Its all true, the boogie girl is real, and you've found her. She knits, sews, spins, does pottery and writes it all down in this blog.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
Can you read?
Read your knitting that is.
I'm not sure how I learned to read patterns but I know I learned to read knitting and crochet from my gram. She's one of those ladies that can walk into a department store, see a knit or crocheted item and figure out how its made. She'll be holding it and muttering the directions to herself; "That's 1x1 rib and then its a cable to the back with 6 stitches and they do it x number of times and lets see, how many stitches for the front and add 2 for the seams."
That always used to impress the hell out of me. I can't really do that perfectly, but I'm learning everyday. Now, give gram a pattern and she's lost. I can't even read a pattern to her. I used to make her swatches from the pattern and she would use those to make a garment from whatever book. Well, she doesn't bother with that anymore, I have all the books and at 90 she just does what she wants and tells me if something is intersting.
Long story, but there is a point. It's important to read a pattern and to learn to read your knitting. I can finish a section and then go back and tell what I did if I forgot to write it down. Its necessary to stray from a pattern to make something fit our own bodies properly. Sometimes I make a mistake and need to find it in order to correct the piece, or to be able to rip back properly. I cringe at the thought of frogging. But sometimes I can't help it.
I'm glad Gram taught me to read my knitting. Instead of relying on my memory, which I've explained isn't very good at times, I read my waves sock. I didn't write down how many stitches did what, and how I changed my decreases just so I could have ribbing down the top of the foot instead of the waves pattern. After turning the heel the other night I realized that I read correctly and both socks are looking like a pair. I'm in the home stretch with those now.
Have you read a good piece of knitting lately?
Talk to me