Knittles

When I was a junior in college, I got to be pretty good friends with Yukari, a sweet, fun exchange student from Japan. She brought us Japanese bandages and alka-seltzer (novel), cooked us Japanese noodles in fish sauce (I ate it) and taught me to knit.

Most people have lovely stories about being taught to knit by their grandmothers or mothers or aunts. Nobody in my family knits. (My grandmother used to crochet, in her defense). Yukari taught me to cast on, the knit stitch, and how to cast off, which is all you need to know to knit a reasonably respectable scarf or blanket. Since then, I’ve learned other stitches and patterns. Back when I had cable (and free time) I would watch knitting shows on TV. I loved heading down to Knit ‘N Hook, a fun little shop in downtown Huntington run by the most stylish older lady I’ve ever met who always remembered my name.

I got pretty quick at it. One fall (I think 2006) I made approximately 15 scarves for Christmas gifts. I was never much interested in learning more complicated patterns like sweaters or bags…I preferred to complete my projects while watching a movie or chatting with friends, not poring over some complicated pattern for hours. I loved the repetitiveness of it, how you could get into a rhythm and knit for hours. It was like yarn therapy. Not to mention the incredible satisfaction of making something with your own two hands that’s functional and stylish (hopefully).

At one point, a few friends of mine got together here regularly for Evan’s Knitting Club (named after my husband who, at the time, thought knitting was a silly hobby and an even sillier reason to get together, so we named it after him for revenge. I even photoshopped a photo of him as a child and added knitting needles to his hands, and made t-shirts out of it). We had a great time, and  was able to teach a few other people how to knit (scarves). We liked to call our knitting needles knittles, for short, because it sounded funny to us.

Then I had a baby.  Then I had another baby. And all of the sudden it has been three years since I’ve put yarn to needle to anything.

Today was a hard day. Not to mention it was cold. All day I felt that sort of chill in my bones that seems to come from the inside. I love the fall weather, but I also love being warm. So once the kids went to bed, I got out my needles and yarn and got to work on a scarf I started approximately 36 months ago. I have so much yarn in my bag I could knit all winter and not have to buy anything, which is great. And having all that yarn on my lap warmed me up.

If I’m lucky I might get this scarf finished before next fall.