Judith L Swartz - Hip to Knit

HIP TO
KNIT

18
Contemporary
Projects
for Todays Knitter

Judith L. Swartz

Acknowledgments This book is dedicated in loving memory of my mother, Claire Feit Swartz, and my grandmother, Beatrice Semel Feit, my first knitting teachers. Special thanks go out to many people who helped make this book possible. To Marilyn Murphy, my good friend and editorthis project has been a great collaboration, just like old times at the Weaving Workshop in Chicago. And to Jean Lampe for your meticulous technical editing. My gratitude goes out to both of you for all your patience, understanding, and support as I knitted through lifes challenges. Thanks to Betsy Armstrong, Linda Ligon, Linda Stark, and the entire support staff of Interweave Press who worked so professionally to make the vision of this book a reality. Thanks to Amy Detjen and Lynn Gates for your swift and careful knitting. Thanks to Don Greenwood for the back cover photo. I would like to acknowledge all the yarn companies who so graciously provided yarns used in this book. It is always a pleasure to work with quality materials. Many personal thanks are necessary. First, to my husband, Joel Marcus, for his unfailing love and support and for allowing me the time and space needed to complete this project. To my father, Alex Swartz, and to my late mother, Claire Swartz, for their support, encouragement, and delight in my success. Thanks to my nonknitting sister, Susan Fish, who always appreciates a handknitted giftmaybe this book will finally inspire her to pick up the needles. A special thanks goes out to all the wonderful friends who participated in our Friday Knit Nights in Chicago. We shared a lot of good food, wine, and knitting. May this book inspire new knitters to find the pleasure in knitting and the joy in sharing it that we have found.

Table of Contents

Techniques and Tips

I was lucky enough to learn to knit from my mother and grandmother. I remember the excitement of finally being old enough at age eight to be taught the skill that, for as long as I could remember, I had watched with fascination. I still incorporate some of my mothers and grandmothers idiosyncracies into the way I knitmy method of purling and the way I wind a little ball of extra cast-on yarn. I even have some of their knitting accessories that have now reached vintage status. I love the romantic idea of a craft passed down through the generations much like an oralor perhaps tactilehistory. Whenever Im knitting, my mother and grandmother are with me. A wonderful phenomenon has been taking place of late. A whole new generation of young adults is falling in love with knitting. Changes in time and philosophy may have diminished the role of family in knitting. Now, in many cases, instead of a vertical passage of knowledge from generation to generation, knowledge is passing laterally within one generation as friend teaches friend. People are finding both a sense of personal satisfaction and community in knitting as avid groups form for the express purpose of being together to knit. It is a time like no other; where it is hip to knit. In writing this book, I have chosen patterns, styles, yarns, and techniques for todays knitter. My many years of teaching knitting classes and selling yarn have helped me design patterns for the projects that both customers and students want to knit. The projects are presented in a straightforward format, they address frequently asked questions, and they include extra explanations where knitters most often get confused. The projects start with the very simplest and become more sophisticated as you acquire knowledge and skill. The chapter on basics explains everything you need to get started, and it shows the techniques you need to do each of the projects. Its my desire that the experience for all new knitters be positive so that they will find the same pleasure and satisfaction in knitting that I do.