in June, just a week before my due date, and finally finished a little over a week ago.

And a house-elf hat for her costume for our upcoming Harry Potter cosparty:

And this kid is only ten and a half weeks old! By the time she starts kindergarten, she won't leave the house but sporting at least one thing handmade for her.

In June 2011, I posted a letter from Eunny Jang entitled "Living a Handmade Life," in which she describes the thoughtfulness and care that goes into a handmade project, how crafts like knitting teach us to appreciate quality and sincere effort, and to be better problem solvers and risk takers, and that ultimately, knitters are a positive, creative force in the world.  We add, rather than subtract.

And that is a lesson that I look forward to teaching my daughter, while I'm wrapping her up in yarn kisses.

Why I Knit

I had hoped some day to write elegantly on this subject, and perhaps I still will in the future, but for now, I wanted to share with you all a letter from Eunny Jang, knitter extraordinaire and Interweave editor.  This note accompanied the announcement of the release of the Interweave Knits Weekend 2011 issue, and while it does, of course, plug the new issue, it also sums up beautifully how I feel about knitting and why I do it:

Living a Handmade Life

Ever since we started producing Weekend in 2008, I've delighted in collecting cozy, casual knits that represent the kinds of things we really wear. There's a comfortable, satisfied feeling that comes of making something that is at once beautiful and eminently functional—these aren't dressy or finicky pieces, but garments and accessories that feel homey and relaxed, familiar.

Every piece in this issue is informed by the everyday life of its designer, her own wishes and needs for useful, purposeful knits that look and feel good. It's fun to catch a glimpse of their lives through their sweaters.

And I do think a lot about this handmade life we lead as knitters, people who make usable things out of sticks and string. It's an extraordinary thing in a larger culture that praises speed and disposability—our craft is methodical, meditative, thoughtful. Its gratification is delayed. But we do it for the joy of making wonderful things with our own hands, adding usefulness and beauty to the world with every stitch.

Of course, there are as many shades to the knitting urge as there are knitters, but I think that most of them boil down to this: We love being creators. Our knitting studs our lives with creativity; because of it, we're good problem solvers and thoughtful analysts, we know how to judge and take risks, we are at peace with the fact that you sometimes just need to start over again. We knitters are forces that add. 

So keep on knitting—and not just on swanky projects. Knit slouchy Saturday market sweaters, snowballing mittens, toys even for children who haven't quite outgrown bibs yet. Knit things you'll use every day. Wrap your loved ones in wooly armor and fill your home with beautiful things.

And enjoy them all, let them wear out, remake them into something else. Make your knitting part of your real, everyday life. Get your issue of Weekend 2011 now and fill the world with more good knitting than it knows what to do with—!

The Knitter's Life—creating, laboring, letting go. It is all fine and right.

Cheers,
Eunny Jang