A little about me… I am currently finishing my undergraduate degree at Grove City College where I am studying Music and French.
Creating something with textiles, paper or beads has always been something I have done. As soon as I was old enough to be allowed to play with paper and crayons, my parents set up a “craft corner” for me. This at first consisted of a 3 shelf plastic storage container where all my construction paper and crayons were stored. As I grew older, and my brother and sister came along, this craft corner began to grow and become an extension of my mothers craft corner.
My mothers craft corner at the very beginning was brought out and put away each day because it consisted of the dining room table in our tiny apartment. But thinking back, to me it was an incredible world of inviting colors, textures, sounds and sometimes smells. My mom is primarily a seamstress. She has always made me pretty dresses, even to this day. I design them and she sews them. One of the most comforting sounds to me is the whir of her sewing machine. I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to try my own hand at making doll cloths.
We moved into a house when I was 6 years old and my mothers sewing corner became a permanent part of the house. Instead of a family room we had a “craft and school room” for my siblings and I were home schooled. My mother would be working away at ironing or sewing something as she administered spelling tests and we were always allowed to keep our hands busy with coloring books or small projects during history lessons.
It is hard to pinpoint when my love and interest in knitting began. Sewing, making jewelry, scrapbooking and cross stitch are still favorite hobbies of mine. But I think I was about 12 when I first learned to knit. During the summer a friend taught me how to crochet. The feeling of the yarn and the ability to watch fabric fly from your hands and a single hook intrigued me. I wanted to learn more about crochet’s cousin, knitting. I found the friendly book knitting for dummies at my public library and dug and ripped out my mothers last knitting project that she hadn’t touched since I was born. I still remember the yarn, it was Lamb’s Pride worsted yarn in a beautiful gray/blue shade. I ended up making a scarf with the yarn, though my first finished project was a little red baby hat (with a few dropped stitches and large loops) that I made for a neighbor who had just had a baby.
After that, knitting became a pure pleasure and something I speant as much time doing as I could. This was difficult because I was in high school and studying for AP classes as well as preparing for Music School auditions as well as another hobby in Historical and movie costuming. But knitting prevailed and has brought me much pleasure over the years and still does. I always have a project or two with me at school along with extra needles and yarn for anyone willing to learn.
I started this site about 5 years ago as a knitting forum, as a way to share my love of the craft. With the creation of Ravelry.com I found myself more and more on forums there rather than keeping up with my own. Thus I have changed this site into a place to muse over knitting and life. I have also recently began to enjoy designing my own patterns and thus hope to be offering many of them here and through Ravelry for free download.
Enjoy!