(Hey . . . . psst . . . . Christine ! How 'bout just telling the folks why you wanted to do this?) Oh, right, great idea! So . . . . once upon a time there was a knitter who was looking for some direction in her knitting life. She rented the movie Julie and Julia which magically gave birth to a Grand Plan to figure out some kind of structured plan for knitting her way through something or other and blog about it. Sounds so completely mundane, boring even, now that I actually put it into words. So . . . . how do I get across the excitement I actually feel about this project? Hmmm. Well, there's the part about how I actually kind of enjoy writing. There was the long-dreaded English class that I had put off for what was it, about 8 years actually, and the only thing that got me to sign up was I found I was only 3 credits of English 200 short of finally getting my AS degree. Classicly (is that even a word? . . and you're calling yourself a writer ! ? . . computer sure doesn't like it . . . oh well, just think of it as a new stitch and carry on) Anyway, classicly the teacher turned out to be my favorite teacher of all time and the writing was actually FUN and now I'd like to try writing just for . . . . well, FUN!
As for the knitting part of the picture, I'm truly a knitter looking for direction. I've tried lots of different things, and like most of them. I love knitting socks. I also love knitting quick projects, even occasionally with big needles and big yarn. And then I also enjoy a challenge and have at least started a couple of shawls - love that lace! I'm currently somewhere past the middle of a Moderne Log Cabin Blanket ala Mason Dixon Knitters, and finishing up the second of three Wonderful Wallaby sweaters for grandsons in Colorado (figuring I'll probably get done on the hottest day of the year in July!) And there are other projects on the needles, on the scrap yarn, on the KnitPicks cables with endcaps! Those of you who are finish-a-project-before-starting-a-new-one knitters will be slightly less horrified to hear that I am now in my finish-at-least-some-of-this-stuff-before-casting-on-anything-new phase. I also really love felting . . . and dyeing . . . and there isn't much about knitting that I don't like. I'm even starting to try my hand at designing - more on that later when I've made a little more progress!
But . . . . I've lately been feeling somehow dissatisfied with my knitting direction, since it doesn't seem that I really have one, and that my knitting life lacks a certain focus. Last fall I became enchanted with the prospect of working through Jacqueline Fee's Sweater Workshop (with Wire-O binding, of course!) and knit up my sampler lickety-split. Since then I've offered the sampler as a class through my local (Big Timber, MT) community education and through Back Porch Quilts in Livingston, MT. We're halfway through the Livingston class and both classes have been great fun.
The final stimulus to actual make a decision and decide on a direction was enrolling in a knitting class through Wild Purls in Billings, MT. This is not just any knitting class mind you, but Knitting as Metaphor. One class per month for four months; we just had our third class last evening, with one more to go in April. It's been one of the best classes I've ever taken. We talk about knitting, have discussed among other things how our Meyers-Briggs personality (I'm an INFJ) relates to how we approach knitting and what is our personal knitted cupcake. (More about both of those later.) The personality test and just listening to other knitters has confirmed for me that the direction I really want to go in at this point is to work on taking the Craft Yarn Council's (CYCA) Correspondence Certified Instructor's Program.
To that end, I sent in my money ($105 for a TKGA member) and enrollment form today. I can hardly wait to get my kit. Once I've completed the second level of that program - Certified Teacher (Level I is Certified Instructor) I'll look at completing The Knitting Guild of America's Master Knitter Program. So the plan is that this blog will mainly be about completing all the swatches and other work involved in my progress toward becoming certified. First step will be Certified Instructor. My hope is that the program will give me something concrete to blog about, though I'm sure I'll digress at times, and that blogging will keep me accountable with the program and will give me the nudge I may need to redo things at times.
As soon as I can ask my friend and blogging mentor Montana Mary of Yummy Montana, I'll find out about posting photos, as well as learning how to take better pictures! In the works as well is a commitment I've made to actually start using Ravelry to post my own stuff - stash, needles, pics, projects.
Until next time -- Happy Knitting!
