Here’s the contents of the paragraph pointing to the sweater:

“Althea Crome of Indiana knit a starry sweater and teensy striped five-finger gloves for Coraline. Crome knits with needles not much thicker than a human hair. It takes her anywhere from six weeks to design and knit her conceptual sweaters. Some have complete scenes on tiny pullovers and cardigans. See her work at bugknits.com.”

She even lives in Bloomington! See Althea Crome in action in the video in the next post.

Each and every knitter has her or his own reason or reasons for knitting. Mine stem from my childhood.

I grew up in a very large family, the second of eight children. Needless to say my mother, who is from Germany, didn’t  have much time to spend with each of us individually. My best memories are of the tiny clothes my mother knit for my Barbie. She herself doesn’t even remember knitting them. We’re talking about 40 year old memories here.

What I do remember are stitches so even and perfect that they looked machine made. I couldn’t believe that a human person, much less my own mother was capable of such stunning work. It was magical. From the moment I saw the miniature doll skirt she had knit I was hooked. I wanted to knit just like my mother.

Because my mother was born and raised Germany she learned to knit as a young girl in school. I was astounded. Why weren’t we taught such useful skills in American schools?

It occurs to me now that the precise and uniform nature of her stitches may have been a consequence of her German heritage as well. German engineered precision perhaps?

I didn’t actually learn to knit myself until I was a young woman of 20. My mother continued to have babies and it was difficult to pin her down long enough for a knitting lesson. I was able to teach myself how to crochet but knitting eluded me. I eventually learned from a young German woman named Sabine who could knit an entire sweater on the flight from Germany to San Francisco. She taught me in 1980 and I have been knitting ever since.

I knit because of childhood memories that left a deep impression.

Note: A couple of weeks ago, I had written a version of this essay that I thought was pure brilliance but between now and then my computer croaked and I lost that essay forever. I hope the Gods of cyperspace find enjoyment in that sacrifice, and that you, gentle reader, find joy in this one.

alice and her finger puppet, originally uploaded by alicethelma.

We had a break in the weather so I took the gang out to our old stomping grounds at Reed College for a photo shoot. The gang now includes a new member who is nameless – I guess I’ll call him Mr. Sweater. 

As you can see, my mini-sweater mania has not let up and I have actually found this recent mini-sweater pattern (it’s called Cheers!) a little easier and a little quicker than the one I showed you last week. I guess it helps to be using bigger needles (size 4US dpns) and a DK weight yarn. The little green guy knit up in about an hour.

In addition to the tiny sweaters (I’ve made six so far) I did get around to finishing another project, the fetching fingerless gloves which are now on their way to Indiana. Shhhhhh! Don’t they look lovely on Alice? She accessorized quite nicely with the friendship bracelet she made. I guess she is quite crafty after all.

The irony is that both projects have not only the same yarn (Lana Grossa Cool Wool Merino 2000) in common, they are both designed by the same person, Cheryl Niamath of Fetching Knits. Both patterns are free so go download fetching and cheers! today.

More FOs from the Reed College photo shoot are coming. Stay tuned!