One of the most interesting observations for me when I was a new knitter (hey, I just passed the four-year mark!) was that knitters tend to fall into camps. Sock knitters and shawl knitters seem to be the two most entrenched breeds — a sock knitter knits socks sometimes entirely to the exclusion of all else. Same for shawl knitters. Some people make so many hats they are always on the lookout for new places to donate them. In the beginning, I was chiefly (although not exclusively) a fingerless mitts knitter, and I didn’t really know anyone else who was as rabid about mitt knitting as I was. A rare breed? A weirdo? Dunno, but I lived in the Bay Area, where fingerless mitts are useful or necessary about 360 days of the year. They were quick and only use one skein of anything. There were lots of different ways to construct them, and I liked trying out all the varieties, along with different stitch patterns and whatever else. I made a lot of them. Then I got more and more serious about sweaters, and I now basically have to trick myself into knitting non-sweater things — they’re really all I need and all I want to knit. Talk about variety of methods! Every sweater can be a whole new knitting adventure. Plus there’s that whole mission-to-make-my-own-clothes thing. So me, I’m a sweater knitter who occasionally dabbles in accessories.

And that’s my Q for You today: Do you have any strain of knitting monomania or do you like to spread it around? And what is it about whatever you knit that makes you so devoted?

Pictured (clockwise from top left): Acer, Cowichanish vest, Amanda, Olsen turtleneck

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PREVIOUSLY in Q for You: Are you a kit knitter?

One of the most fascinating things about knitters, to me, is the variety of approaches and attitudes toward choosing yarn and projects and yarn for projects. There are people who have no interest in patterns and want to make everything up for themselves — finding half the joy in the planning and even the trial-and-error aspect of it. People who like a pattern but go their own way where yarn is concerned and/or make lots of pattern modifications. People who will only use the recommended yarn, either knowing that the pattern was designed for that yarn and using it will increase the likelihood of success, or not trusting themselves to choose something else. People who want exactly the pictured item, and will use not only the recommended yarn but the same color as the sample. And people who prefer the pattern and yarn be sold together in a kit, so not only is there minimal risk and no decision-making required, it’s a single purchase. I love it!

Like most things in knitting (and life) there is absolutely no right or wrong. We all come to knitting for different reasons. Some have mind-numbingly dull day jobs and knitting is their creative outlet. Others find the greatest escape and relaxation in having had someone else do all the math and planning for them — they just want to sit down and knit, and to feel reasonably confident the outcome will be positive. Among a million other scenarios. I get it: Some days I’m one of these people, and some days I’m the other. But most days I’m somewhere in between. I feel like if I want the thing exactly as pictured (which happens often enough), I’d rather buy it as finished goods, since there’s no room for me to bring any of my own thinking to it anyway. On the other hand, kits can be such enticing objects unto themselves. The Latvian mitten kit I won a couple years ago is one of my prized possessions, to the point that I can’t imagine unboxing it, so I guess that’s maybe a kit being too good? Wool and the Gang does such a beautiful job with their boldly bagged kits. (Of course, I like to think my own Fringe kits are pretty appealing!) And the other day I ran across Kit Couture and found myself wanting kit after kit. So that’s my Q for You this round: Are you a kit knitter? Or where do you fall on this spectrum?

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