Knitting: the one with two needles
By Ashlyn Wuench
Executive Editor
Over January, I took a course with Luther College in Decorah, Iowa centered around the idea of living “a good life.” During the first weekend, I walked around downtown Decorah to visit a few local shops. One of the shops I wandered into was The Blue Heron Knittery. I walked around The Knittery and stopped at a beautifully designed hat. I had never done any yarn work before, so I left the store without buying anything. I didn’t stop thinking about the hat design, though.
The following day, I walked back to the downtown shop with a mission. I wanted to knit the hat I couldn’t shake from my mind.
I walked in and found myself in front of the soft wool and knitting patterns. I had no idea where to even begin reading the patterns. It was much harder than I initially imagined. I nearly gave up, but I wanted to follow through on my dream of making this hat. So, I googled whether knitting or crocheting was easier. Most sources pointed to the latter, but I couldn’t crochet the hat because it was a knitting pattern.
I walked up to the front counter.
“So. I don’t know how to knit. Or crochet. The closest thing I’ve done are some little sewing projects a while ago. Is it realistic to make that hat?” I asked, pointing behind me.
The Knittery employee nodded assuringly and thought for a moment.
“Yes, it is. But not yet — follow me,” she responded.
We walked over to some donated needles. She found a mismatched pair of them for me, then we walked to the back of the store where she told me to pick my favorite color. I chose an olive green yarn, and we walked up to the front. She gave me the needles for free, and the yarn was fairly cheap. She started out my first stitches and told me every step.
“Start with a scarf. Come back for the hat.”
I left feeling incredibly motivated for what was to come. I thought that I could catch on easily, like with other crafts, and I would come back in a few weeks prepared to take on a hat pattern.
Within those two weeks, I lost a needle in a cabin in Montana, readjusted to attached needles, and ended up adding eight new stitches, which expanded my scarf abruptly. I was re-taught several times by those in the Luther crew who knew how to knit, and they would fix my mistakes when I came to them. I took my ball of yarn with me everywhere I went. I eventually had to unknit the progress I made because I had made so many mistakes.
I felt so defeated. But I had to persevere for the hat. To continue practicing a new skill that was originally foreign to me. Knitting is hard; don’t get me wrong. However, it was a new activity I thought I couldn’t do, and I continuously received signs to not continue my first project.
Hobbies don’t have to be easy or come naturally. Knitting a stitch was not intuitive, and I did struggle quite a bit. In learning to knit and unknit, I learned that I could take on a new skill and not give up when it got difficult. I think that is the beauty of knitting. It’s undeniably hard, but I have a newfound sense of appreciation for every person I see knitting in public. I admire the dedication and efforts it takes to sit with a project and knit each stitch.
I am about halfway through the scarf, and hope to go back to The Knittery someday to attempt to knit a hat. It’ll be tough, but that’s what will make it valuable to me in the end.
Hooray for crochet!
By Abbey Weitzenkamp
News Editor
Many balls of yarn ago, sitting in class with idle, craftless hands, I looked up from my USA Today crossword and realized I hadn’t heard a thing in the last 10 minutes. Instead of trying to take notes on whatever I’d missed in my word game haze, I looked across from me and saw my cool and mysterious classmate take a crochet project out of their backpack. What’s this? A lovely new way to distract myself in class? Don’t mind if I do. The yarn was so pretty, the hook so shiny — I wondered what they might be making. A hat? Sweater? Stuffed raccoon? That day I decided: I’m gonna learn how to crochet.
All art forms are amazing and sexy and should be celebrated, but if you are, as I was two years ago, new to fiber arts, let me be your guide: get into crochet. I will confess that I do not know how to knit, but it looks fricking hard. First of all, you have to keep track of two needles. Imagine you’re knitting and you drop a needle. It’s fallen into a storm drain, gone forever, and suddenly you may never be able to look at a sweater again. But crochet has just the one hook, which is much easier to keep track of, and you can stick it behind your ear if you feel like being really performative.
When I first started, I thought it was going to be really hard. It takes a little patience, but once you’ve learned a stitch or two, it’s pretty easy. The Woobles company has really great instructional videos on YouTube, which you can watch regardless of whether or not you’re using their kits.
So, ditch those old lady needles and grab a hook instead. It’s way cooler, I swear.
