Knitting Curmudgeon Blog 12th Anniversary

Best Quote I Heard All Day

The state of knitting magazines being what it is lately, I was more than pleasantly surprised with the decent designs featured in the Fall 2002 issue of Vague.--Marilyn Roberts

Yes, that's the first Knitting Curmudgeon blog sentence on July 25, 2002. Twelve years ago, I had lost my darling husband, Jimmy. Knitting was my grief therapy and when I discovered Blogger, writing about knitting helped me concentrate on my life.

Back in 1997, I created the first Knitting Curmudgeon site on AOL's membership site deal. Many KnitList people read the essays that I wrote on it and placed on site pages. As soon as I hit Blogger, I had a writing joy. In 2002, I wrote 76 posts. There were a few other knitting bloggers and we all contacted each other. My readers became bloggers too and now some of them are knitting celebs. These days, many knitters know who I am. At Rhinebeck, people approach me to say "Hello, Knitting Curmudgeon!"

These days, I grieve for my mother Ellie and still cry for Jimmy, although am in touch with my high school boyfriend, who I see occasionally. For Mom, I've just designed a lace stitch pattern for a lace scarf that I entitled "Ellie's Heart Scarf." Here's a sample picture. Began knitting it in Tencel yarn and am gonna switch it to merino laceweight. Didn't like the black lines in the red. 

So the Knitting Curmudgeon is gonna become a knitting design company. I was calling it Fiberality Designs but my knitting friends told me to call it Knitting Curmudgeon Designs because people know who I am.

So my dear readers, I'm going to keep this blog going for the rest of my life. And happy that I ain't as curmudgeonly as I used to be. Time to get back to knitting my current design, which is Ellie's Heart Scarf.

Past Loving Returns!

Best Quote I've Heard All Day

"Memory...is the diary that we all carry about with us"--Oscar Wilde

Still mourning Mom, who died March 28th. Every night I do what she did--knit and watch the Yankees play. Mom (Ellie) always asked me to design a simple sweater or lace scarf for her. And Mom told me that I should make knitting my job, due to the lack of employment since December. So I am but still looking for a technical trainer/instructional designer position.

Right after I lost Mom, I decided to design a lace scarf...Love Ellie Scarf. The lace pattern I created, didn't grab it from a stitch pattern reference book. Designing lace stitch patterns is fun. Yeah, ssk and k2tog are used as drawing lines. Here's a picture of Love Ellie Scarf. Haven't finished it yet, due to other design shit that I'm doing.

Lace addict...yeah, I am. Many of my knitting pals are too. Am about to design Fair Isle socks.

WEBS 40th Anniversary!

Was going up to Vermont last week via Route 91 and I stopped at WEBS, which is in Northampton MA, a lovely town. Now WEBS is not easy to find, although having been there before, knew that I had to turn right by the big blue ATM.

Here's a picture of the WEBS retail store, which is cool! Back in 1974, WEBS started. Even though I had started knitting, had never heard of the place until many years later. When Jimmy, my late husband, and I went up to New Hampshire in the late '90s, he took me to WEBS. I had seen them at Stitches and desired to go to the store.

Yeah, it's a big storage building, with a ton of exciting yarn. Two years ago I made a video of my visit to WEBS and here's the link on YouTube.

My Dear Dob

Going to Vermont to see my dear best friend, Dottie Melcher, at her mother's gorgeous house in South Hero, was wonderful. Dottie and I have been friends since we were in 4th grade. Yes, that many years. She was a talented artist and I was a writer when we were kids. When John Lennon published his book, "In His Own Write," we played with his writing and made up these nicknames for each other. Dottie became Dob, I became Marsh, and our friend Peggy, Pegret. We still call each other these nicknames. HA!!!!

Here's Dob and Marsh.

Dottie is knitting! On a knitting loom. And is making nice lace gloves, caps, and other stuff. I gave her a pile of my yarn stash that I didn't plan on using. A pile of KnitPicks Palette yarn. A week from this coming weekend, there is a Montclair High School reunion for all classes. She's coming down from Massachusetts to stay with Marsh!

Blogging Memory

As of July 25, The Knitting Curmudgeon blog will be 12 years old. Back in the late 90s, I had designed a website using AOL's Member Site deal. That was the original Knitting Curmudgeon joint. My husband Jimmy had a book called "The Curmudgeon" that he loved, so I decided that Knitting Curmudgeon was me.

Take care, my dear Tonstant Weaders...yeah, still a Dorothy Parker lover.