Several winters ago, when we weren’t baking, writing, and posting, knowing that I am a knitter, Tracey sent me a message and asked if I could make her a capelet like the one worn by Brianna Frasier in the Outlander series.  She had already found a pattern online so I was fairly confident that I could make it.  We discussed yarn and colors via text messages and finally settled on the yarn and color specified in the pattern, something I almost never do.  But, since I had never seen Outlander, this gave me faith that the finished product would be all that Tracey hoped it would be.

It didn’t take me long to finish the capelet.  I boxed it up and sent it on its way to Michigan.  It’s arrival sparked some serious discussions about knitting in general.  How can one learn to knit?  What supplies are needed to get started?  Where are the best places to buy yarn?  What is a good first project?  Even through text messages, I could feel the wheels turning in Tracey’s head.  I know her well enough to know that she subscribes to the philosophy:

Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day.  Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

As an interesting aside, the origin of this quote is not clear.  What we do know is that it has been included in several journals and treatises whose focus is on how to reduce poverty in the world, the goal being to teach people trades that allow them to support and sustain themselves.

Our updated version of this quote is:

Give a girl a knitted capelet and you’ve given a girl a knitted capelet.  Help a girl learn to knit and you’ve created a lifelong yarn-loving knitting machine.

It makes me happy that we now have one more thing that is a common interest. Tracey was a quick study and really has been a knitting machine!  Over these last couple years, we have shared patterns, and tips, and yarn sale coupons.  Most importantly, we now share a love of knitting!

Knitting may not be any less expensive a hobby than baking, but we definitely don’t consume as many calories!  In fact, knitting actually burns calories…especially when you are ripping it out mistakes. :-). My Apple Watch consistently asks me if I want to record my elliptical workout when I am ripping out several rows of knitting.  I’m not proud.  I’ll take those exercise minutes any way that I can get them!

From Tracey:

Ok, I have to jump right in and say yep – everything she said!

I had tried crochet MANY years ago and I it never stuck with me. I had a really cool afghan going, but it kept going and going and going because I wasn’t very good at keeping a consistent tension etc. Then I thought I’d try knitting, and (as much as this is dating me) back then the only way to learn out of books – and I can honestly say that this kind of skill is not one I can learn from scratch out of a book. I got so frustrated I put it away and never looked back. Until that caplet.

It was Claire’s, and I had never noticed it. Then they put it on Brianna in another season and I discovered how cool it was and I wanted one! But, I didn’t know how to knit – but I did know who to ask. And the *actual* pattern for it was found (there are lots of others out there that are great too, but thanks to a little research I found *the one*), for the original that was featured in the show. And it’s wonderful, I absolutely adore it and love when the weather is right for it! But as Kris said, that got me thinking. It was at dinner one night when telling Jeremy about it, I said I wish I had learned to knit. He looked at me funny and said, “uh, Tracey, you know it’s not too late to learn right?” I suppose I HAD thought it was too late!

And so I started asking Kris what one would need for this undertaking. Back then, we had the learn-a-craft-via-video service, BluPrint, one of those learn anything you want to do kind of things (was Craftsy originally, then BluPrint and now it’s Craftsy again) and they had a Learn to Knit kit! I jumped in head first and bought it, and that combined with the video-learning format (so much easier to “see” things), I was on the path to being a maker! With lots of back and forth texts, she got me on the road to being fairly proficient at this stuff! It’s been so nice having her to help me, her patience with all my photos of “why does this look wrong?” and talking me through things I needed lots of help with. And now that I have a handle on things, books can be very helpful when you have an understanding of what you’re doing. Not to mention that, with a wonderful teacher like Kris, one can learn to do anything.

I can never thank Kris enough for her help in getting me going with this hobby, even if we tease saying she brought me over to the dark side! It’s been something that has kept me sane in these crazy times and brought me soooooo very much joy in creating things! (even if I don’t like the “finishing” very much, lol!) And as Kris stated, it sure has saved on the calorie-consuming, plus – yarn doesn’t go bad like food-stuffs!

But, alas, along with the good, also comes the bad. I now have a addiction to yarn buying and pattern buying. It’s definitely an affect of the down-the-rabbit-hole that is being a maker in the knitting arena!