I haven’t been blogging about knitting much at all lately. It’s been months, maybe, since I even mentioned it. I have been knitting, though not every day and not for long when I do, but I haven’t been talking about it here or posting anything on Ravelry. Why? Because I’ve just been making plain, utilitarian stockinette items. Simple, useful things. A yak down neckwarmer for Billy, a merino cowl for me (pictured above), a Felicity cap for me. I haven’t been blogging them or photographing them. In each case, the right yarn for the job was found in the stash, the item quickly knit, and then immediately put to use. I didn’t blog them, because they were “just plain stockinette” and not newsworthy.
Well, those simple accessories were worn every day this winter. I continue to wear the cowl in the mornings and evenings, when it’s quite cool here. I wear it around the house. When it rains, if I’m not wearing a hoodie, I still pop the Felicity cap on my head, or if it’s not handy I pull that cowl up over my head instead. Useful, well-loved, barely given any thought at all. The other week I was standing outside with a neighbor and it started to rain, as it tends to do in Portland. I pulled the cowl up to cover my hair, and the neighbor was struck by the idea of it, how handy it was, etc. Because I love this neighbor dearly (She is the one who helped me through my weaning stumble.) I offered to make her one. I used bulky coned School Products Merino Cashmere in a rich brown color from the stash (bought a million years ago on this day), cast on 88 sts on US#11 needles, and knit for 18 inches. Cast off. Washed out all the coning oils, let it dry. Done. Simple, simple, simple. And you know what? When I handed that soft, plain old tube over to my neighbor today, her eyes lit up. She tried it on, and when she put it over her head it draped so beautifully around her face. I was standing behind her, and she was trying it on in front of the mirror, and the look on her face in the mirror was…well…everything you hope to see when you make something with your own time and effort for the pleasure of someone else. Plain old tube. Any patternwork or embellishment would have marred it. It was exactly right, just the way it was.
And so I wondered if blogging about my knitting all these years changed the way I valued the work, and for the worse. The things I love best, the things I reach for over and over, are the simple ones. And not just these accessories, but also sweaters. My plain old stockinette Monster sweater? Still my favorite. Ditto for all my rolltop st st socks. So often I opted for the patterned socks, the lace shawl, the colorwork sweaters…and then lost interest before finishing the project, because they weren’t necessarily things I wanted to wear. They were things I wanted to knit because my knitting skill level allowed me to do it. Or because my ego wanted to be able to blog about more challenging projects.
The lace and colorwork and all that…it has its place. I will still knit and enjoy wearing the results. But if I hadn’t had so many people watching my knitting over the past six years, I wonder if I might have produced more simple, useful things like that cowl.
The knitter in me wants to knit cables and lace and sweaters because I want the techniques and stitches and interest and challenge.
The human in me wears and uses the simple stockinette. No frills. No standout extras. Nothing to draw attention to the human me.
I knit the simple stockenette when life is crazy. And when it isn’t. To relax. To keep my fingers busy. So I don’t have talk to people. (ooops. Yes, I said that out loud. Sometimes I knit when I feel awkward in social situations just to have something to do other than make small talk.)
I knit. I knit for many changing reasons. All are valid. Sometimes that intersects with my blogging. Sometimes, not so much. I try to keep it in balance. I’m not always good at that.
I’m currently reading Walden by Henry David Thoreau and have been struck by the beauty of simple. After spending a few days with a friend who lives very simply, partly inspired by Walden, I’ve also been inspired to find fulfillment and joy in all things beautifully simple and useful. You’ve hit it on the head today with your stockinette knitting post. This weekend, it’s all stockinette for me!
on the one hand, the internet (and the resulting voyeurism of blogging and ravelry) have been great for my knitting skills – they have absolutely exposed me to new techniques and challenges, and the desire to bring my knitting up to the level of those challenges.
but at the end of the day? i think there’s a reason i keep throwing aside a lace project to work on an hourglass pullover.
simple, warm, perfect, useful.
Some of us extra-wise ones have known this all along. That sounds so pompous, but haven’t I always said this? Is it still pompous (or bragging) if it’s true? LOL. I’m slapping my own face right now so you don’t have to. 😀
I’m just disgusting. 😀
XO
It’s very cool when the skillz let you make those useful things without even batting an eye. I told a friend I’d make him a hat one weekend. With just a casual wave of my hand and as an aside. He had to have me repeat it twice before I realized he couldn’t get over that I could MAKE a hat in a WEEKEND. That old amazement that I could produce something from almost nothing (remember that amazement?). It was fun to be reminded that it is pretty cool I can do it.
I am so with you. I’ve spent the winter loving my plain stockinette socks that I can toss into the washer and dryer (thank you Regia!) And loving my olive green simple hoodie. Nothing wrong with simple, done and put to use!!
I would enjoy seeing the simple stockinette items that get daily use. I think those items are very lovely, especially because they do get so much use.
As for not blogging about those knits, I was thinking about that this past week regarding what I blog. I don’t knit a lot of challenging items though I have on occasion. Right now I happen to be working on a Central Park Hoodie but I view it as being something I’ll use. I do always show basic knits but wonder sometimes if it serves a purpose? I guess as long as I like knitting them it does.
Its interesting, isn’t it? The effect on us of being watched, knitting as performance.
There is nothing *common* about knitting. Every thing that is knit is an expression of your skill or your love or your desire to do something good. So what if we’re looking, do and post what you want and don’t worry about it being too plain. There’s no such thing.
It’s funny because I am sometimes shy about posting pics of knitting projects, because simple things are the only kind I ever knit. Yeah, my skills aren’t so advanced – I’ve never in my life knit a cable; haven’t even tried – but it’s partly because I tend to just knit things I want to wear right away.
Or want to give people. Or I just fall in love with some excitingly colored yarn and feel like doing something too fussy with it would be overkill.
I dunno, maybe it’s rationalization, and maybe it comes down to the old question of knitting for the sake of the knitting or knitting for the sake of the wearing. But I was happy to read this post.
Yes, isn’t it funny! I find myself wanting to apologize from my blog readers when I’ve started yet another garter stitch project. 😀 I don’t though – I like how the simple projects look, and I enjoy knitting them. And I really like your cowl!
Is it dorky that your post brought a tear to my eye?
A friend recently took me to task for not putting my socks on Ravelry. My response? “Um. I don’t rav socks – I just put them on my feet.”
Those socks? The whole drawer full of them? I wear them All The Time. And they are beautiful. Stockinette and patterned, they do their job and they are gorgeous.
And I have been thinking about a cowl. One would probably be perfect for next winter. Dimensions, please?
For a dash of beautiful simplicity, I love to visit Brooklyn Tweed and also the Mason-Dixon ladies. It’s not just the knitting but the writing that makes them interesting to see/read. But I must say, I still really like the last sweater you designed for Knitty.
I have to admit–I like knitting lace. But a rhythmic lace, with a definate repeat of some sort. Stockinette and garter tend to bore me when I knit–if I’m knitting a lot of it. However, the knitted items that get the most wear (other than socks–they are a class of their own)? Two garter stitch triangle shawls and a February Lady sweater that I knit in stockinette instead of lace. (The socks? Most are stockinette, but that’s because the colors would look funny in a pattern. I’ll wear just about any kind of handknit sock.)
Well put. I think there is great value in knitting something useful and simple.
I’ve been knitting for over 50 years and that’s pretty much my method. I have eight sibs and we have 22 kids and three grands so socks fly out the door. And are loved. Lace is for babies and weddings and shawls to comfort the bereaved or celebrate anniversaries. Depth of colour and fine-ness of texture and the movement of a logical beautiful pattern are comfort for this knitter. My ‘stash’ of 50 years fits into two modest boxes, contains a wealth of possibility and few embarrasments. Some of my knitting colleagues find me a little slow on the uptake . . . but knitting in this funny old-fashioned way makes me feel truly content.
I usually don’t show my knitting on my blog and I try to upload it to ravelry while looking the other way because I feel it’s boring – it’s just useful or cute nothings that don’t show any great skill or creativity. But I love them, the recipients love them and that’s all that matters I think. It’s funny because I often go out purposefully looking for simple items to knit (like a stockingette tube – brilliant!) and can’t find anything other than items that have fancy patterns or cables or frills…and that’s not “me”. I for one can say that I would love to see your simple every day knitting – those are the kind of items that are really special to us, the ones we use.
I’ve been leaning toward the same myself (now that I’m over my recent lace kick), but I couldn’t put it into words the way you did. There’s room for each of course, but these days for me, simple is a wonderful thing. Thanks for expressing it so well.
My favourite knitted items are pretty much just the simple ones. I love plain sock, and in fact I like knitting plain st st. I find it soothing, rather than boring. I find lace and cables to a lesser extent, stressful, and not as enjoyable.
I don’t knit many complex items, even though my skill would allow me to. But don’t feel that simple is not blog worthy, I love to read about it!
I was sitting around knitting with a friend once ages ago and she looked at whatever I was knitting (probably a hat) and said she loved my knitting because you could tell it was done by hand. I didn’t think that was a compliment at the time. I’m a fairly neat knitter–it’s not like everything I knit it lumpy (except that one hat I knit in the dark while drunk that had space for a goiter.)
I don’t have the patience to learn complicated stitches or patterns. But I could knit your monster sweater. I love it.
I just wish my hands hurt less. I can’t knit for extended periods of time anymore. :/
Cool. I’m exploring this territory right now… thinking, processing – how it is possible to make utilitarian garments with our own hands and respect their functionality and the skill that brought them into being, and could this be an antidote for the treatment of clothing as a consumable, a banal thing that is considered disposable in direct proportion to its utility. Making Real clothes should be celebrated, I think!
I don’t blog and, alas, I post in Ravelry in spurts as the spirit moves me to take the time and bother to photo knit objects and post them. Nevertheless, I sincerely appreciate all the myriad ideas and talent that I view on Ravelry as well as in various knitter blog sites. I tend to knit one complicated object, followed by something simple and mindless. Or, I have some of both on the needles and jump back and forth. By way of explanation, I’m a Libra, always seeking balance!
Cheers!
nice to see you, love
xo
xina
Life is such a process.
I stalled on the first para for a bit because I was trying to figure out what yak down meant. Like neck down sweater? Leg down sock? But yak down, that was new to me. 🙂
sometimes it’s the simple things in life that are love and cherished the most.