About making for other people: I think it's also linked to the fact that most fiber crafters are women, and society puts this subconscious expectation on women that they should care for others before themselves. This year I planned making only one gift knit and ended up doing many - not because I had to, but because I wanted to. It really helped with not putting too much pressure on myself :) Thank you for this episode, I really enjoyed hearing you reflect on your knitting, it made me think a lot about my own practice of knitting :)
Maybe I'm off but something about Briggs & Little feels so right for cables! My mom said the exact same thing about Toronto weather too, where is proper pretty winter when we need it?
Thanks for sharing all your thoughts on gift knitting. Recently I have been thinking about how to have a good number of projects on the needles and was thinking that one thing for myself and something for someone else was a good place to start. Too many projects is stressful for me and that is not goal of knitting!
Really appreciate the insights about gift & selfish knitting--it's hard to match things to gift to friends/family to things I actually want to make/in fibres I want to make them in. Like baby items I feel compelled to make in acrylic, but it's not entirely pleasant to work with... And socks are tough to gift because as you said, their perceived value is nominal but they do take so long to make... like I get why people used to darn their socks in the past. Being a newer knitter, I really just want to make staple items for myself. But I can see how closet space starts to limit your personal knitting. I want to challenge myself to knit lace items next year but I never desire to wear lace so I have put off a lot of projects for that reason. Gifting lace items might be the way I get to do both 🤔😂
I so get that! It's only in the last few months that I've felt I have enough staples and am suddenly more interested in gifts or really labour-intensive projects again. I wonder how what interests us will ebb and flow as we hit different stages in knitting, or will it stay consistent? Like the people who just realllly love cables or vanilla socks for example
Loved this video!!! I've been having similar reflections about my knitting and stash. I've been realizing that if I use up all my stash, I will have more garments than a normal person really needs. And then I wonder, is the goal to have these items my whole life? It suddenly feels like a lot LOL and makes me want to slow down the knitting for myself
I agree with you on stories drawn out over several books how sometimes it feels like the story got away with author or characters changing to how you expected them to. I am rereading Laurell K Hamiltons Anita blake series in order as before I bought random books so seeing how stories develops but as I know there is more than 10 books I feel like "Anita" ends up having same thoughts over and over again and feels repetative. I'm tempted to jump out to J.R Ward series as bought new new books hers. I think I'm just used to Terry Pratchet books which are so contained in one book plus great handbag size books.
Are you in Gainesville!? I’m here too visiting my daughter and her family. I’ve been to the butterfly museum. It’s great. It’s grim here in terms of buying yarn but I hope you enjoy your time here anyway.
ahhhh i can so relate to the creeping feeling that my stash is just moving from one place to the next, in a different form, and that at this rate, i will be overhwlemed by my sweaters. I have a different approach to you though, where I still won't gift knit, but I will tackle more challenging and time consuming patterns to slow down, and still give me great satisfaction, without limiting myself creatively like you said ! So nice to hear it voiced by someone else :)
this is another good way of approaching the same thing! I should also start leaning into process knitting and intricate designs, I just need to find some I also think are super wearable
We don't have Orange Julep in the US to my knowledge, but growing up we did have Orange Julius, which sounds identical. Except the poutine, of course. In any case the socks sound cute and appropriate.
Also, I get what you mean about acotar- I had a similar feeling about Harry Potter - I've always loved reading and average probably 100 novels a year , so I didn't get the hype with the bad writing the first few in the series lol But I am a Sarah j Maas fan 😅
I think you may be overthinking many aspects of your Knitting. Knitting is your hobby. It is your enjoyment time and so you should absolutely knit whatever your little heart desires. For me making a pair of socks is getting that yarn out of my stash. The yarn goes from just simply an object and into something that is wearable in my wardrobe. It’s potential has been fulfilled. I need to start doing some serious de- stashing. But I love all of my yard so much that would be hard for me to know I want to get rid of.. there are times when you will feel inspired to knit a gift and other times when you simply want to make something for yourself and both are OK. I’m not sure who came up with the term selfish Knitting but I’m pretty sure that a person who sells all their own clothes would never be called a selfish sewist. So I think we should totally abandon that term.. charity Knitting is also something wonderful to do that would let you try some new patterns for hats and other accessories and send them to a charity where they would be so appreciated especially in Canada. I have a very small list of knit worthy family and friends. I knit for the ones that bring me joy to knit for. It is an about keeping your hobby, enjoyable for you.. are there even any selfish bowlers or golfers?. Your hobbies are intrinsically selfish because it is indulging in something that gives you pleasure in your hard earned time off. As far as a winter knits video, I live in Michigan where snow falls from October through April so it’s all good with me, even though it is 50 degrees now and we are on track for a very green Christmas. Two years ago we were snowed in on Christmas Day! LOL! We have more than four seasons, and sometimes in a single day.
I find the concept of selfish knitting to be mystifying. By all means knit for others if and when you feel like it. However, knitting is a hobby like, say golf. If a golfer spends money on new, improved clubs, golf balls, shoes etc, no-one says they have enough and should spend that money on golf equipment for others. But somehow, with knitting, there’s a belief that after a certain point, the knitter should be spending their hobby money & time on others. It seems like such a double standard. 🤔
