{not Katie, but a great photo!}
I knit because when I watch a film, my hands get bored.
I knit because I love to learn and I want to know the mechanics of how things are made.
I love the long slow process of knitting - there are no corners to cut, just the repetitive actions that lead to rows appearing!
wearables magically growing out of the needles.
I need to create.
I find it exciting that I am creating fabric.
Knitting is methodical and helps you practice concentration.
Knitting teaches you to SLOW DOWN and smell the roses.
Knitting is either right or it is wrong: you have either made a stitch, or you haven't.
I love that knitting is considered a 'Grandmothers' craft' but there is so much potential and possibility for pushing knitting forward into the future,
with the artists and pioneers of the new school of knit, and so many people willing to make the effort to get excited about this timeless craft.
I love to take old crafts, and subvert them, or bring them up to date.
I love to carefully craft something by hand, I love thinking about the person it's being made for,
I love contemplating how many thoughts are held inside each and every stitch.
To knit is to love: it is a labour of love! I love the mistakes in knitting, dropped stitches,
little holes, wonky seams - these are all the markings of a piece made with love and by hand.
Knitting is useful, practical and easy!
I love yarn: colour, fibre, texture, thickness, thinness, bumpiness, shininess, and I LOVE to make my own handspun wool!
(And secretly, I find pleasure and satisfaction in untangling balls of wool!)
I knit to contemplate future possibilities, or reflect on the past.
Knitting is like a meditation: you focus on the action, then your hands and muscle memory takes over; the rhythm continues,
and you are submerged into your own thoughts.
Many things have been worked out, resolved whilst knitting.
It is calming, peaceful, solitary, social, old, new, borrowed, blue.
I knit because I can, and because now I am hooked!
The same goes for crochet by the way, I am rather fond and fairly accomplished of that too! This short documentary about the work of designer Helen Rodel sums up what I love about crochet, and inspires me to strive to be an artisan too.
Tammy on Rowdy Kittens wrote a great list called 5 Life Lessons I've Learned from Knitting.
In Knitting Through It: Inspiring Stories for Times of Trouble, I love this excerpt by Amy Holman in her short story The Rising Tide, on how knitting helped her through unemployment.
"Knitting has stitches and patterns and textures and colours that mix and mingle. Once the stitch is understood, it's just a rhythm you can follow. Knitting a scarf ordered my mind when I had trouble re-writing a proposal for a book on how to get published so that I could return to it refreshed and flowing. The repetitive stitches are especially useful when thinking structurally, as for the chapter outline of the book.
"Knitting is connection, the unravelling of yarn to pull loops through loops to create one fabric.
"I dream big and don't plan well, then see that planning might work along with the dreams."
Why do you knit? What do you love about your craft?
Katie blogs at Je Suis Une Monstre - a wonderful blog about knitting, Katie's everyday life, and her gorgeous shop updates! Swing by and tell her happy birthday (she's just turned 24!!)!!!
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