Knitting as adventure

I like adventure.  I was a good rock climber. I was a good skier.   I include solving problems and finding solutions as adventure - finding a working solution is surviving the adventure. Surviving a real adventure begins with knowing what the likely challenges are, and an open minded consideration of possible solutions. A successful adventure involves developing necessary skills. 

I find knitting to be an adventure. It is surprisingly physical. A good knitter's hands are as strong as a good rock climber's hands. And, finishing a large project in a reasonable time requires substantial endurance. 

I believe in "knit to fit"; meaning that the knitting pattern must be adapted to the size and shape of the person that will use the object - this requires a fair amount of skill and math.  The difference between knitting a pattern and knitting to fit is an adventure.  "Knitting to fit" transforms knitting from a pastime, into an adventure.

Knitting to fit also includes knitting an object that fits into the user's lifestyle. This may mean knitting objects well suited to display on the "Red Carpet", or knitting objects suited to sailing around Cape Horn, or being worn while pruning an orchard during an ice storm.  I have used H/H sailing gear, and at $1,500 a pop, it is not a warm, comfortable, or durable as a well knit wool gansey. However, I assure you that knitting a gansey that is better than H/H gear is an adventure.  I have worn the best Patagonia ice climbing gear while pruning an orchard in freezing rain, and I settled on my gardening gansey as being warmer, lighter, and more comfortable for the task. However, knitting that gansey was an adventure - from seeing the yarn in Nova Scotia, to finding the mill on Prince Edward Island, to making the knitting sheath and needles; then learning how to use them - and learning how different gansey knit objects can be from ordinary hand knit or frame knit or commercial machine knit. Remember, Sir Walter Raleigh, sent a pair of "gansey knit" stockings to a Princess of Poland, and Poland was one of the great powers of Europe at the time.  "Gansey knit" is different and better!

Such objects are completely outside of our modern experience. 

I am finding that exploring "sock fabrics" is an extension of the knitting adventure.  More and more, I find that I have to hand spin the yarns that I want. I find that bins of fiber that I have had for years can be coaxed into yarns that I did not dream of a few years ago.  And, rather ordinary yarns can be coaxed into fabrics that I did not dream of just a few years ago.

For an inkling of what can be, we have to go to books like  Archaeological Textile Review no 62 online at 

 http://atnfriends.com/download/ATR_62_complete_for_homepage.pdf.  

Why do modern books on how to make textiles not tell us how to make such objects?

Actually, I am grateful that nobody does tell us how to make those lovely textile objects the old timers turned out by the bale.  Learning how to make such objects is an adventure. No! You are not going to get there with "Weldon's Practical Knitter". Weldon was a fraud. If you want to knit the patterns in Gladys Thompson at the gauges indicated, you will have remember that the originals were knitted using knitting sheaths, which are barely mentioned in the text.  Likewise, mentions of knitting sheaths by Mary Thomas, Mary Wright, and June Hemmons Hiatt should have included how to use a knitting sheath and discussion of appropriate knitting needles. But NO! They want using a knitting sheath and its needles be a bold step into the unknown, an extreme adventure.