I’m Knitting Pretty Tonight!

It’s Day 3 of The Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week where we’re talking about our knitting heroes!

Before that, let me just say, daisie jane, you thought I had forgotten, didn’t you?  LOL! I finally got started on those mittens for the Girl Child with the n-plied yarn.  I may have to rip back though and rethink these because I’m just not so sure that ball of yarn is going to last two whole mittens….but we’ll see.  In the meantime, here’s a shot of how it’s knitting up close up.

I think the color changes are happening a lot faster in this one.  And they look to be more solid.  There’s not much barber-poling in this yarn at all.  It’s also a lot rounder of a yarn to knit with.  I think that is because an n-ply is like a three ply, in a sense.  Not a true one.  But very like it in structure.  I’ll know for sure the longer I knit with it though.  I had to stop early and rush these photos because I still haven’t figured out how to bottle that sunlight yet. :)

Okay.  So back to today’s topic.  I think this may have been a topic last year and I had a difficult time answering it with a name.  I think there are just so many wonderful knitters and knitwear designers out there that I’d have too much difficulty telling you which I’d choose as my foremost hero.  It’s like a french fry.  You just can’t have one…lol!

I like a lot of different things, so I like a lot of different knitters.  I suppose if I had to compose a list it would definitely have to include Elizabeth Zimmerman (no brainer), Barbara Walker (another no brainer), Melanie Falick (you already know the crush I have on that woman’s book), Ann Budd (I think her IQ must be in the stratosphere), Erika Knight (I just love the beauty and innovation she uses in her designs…all with a wonderful simplicity about them) and anything JoStorie.  But tonight, I’m knitting pretty!

My knitting hero of all time just may be Kris Percival. Kris Percival is the author of Knitting Pretty (add to that Speed Knitting, and a Knitting to Go Deck and you might begin to see why I would find her to be my knitting hero). She thinks of knitters like me.  Not to mention, Knitting Pretty was the very first beautiful book I ever picked up as a beginner knitter and I’m so glad I did!  Look at the cover.

Just look at that! That scarf is in my space and the yarn is all soft and shiny and bouncy looking.  The colors are soothing and that yarn ball in the background makes me want to climb in and grab it!

That said, it wasn’t the very first book I picked up.  The very first book was one of those Learn to Knit books from Walmart.  The books that tell you that it’s easy as 1-2-3.  I had one of those books.  Not the most inspirational for me.

Now, I understand there are a ton of other books, even beginner books, with way more technical information in them.  But for a city girl who had never seen anyone knit before, there was nothing that got my fingers itching to knit than thumbing through that book, looking at all the textures and colors.  I think it’s still that way today.  I just love a beautiful knitting book! I joke about how when I read crafts books, I am really just looking at the photos…that’s really not that far from the truth.  I really am literate.  I swear.

But see that?  How could you not love that photo?  It’s so very inviting and colorful (I think she likes color too- :) ).  And when I first learned to knit, with the only access to a yarn shop being the local Walmart, I longed to touch yarn that looked like that! It was all a fabulous world I wanted to be part of.  I wanted to be a knitter!

Truth be told, I didn’t learn to knit right off.  It took me some time.  Like weeks!  One, I didn’t have a teacher.  And, two, I was a full time student, so I wouldn’t have had the time to have yet another teacher anyway.  But seeing what I could one day touch and handle with my own hands, made it worth it to me to keep trying.

So, yeah.  I’d have to say, Kris Percival.  If it weren’t for her book, I might not be knitting pretty tonight.  :)