Catching big air

New Years in Oregon

The Crew at the Cabin

My Inspiration

I started knitting in 1990 when Jirina was one and Amaran was three.  Levin appeared four years later.  Knitting for my children opened an entire world for me.

Amaran

Jirina

Levin

Jirina, Amaran, Levin

I started knitting with a sweater pattern for Jirina from Kaffe Fassett’s Family Album.  That sweater was horribly misshapen, as I knew nothing about gauge.  But I persisted and eventually figured out how to match my gauge to the size of the sweater.  I only used large needles and thick yarn, because I didn’t think I had the patience for anything that took too long.  I got graph paper and marked the stitches and rows and filled in the sweater shapes with pictures, with the different colors marked with numbers.  I only made vests because I didn’t think I could handle sleeves!

It didn’t take long before I realized the limitations inherent in my methods.  The actual realization occurred in a yarn store in Ithaca, NY in which the yarn was arranged by weight and I saw immediately I could make much more detailed pictures on the sweaters with smaller weight yarn and smaller needles.  I tried a pattern from Annabel Fox, and I never looked back.

It was actually freeing to take on sleeves and fully embrace every aspect of a sweater.  I liked starting with a lace trim and working up from there.  I found I liked the complexity more than the previous simplicity.  Here is Amaran in her beloved O Canada sweater.

   Another big turning point for me was the book Sweaters by Tone Takle and Lise Kolstad.  It was very challenging to take on the idea of circular needles and steeks.  It really requires faith to make a steek for the first time!  There was something so distinctly different about knitting a repeating pattern.  This V sweater for Jirina was the first result of this type of knitting.

My current knitting is a mix of pictures and more traditional style pattern sweaters.  It was certainly easier for me to design picture sweaters when my children were young and actively filling my imagination.