My thoughts exactly

I stumbled upon this post and wanted to share it with you because it articulates so many feelings I've had lately.

I suppose it helps to tell you my story of how I became a knitter. I feel like I'm in church giving my testimonial or something, which is another rant altogether. Anyways, like most of us knitters, my darling mother knit and was the one who taught me to knit. My mother was raised in a strict Mennonite family (I should post a picture on this but that will be another time) and somehow never caught the quilting bug, so knitting it was! When I was nine, she taught me to knit, purl, and cable. One day, I actually took my knitting on the bus to school. Yes, I was a full-blown nerd.

Knitting fell by the wayside as I progressed through college and med school and now that I have some "spare time" (a really funny phrase to me) while I'm doing research in the middle of my residency, I decided to pick knitting up again. It was now, or never. I basically had to re-learn everything, not having Mutti handy. I completed my first full-on cable sweater from IK a few months after that (it required reading a chart, which I basically taught myself to do by trial and error).

Knitting is hard, but it's NOT impossible. I think the biggest secret out there is that cabling is hard (i.e. "Cables Untangled")--I personally think it's the easiest thing out there, easier than lace knitting, easier than sock or glove knitting. It's deceptively simple, because it looks so amazing when done right. Lace knitting took some work to wrap my brain around (after 6 months of knitting) but I did that, too. I have no desire to do socks or gloves--they are too time-consuming and will ultimately be full of holes.

I'm tired of seeing books titled "quick and easy" or "I can't believe I'm knitting" or "funky chunky." Because even beginners can do the tricky stuff. It might be challenging on occasion, but it's not rocket science, so stop making it seem like it is and that we aren't capable of doing it!

And what's up with the plain oversized bags-comme-sweaters?? I want something intricate and well-shaped. I want it to look professional, like I might have bought it at a store, but better than that, because store-bought items often cheat you out of details on the arms or the backs of sweaters. I really want to blow people's minds away when they compliment me on a sweater, and then find out I made it. I don't think I do that very often, but I may have come close with Pam.

So there you have it.