For the Love of Knitting

Hello Knitters,

It’s the shortest month of the year, but packed with lots of goodies. During February, we especially take this time to express our love and gratitude for our significant others, family, and friends.  Today, is also a small anniversary for Steph with Keep You In Stitches as I started this blog exactly one year ago.

We started off small and a little rickety, but through lots of support I finally started to capture my thoughts online. As I wiggled my way through WordPress and gained some new friends in the knitting community, this little blog developed a big space in my heart. For a self-taught newbie, my knitting and blogging skills have grown and this redesign is to reflect that progress. The general format for each post will be in two parts. The first part will focus on a particular theme, technique, or resource that I found useful and the second part will be an update on my knitting projects. I will also ask a few questions here and there to spark a conversation. So my question for you dear friends…what do you think I should add to this blog?

To kick off our new year together, I’ve been thinking about my knitting goals for 2015. I think they are ambitious, but completely doable. Of course, I hope these projects will keep the creative juices flowing and the end results will be something new to wear this spring and summer. So take a sneak peak into what I anticipate will be on my needles. Please note, I did not knit the following images below, but I provided links to where you can find the patterns.

• Spring/summer lace shawl

 

• Two stranded fingerless gloves  

 

• Bolero/Cardigan                      

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I’m making great progress with Travis’ socks and it has been inspiring to circle back to a pattern that I learned just last spring. As you may recall there were numerous mistakes with my first pair of socks. However, the second time around has been a lot easier with no hidden holes. When we meet again, I’m sure I’ll have a couple of photos to share so I’ll close tonight with poem that captures the simplicity of this craft.

Ode to My Socks by Pablo Neruda

—

Mara Mori brought me
a pair of socks
which she knitted herself
with her sheepherder’s hands,
two socks as soft as rabbits.
I slipped my feet into them
as if they were two cases
knitted with threads of twilight and goatskin,
Violent socks,
my feet were two fish made of wool,
two long sharks
sea blue, shot through
by one golden thread,
two immense blackbirds,
two cannons,
my feet were honored in this way
by these heavenly socks.
They were so handsome for the first time
my feet seemed to me unacceptable
like two decrepit firemen,
firemen unworthy of that woven fire,
of those glowing socks.

Nevertheless, I resisted the sharp temptation
to save them somewhere as schoolboys
keep fireflies,
as learned men collect
sacred texts,
I resisted the mad impulse to put them
in a golden cage and each day give them
birdseed and pieces of pink melon.
Like explorers in the jungle
who hand over the very rare green deer
to the spit and eat it with remorse,
I stretched out my feet and pulled on
the magnificent socks and then my shoes.

The moral of my ode is this:
beauty is twice beauty
and what is good is doubly good
when it is a matter of two socks
made of wool in winter.

Thanks for being a part of this journey with me!
–Stephanie