In celebration of my new blog, I am going to give one lucky knitter a gorgeous set of handmade stitch markers. They are made with sterling, glass, and crystals.
All you need to do is tell me why knitting has made a mark on your life! I will be accepting comments until February 11th and then I will post the winner. Have fun with it, be serious, or plead if you must. Please only one comment per person. You may comment to any of my posts to enter, just note contest in your subject line. Thanks for looking! I can't wait to see what everyone writes!
35 comments:
I taught my then 8 yo how to knit, and she has become a knitting superstar after one year. It's become a great way for us to connect. Plus, when she's 13 and hating me, she'll still need me to drive her to the LYS to buy yarn! Yes, I would love those stitch markers. They are GORGEOUS!
3 knitters in the house so far and my stitchmarkers are always vanishing into the hand & projects of my 12 year old dd and my almost 8 year old ds ... the 5 year old ds just thinks they are pretty! Anyway, I could certainly use them & I would keep them in my private stash just for me :-)
Well all I can say is that after 30 years of constant crocheting I have decided to give the nasty wear bump on my first knuckle of my index finger a break and decided to start knitting again. The kids are grown and gone and it's time to try something new like lace. Talk about crocheting tightly, now I discovered that I have a hole in the sides of both of my index fingers from the constant pushing of the needles from knitting too tightly. Now I'm walking around with cut-up pieces of band-aids trying to cover the holes so I can knit some more, LOL!! Talk about permanent craft markings, mine are in plain sight!! Chris
Knitting has left its mark by giving more focus to my life than any other activity I've ever done. I have been an astrophysicist, a teacher, a video game developer, and so much more, but through all of that I have always been a knitter. The first time someone showed me how to cast on over fifteen years ago was the moment that I realized, "whoa, I can make clothes and scarves and hats and socks and so much more just with two sticks and a string?! SIGN ME UP!"
I knew that learning how to knit was the most important skill I'd acquired when my husband desperately needed good socks for the work he did outdoors in the harsh, windy Wyoming winters. We were scraping by on very little money, but he was so hard on his socks that we were buying a new package from K-Mart every other week, and that was adding up. I knew that the yarn at the knit shop would be pricey, but I also knew that knitting him real wool socks reinforced with nylon would last and be worth it in addition to actually keeping his feet warm, something the store-bought socks didn't do. So I scraped together the money, bought the materials, and knit him seven pairs of 100% wool socks reinforced with nylon, custom-fit to his feet. They lasted over two years with weekly wear and washing. That was when I knew knitting was for me.
Knitting both pushes me to the edge of my sanity (at times increasing my vocabulary of words I would not say in public) and at other times rescues me from the brink of losing my sanity altogether. More often than not, the later. It is longer than I care to admit since I learned in highschool. I then taught my mom, it was one of the last skills she lost in her battle with Ahlzeimers some 10 years ago. When I married during the Vietnam era it kept me sane as an Army wife. When my first daughter was born severely disabled and I was alone most of the time with her, my knitting kept me company when the rest of the world seemed to abandon me. Sometimes I frog as much as I create and my hubby laughed recently that I was getting 3 times the mileage from each skein since I redid things at least that many times. My cat gets his share of joy leaping on top of me and my knitting without any warning and I swear he is grinning when he does it. Also, knitting gave me the big smile I received after throwing the big "hoody" so simple to knit, to my grandson Thanksgiving. He exclaimed to his friend" I told ya, Gramme sews with her fingers using these long pointy stick things...see what she made!" Now stitch markers so pretty might just keep down the frogging just a bit. I think they deserve a trip to Eastern Oregon, don't you? (Canonwren---aka Marge)
I learned to knit when I was 5. More to preserve my Mom's sanity while snowed in, after a blizzard nearly covered our small trailer in Wisconsin. More than 50 years later knitting is helping save my sanity. I've lived a fairly active life up until the last couple of years. Nowadays there are few things I can do for more than a few minutes without being exhausted, in pain and frustrated. But I can knit! Knitting has marked my life with creative joy, wonderful knitting friends, the happiness of being able to make needed things and gifts, and the satisfaction of knowing my brain and fingers cal still do something worthwhile. :o).
Hi there!!
I had a stroke 4 years ago. I was only 47 years, a teacher who loved working with kids. I lost feelings in my left arm and leg. But the love of knitting made me WANT to use them again! So, I started by just holding the yarn and pins. After some months I managed to start, and now I knit all day long!! So knitting made my life rich again!! Love Vigdis from Norway :-)
four years ago I came down with cancer (hodgkin's lymphoma) and I had a portacath in my chest. During the chemotherapy I knitted. I knit a Robin Hood for the chemo unit, and when I went and visited recently they told me that my memory in the unit had been kept by the nurses passing on the information about me. I also knit a cardigan during this period that I regularly wear that reminds me that out of bad things good things can come.
The stitch markers are gorgeous BTW!
Knitting has made a mark in my life because it gives me an outlet for my creativity. I was always a crafty person, but knitting has made me "the one who knits"! I have made beautiful (not to toot my own horn) gifts for friends, family, and strangers. I have met so many online Knitting/ crocheting friends that I would not have normally. For that I thank knitting!
I have been knitting since I was 13 yrs old, but knitting didn't become such a part of my life until I gave up smoking. My smoking concentrated mostly at home, once back from work, as I was working in a no smoking environment back then. As soon as I was home, puff puff would I go, especially after dinner in front of the TV. I started knitting again then, and the fact that my hands were busy with the needles, not to say my eyes busy with the charts, knitting fairisle and arans, was the main thing that helped me quitting that nasty habit.
16 years after and smoke-free, I am still knitting like a madwoman :)
The stitch markers are fantastic...I would consider myself very lucky if I was to win them :)
CONTEST -
I have been knitting for over 50 years and it use to be that knitting was branch on the tree of my life; however, since about 2000 it has become the trunk of my life tree.
It use to be when I traveled I looked for yarn shops. Now I travel just for knitting. I travel for seminars and take day trips just for knitting. I use to have some friends who knit but now I have friends that have I met through knitting that are my best friends. I've met these woman through the Internet and also through local knitting groups. And speaking of the Internet I even knew about BLOGS before the office geeks; because I reading knitting BLOGS before the turn of this century.
Knitting has brought such beauty and intellectual stimulation into my life that I would just be such a different person if I didn't knit. I would love to have your stitch markers as I reminder of how important knitting is in life.
Knitting has kept me sane through a divorce, the death of my parents, remarriage with stepchildren, teenagers, and everything else that life can throw at you. BTW, your stitch markers are quite lovely.
I was taught to knit in daycare many moons ago. I am a lawyer and have a particularly stressful job. After a very hard custody case, I took up my needles instead of crying and like magic my stress melted away. I tell my fiance all the time I want to quit the law business and open up a LYS. That is my dream job. I am gradually trying to knit more complex things after a year of making scarves for everyone I know. Last week I tried my first project (a felted tote) that required stitch markers and I just used a tied piece of yarn. I would love to have your gorgeous stitch markers! Thanks for running this contest. I love how cozy the internet knitting world is. I find great comfort in reading blogs and the listserves I'm on.
Knitting has made it's mark in my life in SO many ways! To narrow down to one is difficult to say the least.
But I guess it would have to be the closeness it has allowed me to continue.
Not only was the teaching and knitting and chatting together while I was growing up in a knitting household an important bond in my life, but as those wonderful women have gone on to their greater reward, knitting has helped me stay close and continue that special relationship with such beautiful and loving memories.
No matter what happens and what struggles I face in my life, I also have my knitting to lift me back up and remind me of such fun and relaxing times.
I learned to knit less than 2 years ago. I only knitted scarves then left my "comfort zone" and joined a knitting group that forced me to learn to knit new things.I have met people in my group that normally would not have been my type of people as friends but that's is what they have become. Also, I will ask complete strangers if they knit something that they are wearing. I love knitting!
HAd to quit smoking.... Walked into my LYS and signed up for classes for of all thing SOCKS! After a year I say every stitch is a cigarette I didn't smoke! Now I have pretended to smoke a few double points while learning.... But in the end all is well and I have socks that I made!
5 years ago i took an aweful fall, shattering my left wrist and elbow.. After the 2nd surgery (out of a total of 4 in 1 and 1/2 yrs) the Doc indicated that altho he would be able to create a normal appearence to the wrist and hand (with screws,plates and bolts) the best that we could hope for was <30% functionality.. I was an avid kayaker...Fortunetly for me i had a great therapist who built my therapy around a kayak paddle (because i couldn't make a fist at all at that time- to be able to focus on wrapping my hand around the paddle was an achievement..It worked and i paddled Resurrection Bay in Alaska !! But i didn't want to stop there.. Friends of mine were getting back into the knitting frenzy.. Knitting was something that i used to do when i was a stay at home Mom (before being forced into singleparent hood and the workforce).. I was determined to relearn this craft.. I started with the biggest needles i could find (pointy dowels)and made the funkiest scarves... Thru many tears and endless trial, that hand now work much better (to the bewilderment of the Doc).. Thru God's grace, Medical technique, and BS&T (blood sweat and tears), i just finished a baby sweater on size 4s... oh BTW- i now am a spinner and a weaver. Creative outlet, God's grace or pure bull headedness, knitting has provided a method of increasing mobility that they said couldn't happen.. The latest evaluation was 70% mobility- and my son and i paddled the Allagash River this past year- all 100 miles.. PG!
My mom tried to teach me to knit many, many years ago, but I just couldn't handle working two "sticks" and yarn, so she instead taught me how to crochet. Well, my mom passed in "90", and I think of her often. 2 years ago I found a knit hat in my house, I assume my mom must have given it to me, but I have no memory of that at all! I decided that that must have been a sign for me to try knitting again, and this time it worked! My very first project was a cabled sweater for my 75+ pound dog, and I had to enlarge the pattern myself. Since then knitting seems to be just natural for me, I love it! Thanks mom!!!
Hmm, how has knitting made a mark on my life? Well, my mother taught me to knit when I was five. My dad worked for the Boy Scouts, and we all had to go live at Boy Scout camp over the summer. As you can imagine, there's not much for a little girl to do there...so I think my mom taught me to knit out of self defense. ;-)
The first project I made was a "shawl" for my grandmother. It was pink, with blue stripes. Not really long enough or wide enough, just done in stockinette stitch, but I was very proud of it. She declared that she loved it...and when she passed away many years later, it was found stashed carefully in her dresser drawer, so I have it back now.
I tend to be willing to try almost anything, except something with lots of color changes. It's not because I'm afraid of mixing colors, but because I hate the thought of all those ends to work in. But I don't like to think there's a whole area of knitting not open to me, so I've taken the plunge and bought "Dazzling Knits," a book about modular knitting with lots of wild colors. One of these days I'll get up the courage to actually try it...
Have fun with your blog!
Liz
Greetings!
What BEAUTIFUL glass markers! This day, the 24th, is a day of "markers" for me; entering into your contest (I don't usually enter contests), finishing up my first knitted sweater and celebrating my 60th birthday . Whew! For years I was into weaving black ash baskets but once I knitted my first pair of socks I was on to my new passion in life. Knitting is so much more at-home, on-the-road, anywhere-user- friendly. No more idle waiting in doctor's offices or traffic jams. Knitting in public invites friendly conversations and possible new knitting buddies. I'd say that knitting has made a huge and happy "mark" on my life!
Linda
My husband has been out of work for two Christmases in a row. I hate not being able to give gifts so I went to my yarn stash and added a few novelty yarns and made everyone a scarf. That made me feel a lot better about our situation. I think I will knit something for everyone every year now even if we are better off financially than we are now.
Having knit for over 40 years, I've brought together after-school elementary knitting clubs, 2 stitcher's gatherings (Stitch 'n Bitch-SNB and Stitches 'n Books-SNB II), I've taught at 2 technical colleges and more. Through each I've learned that far more rewarding than any money is seeing others learn a new skill that they, in turn, pass along AND people (women AND men) who have lived in the community for decades but had no close friends until they came together with their stitching! Just as knitting yarn creates a new fabric, it is the new people-connections that knit and weave a whole community! Together individuals then become "woven into a new fabric" that is stronger providing each support, help, sharing, warmth and greater understanding of one another.
I decided to teach myself (my family crochets)to knit..with that "I can't belive I taught myself to knit" KIT.It worked..much to my amazment.I can now say not only did it teach me.. but it helped me teach my best friend,my 9 year old niece,and of all people my "knitting is for old ladies" sisiter-in-law...which of all of them she is by far the best at it. She even made a prayer shawl for her nanny that was stunning.I guess if you have the gift to pass it on you should do so. You do gorgeous work.I will be visting your blog often.
The stitchmarkers are totally cool!
My mother taught my older sister me how to knit when I was 7. She chose to teach us with 4 needle mittens. My Barbie ended up having a very odd looking formal. 10 years later, I started again and haven't stopped for 33 years. Knitting is my meditation and my medication. I seldom go a day without it and measure the years of my life by the projects I was working on.
Compared to all the other posters, I feel like a knitting baby! I've been knitting for only about 19 months. I taught myself because I wanted to make my baby wool soakers. From that, it became an addiction. Finally, this year I made ALL of our Christmas gifts and wound up making 52 objects in 2006! I inherited all of my late aunts needles but unfortunately there were no other accessories (She would be so happy to know that I was a knitter now) At any rate, this year I got a spinning wheel so I'm beginning to produce the whole cycle from raw fleece to garment and it's so exciting. How life changes in one and one half years. Also this spring, I am teaching a special unit on knitting to interested students in my school. Now I have to go out and try to find some corporate sponsers for yarn and needles!
Your stitch markers are really stunning. I wish that I was crafty in the beading department.
Knitting has made a mark on my life in that it showed me you can learn new tricks after age 40! I didn't learn how to knit until after 40, and I have continually tried new techniques which I have been able to learn and master somewhat. People have actually been impressed with my work even though I have never been particularly crafty or good at anything. I am also happily married with 3 kids ages 10, 9, and 6, including a son named Conner! The projects on your blog are stunning, as are the stitch markers!
Love Your Stitch Markers but there are alot of people who have such wonderful stories about their Knitting... And thats the way it should be... Knitting is truly a medatative experience and a wonderful outlet in just copeing with personal problems and illnesses...
Knitting keeps my sanity and calms me down when I get too stressed....Its better..healthier and cheaper than a phyicatrist!!!
I have met so many wonderful people thru my knitting experience.. Both on line and in person...I know that I would never have had these people in My Life had it not been for Knitting and the Wonderful World of Cyberspace..
So Knit on everyone and Just be Happy .. Lifes Too Short.. Enjoy Every Stitch!!
Love To All My Knit Friends !
Penny
http://pennyknits.blogspot.com/
No chance I'll win those gorgeous stitch markers But I'll play :)
I learned to knit last April. I'd always wanted my grandma to teach me to crochet but never had the courage to ask. I also always wanted to learn to knit. So I finally taught myself one of the fiber crafts- knitting- with books and online videos in April.
Instant love.
It's made this antisocial woman more social, I've joined knitting boards, I'm going to a knitting festival. I always have such a hard time making friends and I find knitters to be the kindest and most generous people out there and they have welcomed me with open arms I'm making friends. I'm eating less (I'm obese and in weight watchers, knitting replaces snacking!), I don't have the hopeless depressed bored feeling all the time (I have depression) and it calms me which I need being a stay at home mom to two toddlers only 12 months apart!
I need stitch markers. *wink*
Knitting has changed my life. Four years ago I suddenly lost my eyesight. I had to retire from work and my passion as an artist had ended. After several surgeries, and after getting a very small amount of vision back, I sat down with myself and had a heart to heart. I couldn't just sit and do nothing the rest of my life. Many, many years ago my mother taught me to knit and crochet. I picked up those needles and never stopped. It was the one thing that I could still do even though I had very limited eyesight. It fills my days with pure joy and my nights with dreams of the next project. About a year ago I started doing my own designs I do a lot of charity knitting and my life is now much happier than when I had my sight. Thank God for this art that we call knitting.
Knitting has created a bond betwen my mother and I. When I knit, I always remember her and the good times we had together when I lived at her house. Even know we get closer when one of us has a project in hands.
Knitting has created a bond between my mother and I. When I knit, I always remember her and the good times we had together when I lived at her house. Even know we get closer when one of us has a project in hands.
Liliana
www.handmadebylili.blogspot.com
contest
I love your bags and purses. The colors are great. I am in love w/ the stitch markers. I do have one comment which may put me our of the running: the dark background is hard to read with bad eyes. But otherwise got a big kick out of it.
CONTEST ENTRY: Welcome to KnittingBlogsGroupTwo. Picking up knitting again has introduced me to so many terrific women and being an active member of my knitting guild has become a big part of my life.
I started knitting and crocheting a few years back as a way to stay awake in grad school courses. (I discovered that I really need something to do with my hands to keep me awake, and powerpoint slides don't do that.) In addition to helping me with my studies, it opened conversations with people who I might not otherwise talked to, people who were curious as to why I was crocheting during talks (or on the bus, or in a park, or...!). Most importantly, I started attending a SNB. This group of ladies was terrific! I was going through a rough time with depression, and Tuesday night knitting with the girls was the bright point of each week. I have since moved. I was able to find another knitting group with friendly ladies, but sadly these don't meet nearly as often--only twice a month. However knitting and crocheting got me into writing a blog, and now I have amazing crafting friends all over the world!
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