Great Life Lessons from Knitting

Because it’s Thanksgiving in America, it makes sense to take a moment to reflect on why knitting is so important in our lives. For me, knitting is part of my career, of course, but I would still love to knit even if no one paid me for it. It is a calming influence in my life (most of the time), allows me to warm my child and other people with the work of my hands, is a way to be creative and is just fun.

After the recent Knitter’s Review retreat, where the gathered knitters had amassed a collective 1,000+ years of knitting experience, Clara Parkes compiled a list of 10 life lessons for knitters.

From “always buy the best yarn you can afford” to “good knitting needs to be worn and enjoyed,” these lessons are true and sweet and bear repeating over and over.

My favorite?

If you ever find yourself saying, “I’m too stressed out to knit,” reevaluate your life so it never happens again.

But do go check out the whole list and all the great pictures from the event. They’ll make you thankful to be a knitter. (Awww…)

[Photo via Knitter’s Review.]

Looking for more Thanksgiving patterns check these out on Etsy.

Next Pattern:

If you’re looking for a sweater knitting pattern that uses up some of your stash and allows you to make just the sweater you want, the Marlina Rib by Shay Johson might be just the thing.

It’s worked with two strands of fingering weight yarn held together to make a DK weight gauge, so you can use the same two yarns throughout or change one or both regularly for an even more colorful look.

The pattern has options to make it either a crewneck or a henley style with buttons, tapered or relaxed sleeves, and a straight hemline or a split hem with buttons (which sounds so cute if you do the henley with split hem and match the buttons on both parts).

It’s also knit from the top down so you can make the body and the sleeves as long as you want. There are 10 sizes available in the pattern, with a chest circumference ranging from 32 to 68 inches, or 81.5 to 172.5 cm. It’s meant to be worn with 4-6 inches/10-15 cm of positive ease at the chest.

The pattern page on Ravelry includes tons of measurements and yardage estimates so you can make sure you’ll get a good fit for your body before you even buy the pattern. Shay also shows a few variations of the sweater so you can see how different options look before you decide how you want to put them together.

The stitch pattern is 1×2 ribbing, which is really easy to do and gives a look almost like fisherman’s rib that’s relaxed and easy to wear.

This sweater looks like a great option for people who are somewhat new to sweater knitting or those who love to have lots of customization options (because it’s like getting multiple sweater patterns in one!).

Check out all the details and grab a copy of the pattern for yourself at Ravelry.

[Photo: Shay Johnson]

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