Subscribe to RSSA Weaver's Challenge
For those of you who know me, you know as an artist and a student at MICA I identify as a weaver. Fiber Artist is often to broad for me- too often people jump to fashion, or else knitting and crocheting, which seem to be pretty in these days, as the kids like to say. And let me say this, an admission that probably won’t be too popular, I am not a huge fan of knitting and crocheting. There, I said it. I’m not even a little fan of knitting and crocheting. Generally speaking, I find both tasks frustrating and difficult, whereas weaving for me is peaceful and, above all, infinitely easier (a bold statement, I’m sure). I do not fully understand the appeal of either, and I really, truly do not understand things like knitted fruits and sushi rolls. But I do understand that knitting is both useful and hip, and since my secret goal is to making the art of weaving just as cool, I am taking it upon myself to undertake a seeming impossible and potentially infuriating project to better understand that which I fear:
I am going to knit a hat.
For many, I’m sure you see my struggle as laughable and not especially heroic. But hear me out. I learned to knit my freshman year of high school, and I didn’t learn how to do a proper purl stitch till my sophomore year of college. And I still only know how to knit rectangles. Weaving, on the other hand, was a snap for me. I feel like I’ve accomplished so much in the past year and a half, and I’m only just beginning. So what is this mysterious craft I can’t seem to grasp, and how will I ever manage to read a knitting pattern with my backwards left handedness?
For the next few however-long-it-takes-me-to-figure-this-out, I’m going to be updating on twitter the hilarious trials of my journey through the treacherous land of The Knitted, in part as a distraction from not having access to my loom, and in part as an earnest attempt to learn a skill that may in fact prove useful. You can view the updates here or on my homepage, and I’ll post the final results on my blog. What’s next, crocheting? (Yes). But for now this hopeful wanna-be-hip weaver is armed with a purple pair of needles and some Salvation Army yarn. We have so much to look forward to:
Exhibit A: Ugly Scarf Detail, 2007