I have returned to my career as a knitter (that’s a thing, right?).   I’ll pause here to let the applause die down.  I retired my needles for about a year and a half but I’m finally ready to give it a go again.

My career started January of 07.  I had my senior year Winter Term (DePauw gives the month of Jan for travel, classes, internships, etc) off and was bored out of my mind in Shelbyville.  So, I decided it was time for a new skill and all the girls in the Yellow Vic (senior year house) were giving it a go so why shouldn’t I.  I went to my dear Grandmother’s house for a tutorial and learned a simple stitch.  I was so simple and relaxing.  It took me a while to get the right rhythm, but it was well worth it.  Who better to teach you to knit then your grandma!

I spent that entire month doing nothing but knitting.  I would stay up late in my room watching Degrassi reruns and knitting my scarf.  I tagged along with Mom and Dad on a business meeting to San Antonio and spent the much delayed plane ride knitting next to a large biker man.   No seriously, he was like 12 feet tall with a leather vest and beard and stuff.  I think he enjoyed the gentle click of the needles.

I began extreme knitting when I got back to the Yellow Vic.  All of the girls would sit in the living room watching tv and knit or crochet.  I would knit while sitting on my giant, teal, gym ball.  I’m surprised I didn’t poke my eye out.

In all those winter days of knitting, I never once completed the scarf I was working on.  As a matter of fact, the scarf is currently still on the needles in the truck of my car.  The problem is that I started with like the smallest needles known to man kind.  The stitches on my scarf are minuscule.  Here, I’ll go take a picture of my half completed scarf in my trunk – one sec

I also noted that this picture showcases the bizarre things I keep in my trunk – like a Christmas hat with elf ears, a winter coat, Christmas cds, a bag knitting things, and a tub of old magazines.  Sick, Bess, clean your car.

But I’m not going to lie, my half completed scarf does look pretty awesome.

I have at this point finished some knitting projects.  The first completed project I did was a pair of glomits (half gloves half mittens).  I didn’t go off a pattern, and I totally made it work.  Each hand might not be EXACTLY the same size, but it’s passable.  I would take a picture of those, but I honestly have no idea where they are.  Maybe I’ll clean my trunk tonight and find them.

My first Christmas after college I knitted everyone in the family a Christmas present.  Entry level assistant media planners DO NOT make much money, and I had no friends in Indy besides my brother and sister so I had nothing but time to knit.  So knit I did, and did, and did, and did, and did.  I made everyone a  scarf and carefully choose the right yarn colors and textures from Mass Ave Knit Shop (which is actually located on Virginia Ave so don’t let that fool ya).  On some of them, I think I spent more money on buying nice llama wool than I would had I just bought a scarf.

It was Christmas Eve and I still had one more present to make – Dad’s glomits .  I kept knitting away, furiously working the needles (in my head it’s like that scene from Amadeus where he’s writing and writing).

Start a like the end of min 4 start of min 5

But there is where my GIANT KNITTING FAILURE occurred.

Here is how the one glomit I made Dad turned out.

This picture doesn’t have enough detail, but there was this long point that emerged.  I decided to sew the point up into the wrist area of the glomit to add extra wamth.  It looked completely and utterly ridiculous and kinda like the skirt of a 1950’s house dress.  UGGGG.  I was so done that I didn’t make any mit to the glomit nor did I even attempt to make the second hand.

Since that dreaded day, I haven’t picked up my knitting needles.  I put them away (or in my trunk) for safe keeping.   After a trip to the Greencastle Wal-Mart craft section with my dear Tori, I decided to give it ago again.  Right now I’m working on a blanket.  It’s pretty ambitious, but here’s for trying.  Last night I finally made some progress on it during Gossip Girl.  By writing this, I am asking all of the interweb to hold me accountable and to finish some knitting project.

GODSPEED NEEDLES.

Here’s more photos of my 1st/uncompleted scarf (and creepy trunk)