7 June: Some thoughts on knitting

A comment on the last entry has started a chain of thought.

The method of constructing a sock which I used is almost certainly not new, though I only came across it recently (on the Internet, of course). Knitting is one of the more ancient arts or crafts - and I don't intend to argue about the difference between those two. So it follows that anything we are able to do with knitting nowadays has almost certainly been done in the past (our ancestors did, after all, invent the wheel). It's only sticks and some yarn.

A few books provide basic techniques of starting and finishing, and ways of combining stitches to make patterns, and other books show how garments were made in other places and at other times. Current magazines and the Internet provide information on what is currently being made - not worn, though; some of the weird and wonderful garments are destined for the What Not to Knit website.

So the garment is chosen, and the shape and size worked out. Most things can be started at either end, some in the middle. Knitting can be done from bottom to top, top to bottom, side to side, or diagonally. It depends what suits - drape, or the lack of it, thickness of fabric, stitch pattern, all need to be considered. If you can draw it, you can knit it, and even if you can't draw a 3D shape, if you can see it in your mind's eye, you can knit it.

The yarn has to be selected - wool, cotton, linen, hemp, polyester, soy, bamboo, alpaca, dog hair, bison, mohair, lurex, or strips cut from plastic bags. The world's your lobster.

Then colour - plain or fancy, subtle or bold, how many colours, and how to combine them; whether to use colours already held, or to make some different ones.

There are enough combinations there to provide hours of fun. Then the actual knitting process is enjoyable. And when it's finished, something to wear or give, and to feel proud of. Or perhaps to frog and start again!