Me, myself, and I
I should probably have introduced myself in my first post...
This was probably a blog I should have written first - so as we’re three posts in to my new Substack journey, I thought it was time we take a moment to get to know each other!
So… lets delve into My Crafting Journey: Martyn and #Knit365
Where it all began…
Picture the scene… the phone rang. It was my Mum.
“I’ve just been talking to Nanny, she told me you’re learning to knit and are going to make some things for the baby?!”
Both my maternal Grandfather and Grandmother were knitters. Bampy was the better knitter. Nanny could do simple patterns, but the slightest whiff of a mistake or complex stitch and she’d hand the needles over to him to fix her mistake, or get her over a tricky bit in the pattern.
There are six grandchildren, and we were all given hand knit items at birth. My Grandfather had passed away a few years before my youngest brother and his wife became pregnant with their first baby - #Niece1.
In a conversation with my Nan she expressed sadness at my Grandfather no longer being with us, and how he would have been so excited at his first Great Grandchild the baby patterns would be back out and he’d be knitting. I remember to this day a flippant comment I made, but gave it no further thought….
“Well maybe I’ll learn to knit!”
We then fast forward to the phone call a few weeks later with my Mum, who very simply put it “are you going to learn to knit, or disappoint your Grandmother?”.
There’s only one real answer to that question isn’t there…
The rest as they say is history. I will always remember my knitting journey being linked to our first niece who will be 9 years old this December.
Marjorie and Derek, my maternal Grandparents on their 50th wedding anniversary.
The new knitter fear - or not…
As a new knitter I had no fear. I didn’t know that a pattern was difficult, or the wool I was about to choose would be better suited to a certain type of project.
Nanny gave me some of their needles and a ball of wool (I have no idea what it was!) and off I went to YouTube. I searched for ‘learn to knit’ videos and came across Staci from Very Pink Knits - Staci is still my go-to for online knitting teachers. I managed to teach myself the basics but kept making mistakes, online learning was only going to take me so far…
A very good friend is an amazing knitter, so I also have to name check Pam James in my knitting journey. Pam was a patient and kind teacher and showed me helpful tips from picking up stitches, to blocking, to undoing stitch-by-stitch.
I still try to take some of my new knitter approaches in my current projects - nothing is hard, it’s just new. And it’s only knitting, if we make a mistake we rip it back and get to try again - that’s double the use of the yarn so twice the fun!
After a scarf (why do new knitters always start with scarves?) and a couple of small squares, my first finished project was an afghan style blanket with #Niece1s initial on it - I did intarsia colourwork and cabling in my first project…
Adriana’s baby blanket
Me and crochet were not easy friends…
I’d always been inspired to crochet by the Toft Edward’s Menagerie book, but despite my success with YouTube I couldn’t teach myself. I tried many times, and I had a fraught lesson with my Auntie at a family BBQ once when she tried to teach me and we ended up not speaking for 5 minutes.
So when I saw an advert in 2018 at my local yarn shop for crochet lessons I signed myself up and within 3 weeks Gaëlle had me crocheting. It’s not lost on me that I’ve been so lucky to join Toft at some events and visit their HQ, when Kerry’s designs and patterns were the reason I wanted to learn.
I often say I’m a knitter who can crochet, and despite enjoying a challenge, I’ve come to realise that there are some crochet patterns that I just don’t click with, and crocheting flat items isn’t something I really like. Give me an amigarumi toy or doll any day.
Emma Bunny and Piotr Bear, my first Toft creations
Knitting (and crochet) is now a passion, not just a hobby
I feel like knitting and crochet have taken over my life - Mark will probably agree with that sentence when he points out that I’ve lost an hour to researching patterns and yarns and it was my turn to cook dinner.
I love crafting. The focus that it gives me after a hard day at work, being able to switch off and craft to wind-down at the end of the day means it’s a wonderful hobby. It’s the perfect mindfulness activity that we’re so often told we should be doing!
But I love the way it challenges me too.
Sure, I can knit the same simple project over and over. After all, I just said that the mindfulness element is what I love. But where’s the fun in that? I still approach my knitting like a beginner - have no fear.
Don’t get me wrong… if I find a pattern that is so challenging I’m not enjoying it, I’m likely to just stop and find something else. But that doesn’t happen very often and I love persevering to find the answer. The crafting community is full of friendly folks who are willing to give up their time to help you - find your tribe and you’re not alone!
Growth and Milestones
Knit-a-longs are a great way to challenge yourself and find that tribe. A collective of people all working on the same pattern as you meaning there are people to help you out and help you fix your errors.
My 1st West Knits mystery-knit-a-long was the Starflake Shawl, which was also my 1st time doing brioche. Was it perfect? Absolutely not. Do I care? Absolutely not.
Each row took me about 45 minutes - so that’s 90 minutes to do a row of knit and purl. I had to have the TV off and couldn’t speak to anyone. But look… I did it. And that funky little section you can see in the centre of the picture is my permanent record of the time I challenged myself to learn brioche.
Starflake Shawl
I’ve got a similar growth story with my crochet projects. In December 2020 the Toft advent was an Ice King, and my first attempt at making a doll. If you watch back over week 2’s vlogmas video you’ll see me frustrated (and it doesn’t happen very often!) at my inability to crochet the advanced hand. Spoiler: it ended with me giving up and my Ice King had a mitten instead of a glove.
But like my brioche growth, I see crochet growth too. Fast forward to April 2022 and I attempted another doll - the first since Christmas 2020 - and I did the advanced hand. No challenge, no swearing. Emmeline Pankhurst is wearing gloves, and when I look at the two dolls together I see growth. And I’m pretty darn chuffed with myself for that!
Emmeline and Llewellyn’s hands
#Knit365 - knitting a little every day
The blogging followed and with it the #Knit365 handle. I wanted to try to keep myself accountable and knit a little every day. It couldn’t be a ‘history of me’ blog without mentioning YouTube could it?
I talked about my blogging journey in my welcome post so I’ll just leave a link here for you to pop back and check that out if you haven’t read it yet. But look where my lockdown project of trying to record a video for YouTube has ended up. Nearly 9,000 subscribers regularly watching my videos. As a small cheeky plug, if you’ve read this far but haven’t yet subscribed I’d love you to join me over on YouTube too.
Crafting friends are the best friends
Just like any hobby, you find like minded people and a shared interest quickly helps you build rapport. I’ve made some friends for life and if you’ve watched my videos for a while or followed my Instagram it won’t surprise you to regularly hear names such as Gem, Irina, Kitey and Rhys. I genuinely love meeting people and chatting, and for someone who really struggles with small talk (yes really!) one of my favourite things to do is say hi to people when I’m out at shows.
Social media can often get a bad press, but I’ve met some wonderful people and even been invited to join an in-person knitting/crochet/crafting group who try to get together every few months, but we chat everyday on WhatsApp. So again - a big hi and thanks to Chicken, Charlotte and Crunchie. I’m keeping them anonymous as they don’t really Instagram, and the less said about Twitter at the moment the better (which is why we now chat on WhatsApp) but they’re in my phone for moral support and generally “yes you should start that new project…”
So I think that’s me
Thank you - and well done - if you’ve made it to the end of this blog. It’s probably a good idea I didn’t start with this one otherwise you’d all have been “he doesn’t half go on a bit…”
But it’s been lovely to take a step back through memory lane and remind myself of why I started knitting. Why I started crochet. And why I started blogging.
What’s next?
Who knows. I know there will be a West Knits MKAL in October that I’ll join. I know there will be a vlogmas and advent series in December.
But looking back, so much of my crafting journey has been organic, it’s just evolved over time. There’s not really been a big master plan and from that passing comment to my Nan and the phone call from my Mum, I could never in my wildest dreams have predicted that a knitted baby blanket would quickly consume my waking hours.
Who taught you to knit or crochet? Do you remember your own crafting journey? I’d love to hear it in the comments below.
And of course, if you’ve just found me - hello - please consider subscribing so you never miss out on another blog post.
Until next time.
I started knitting when a teacher continually said that girls should learn to knit and cook and had no need of college. I was incensed! I learned to knit from a friend of my mother’s and took it in to his class. When called upon to answer a question, I pulled out my knitting, said “oh, I couldn’t do the homework, I was learning to knit”. Then, smart-Alec me, I answered the question. I’ve knit ever since and really accelerated my learning and sweater accumulation during the lock down. And yes, I do have a degree in pharmacy!
I am a very introverted person who struggles with anxiety and knitting has been my saving grace.
My mother first tried to teach me to knit when I was around 6 years old, as she had learnt from her mother when she was little. (My gran was a brilliant knitter who had been knitting for nearly her whole life.) It did not work out, I would just get frustrated at how hard it was to move the needles due to my tight tension. My mom was forever trying to loosen my tension but I was a tight knitter. Eventually it was abandoned.
Move forward 5 years, when I was in 5th grade, a teacher decided to teach learners how to crochet after school if they were interested. I decided to join with a bunch of other friends, we first learnt how to chain. I really enjoyed it but the teacher kept making me rip out my chain, it was always 'too loose or too tight'. Fast forward a few lessons later I was tired of always getting my chain ripped out when my friends moved on with new projects, I decided to quit.
Covid came around 8 years later, I was now in my first year of uni looking for something to do during lockdown. I picked up the old ball of yarn and hook Ihad gotten from that old teacher, opened YouTube and started teaching myself to crochet. I started with granny squares that were going to be a blanket (the squares can be found in a box under my bed, oops). I later moved onto different projects, mostly amigurumi.
After a few months of crocheting, my gran passed away and I decided to pick up the knitting needles to try to feel closer to her. This time with YouTube, again, I started to teach myself how to knit. With some help from mostly Youtube and my mom, I knit my first sweater.
It has now been over 2 years that I've been crocheting and knitting and it is the one thing that I've fallen in love with. I am so thankful to have found this passion as I think it has saved me from my anxiety.