I really got your curiosity going with yesterday’s picture post, didn’t I? I’m looking forward to showing you the rest of the story on Saturday. Yesterday’s post was brief because I was heading out of town for this.
A quick dash down to San Jose to see Bruce Springsteen last night. It was a great show. Lots of stuff from his new album, Wrecking Ball, and an encore filled with wonderful old stuff. He’s a great storyteller through song.
But I’m back home to slip in under the wire with my Knit and Crochet Blog Week Day 3 post about my knitting hero, or heroine, as she happens to be. My Aunt Rose taught me to knit the summer I was 14. I spent the summer with her and her family, and she wanted to share her love of knitting with me. We went to her local knit shop to begin a project. My choice was a baby blue drop shoulder turtleneck pullover with some simple cables running up the the body. It was made out of Brunswick Germantown Worsted (how do I even remember that?). I knit it in the round on circular needles, although I’m not sure the instructions were written that way. Aunt Rose was teaching me to be the boss of my knitting from day 1! My first sweater was not quite to gauge, so it ended up being pretty big on me. It didn’t matter; I loved it anyway. Many years later, I felted it on purpose, and that’s when I learned a valuable knitting fact: knitting shrinks up more than it shrinks in! I had a short boxy sweater, which would have been perfect in the 1980’s. I wonder where that sweater is now? But I digress.
Aunt Rose is still knitting, and is part of a knitting group at her favorite yarn shop. We don’t see each other often, but we always talk knitting! The last time she was visiting, she found out that I didn’t own a swift and yarn winder, and insisted on getting me these tools. They’ve gotten a lot of service in the past 6 months; I’m really grateful to have them. This picture is from last fall; my desk isn’t nearly so tidy today.
I’m saving these garments that Aunt Rose knit when my boys were born; someday they’ll get used again, I hope! (But not too soon…)
Do you have a knitting hero?
PDXKnitterati 
So blue wasn’t just your favorite color in recent years…Love that colorful swift. Aunt Rose is quite a prolific knitter. While the fair-isle sweater is gorgeous, I love the footsie onesie–never knew anything who knitted one ever. That’s some labor of love.
As for knitting hero, I am first-generation knitter in my family. So the knitting heroes I know through books and blogs–in my adult life–didn’t come until I moved to Oregon in late 2005. The two most influential were EZ and Cat Bordhi.
And there’s a zipper in the back of that footed sleeper! I have never sewn a zipper into my knitting…
I have a knitting aunt, too. She saved my knitting life a few years ago by pointing out that I cast on and knit too tightly. She was right!