House of Monkey

The House of Monkey: Intelligent and with a fun loving side, Monkeys like to be challenged with every project presenting them with something new and interesting.

I don’t even remember why I learned to knit. I have always had a pull to create. As a young adult I tried sewing and cross stitch, but neither held my interest for very long. I need a something challenging that would stretch me creatively and be easily adaptable to my “rules were made to be broken” attitude towards patterns.

I must have seen someone at church knitting because one Halloween week-end I cornered my aunt and begged her to teach me how to knit. Sitting at the kitchen table she taught me how to knit and purl. She gave me vague instructions on how to bind off, a stitch glossary with a few projects and encouraged me to have fun. At the end of the week-end she left me with the project, not knowing what she had sparked.

My first project was a rather ambitious scarf; wide and long. I quickly got bored with it and bound off the best I could and gave it to the daycare kids to use as a blanket for their Barbies.  The next project I choose was no less ambitious: a six foot skinny scarf knit with thick stripes. It took forever, but I finished it, and gave it to a friend.

My first project

I don’t remember what my next projects were after that. What I do recall was feeling like I would never be a good knitter. I picked up the stitch book my aunt had given me and choose the most difficult looking stitch. I decided that if I could knit this stitch (a trinity stitch) that I could knit anything.

I didn’t disappoint myself.

Bolstered with confidence I decided that I could and would knit everything and anything I wanted. I made a mental list of all the obstacles I faced in knitting and took them on one at a time..

DPN’s? – yes

Circular? –yes

In the round? – yes

Mittens that fit? – yes

Did all my projects fit right? – no

Does that ever stop me? – never

My most recent challenge was a cabled vest for my boy for Easter. I knit it like I knit all things that challenge me: one stitch at a time, one row at a time.

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