Friday, February 14, 2014

Expanding My Horizons

It's completed.  Just in time, too, as the party is tomorrow.  What, you ask?  A real life hand knitted sweater, that's what.  The buttons actually come from my Great Aunt's collection I inherited, so could surely be classified as antiques. It's almost hard to believe I did it.

Years and years (multiple decades) ago I used to knit.  Other things came along (grad school) and knitting was one of the casualties.  Eventually I gave all my knitting paraphenalia away, but did keep the crochet hooks.  Along came last fall when I saw my daughter loom knitting hats for gifts, and it made me a bit nostalgic.  A gift certificate later and here we are--a finished sweater.  Will I stop here?  No, I am actually pretty hooked (maybe I should say needled).  I have a few more projects in various stages, have bought some books and Craftsy classes, and am amazed at so many things.

Changes, lots of changes, have occurred in the last 30 years in the knitting world.  The plant based fibers are amazing. . .bamboo, nettle, hemp, linen and cottons abound.  Some wools can actually be washed now, and even though I'm sensitive to some still, I can knit with merino and other washable wool, especially when blended with things like silk.  That never happened before!  The tools for knitting have changed a lot, too.  Needles are made from bamboo and many different trees.  The metal ones I have are so much smoother than the aluminum ones I used in the past.  I'm knitting with interchangeable tips on circular needles, too.

Maybe I should change the name of the blog to Grandma loves to sew and knit!

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