This weekend was my third knitting birthday — 3 years since that fateful trip to Nashville to visit friends, who taught me to knit while I was there. Er, here. Now not only does my life revolve around knitting — with this blog and Fringe Supply Co. — but I also live in Nashville! Life is strange, ain’t it? If you were reading last year, you’ll remember I spent the month of October doing a series of posts aimed at new knitters and those wanting to expand their skills. This weekend, in honor of the anniversary, I organized it all neatly onto one page (along with a couple of other applicable posts), so you can now find it all right here: Beginning to Knit.
There’s general guidance — from how to learn to knit to how to gradually expand your skills — along with some very basic techniques and then a set of posts revolving around pattern recommendations for those wanting to give something new a try, including cables, colorwork and pullovers for first-timers. I’m always saying my favorite thing about knitting is how little you need to know to expand your knitting abilities exponentially. If all you can do is the knit stitch, learn to join those stitches in the round and suddenly you’re making a stockinette tube. Insert your needle into two stitches instead of one (knit two together, or k2tog) and you can decrease, which means you can turn that tube into a hat. And on and on — such incredibly simple little maneuvers turning your knitting into cables and then lace. But I also I love that I still have so much to learn — new tricks, techniques, construction methods, and on and on. Knitting is a neverending opportunity to amaze yourself, the way I see it. So if you’re a new knitter or you’ve been knitting for ages but haven’t quite gotten past basic knitting and purling, I hope you’ll find encouragement and enlightenment in those posts.
I’ll be continuing to add to that page over time. But for now, can I ask you for a little knitting birthday gift? If you find Fringe Association valuable, will you take a minute to tell your friends and/or followers about it? Pin your favorite post, tell your Facebook friends about the Beginning to Knit page (there are no doubt people wishing they could knit), whatever the case may be. It means to world to me.
And thank you so much for constantly egging me on and making me a better knitter!
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p.s. Pictured above are a sampling of my own projects, clockwise from top left: my first (of two) Orlane’s Textured Shawl (June 2013); my Acer Cardigan (Jan 2014); some simple stockinette armwarmers (Feb 2012) (at sport weight, still the finest gauge thing I’ve knitted!); and giant lace in the form of my State Street Cowl (Jan 2013). Most of my FOs from the past three years are documented at Ravelry.