Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Knit Geek Questionnaire Meme

OK, I'm feeling totally apathetic at this time of the year and have no idea what to write. So I've nicked a Meme (whatever that is) from one of the Groups I belong to (it also came from here) and will put my own comments in it.

1. What's your worst habit relating to your knitting? I have the habit at times of losing interest in what I am knitting - I have many UFOs (UnFinished Objects) in a cupboard waiting for me to develop interest in them again.

2. In what specific ways does your knitting make you a better person? Not at all, it's just something I do.

3. How might you or your life be different if you were suddenly unable to knit? I would probably destroy the tv set - many the time I have continued watching an uninspiring tv programme because I have some knitting to occupy me.

4. If money were no object, what one yarn, and what one tool or gadget would you run out and buy first? Absolutely no idea.

5. What knitting technique or project type are you most afraid of (if any)? What, specifically, do you fear will happen when you try it? Fair Isle or Intarsia. The only time I tried Fair Isle I knit it at much too tight a tension so the finished garment looked wrong. I've not had the courage subsequently to try again.

6. Who is/are your knitting hero(es), and why? I don't think I have any. I grew up surrounded by women who knit and just considered it a normal activity, so I don't think there is such a thing as a knitting hero(ine).

7. Do you consider knitting, for you personally, a mostly social activity, or a mostly solitary activity? A solitary activity, or at least something I do at home with the Husband and family.

8. Is there a particular regional tradition in knitting that you feel strongly drawn toward (e.g., Fair Isle, Scandinavian, Celtic, Orenburg lace)? Any theories as to why it calls to you? Aran knitting. Stocking Stitch is boring to do for any length of time but give me a jumper with lots of cables to do and I am a happy bunny.

9. If you were a yarn, which yarn would you be? No idea, probably something in pure wool.

10. Some statistics:
(a) How many years have passed since you FIRST learned to knit?
50 years, I think - I was about 5 years old.
(b) How many total years have you been actively, regularly knitting (i.e., they don't have to have been in a row)? I suppose since I left school and started work at 16. Up to then I just fiddled about, making dolls clothes as a child and then the odd jumper when I reached adolescence. After I started work I began to knit during my spare time. I still do so.
(c) how many people have you taught to knit? No-one.
(d) Roughly what percentage of your FOs do you give away (to anyone besides yourself, i.e., including your immediate family) I suppose 1 in 3 of the sweaters I knit is for the Husband.

11. How often do you KIP (knit in public)? Never. I am aware that many knitters enjoy doing this but to my mind knitting is something one does because you enjoy doing it on your own or to finish something you want to wear. It is not to become an exhibitionist and display to others how skilled you are. (Having said that when I was commuting to work in London I used to knit on the train and the tube to relax myself and stop myself from going mad at the commute.)

12. If a genie granted you one hour to stitch-n-bitch with any one knitter, living or dead, who would you choose and why? I'm not sure, probably Kathleen Kinder, not because of handknitting but to become fascinated once again at machine knitting and to dust off my own machine and find somewhere in the house to put it up.

13. What aspect or task in knitting makes you most impatient? Doing a tension square (so I don't do one: fortunately I always knit to tension).

14. What is it about knitting that never lets you get bored with it? Cables, lace patterns or anything patterned engages my interest.

15. Describe how and where you most often do your knitting - where do you sit, what is going on around you, what tools do you use and how are they (dis)organized? All the accutrements of whatever I am working on sits beside my chair in the sitting room, so I can pick up my knitting quickly and easily whenever I chose. The work I am not actually working on is packed away in a cupboard, as is the bag with spare knitting needles, stitch holders and other knitting bits and pieces.

16. Which one person is the recipient of more of your knitting than any other? Myself, I suppose. I do knit for the Husband, though, and I made a blanket for my hairdresser's new baby last year.

17. What's the oddest thing about your knitting, or yourself as a knitter? Nothing. I was raised to consider knitting an ordinary, everyday activity - and that is how I've always treated it.

18. What do you see yourself knitting - if anything - twenty years from now? Woolly bed socks: we'll both be in our 70's by then and will probably be feeling the cold at night.

19. If you were stranded on a deserted island and could have only ONE SKEIN of yarn, which yarn would it be and what would you do with it? Depends where the island was situated and how cold it was: if warm a shawl for cool nights; if cold then some warm socks for nighttime.

20. If you were allowed to own only one knitting-related book, which would it be? (you'd be free to browse others, but you couldn't keep them) My knitting bible, that tells me anything I need to know and that I've had for years is "The Handknitter's Handbook" by Montse Stanley.

21. Is knitting the new yoga? Why or why not? Knitting is knitting and something one just does. Why make a fashionable fuss of it?

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