Inspiration
Twenty Years A Knitter
It’s a thrill to welcome Jeania Ree V. Moore to MDK. We’ve been following Jeania Ree—literally—since we first spotted her on the marketplace floor at Vogue Knitting Live several years ago, wearing an amazing sweater that we had to ask her about. She’s one of the most prolific and wide-ranging knitters we’ve met, with an eye for pattern and color that inspires us regularly on her Instagram. We can’t wait to see what she has to show us all.
—Kay and Ann
I’ve knit on and off during the twenty years I’ve been a knitter, and more recently on over the past decade. A new year is a good time for a retrospective.
What strikes me when I look back is not the difficulty of patterns, the advanced techniques, the gorgeous yarns, trendy designs, project timelines, how well received my handknit gifts were, or even the sum total of finished objects (including a wall hanging when my gauge was off on a stunning intarsia sweater design by Sylvia Watts-Cherry called Nubian Queen (pictured above)).
What I find myself sitting with is not so much what I’ve knit, as how knitting exists in my life.
When interning in Washington, D.C. one summer during college, the pending closure of a beloved mega bookstore chain and a handful of unused gift cards sent me scurrying to the nearest store (RIP Borders).
I found myself wandering into the craft aisle that day in 2011. I discovered to my delight Debbie Stoller had published a follow-up to her massively popular 2003 Stitch ’n Bitch: The Knitter’s Handbook, which revolutionized knitting among a younger generation, including me as a new knitter in 2004.
A severe case of cast-on-itis set in when I came across a gorgeous pattern in Stitch ’n Bitch: Superstar Knitting. I bought the book, searched out a local yarn store (LYS), and found Looped Yarn Works, where I promptly purchased the yarn and the size 8 needles to complete the project.
In so many ways, this moment reflects my journey and what we love about this craft.
You know the feeling—I just had to cast on that moment.
There is something magical, endlessly empowering, and utterly intoxicating about knowing you can, this moment, turn yarn into a gorgeous garment, accessory, or anything.
There is also a good deal of consternation, comedy, and light chaos—a healthy dose of hilarity and humility.
Most knitters can relate: you set out to make an eye-catching design, without giving a second thought to its difficulty, fiber content, yardage, or other minor details.
Case in point: the design I was taken with that summer? A mohair lace scarf.
As I learned from the Looped staff (and a customer who joined in the conversation), lace is not the recommended starting place for an experienced beginner who’s jumping back into knitting, nor is mohair the recommended fiber for August in D.C.
Though they chuckled at my pluckiness, the LYS community helped me decipher the instructions, detangle the mohair, and shared resources to further my revitalized knitting, including introducing me to a website that hadn’t existed when I first started knitting: Ravelry.com.
Their generosity reflects one of things I love most about knitting—the fact that it is a community, one where skill is shared through a type of “knitting know-how.” This knowledge transfer, teaching, oral tradition, and practical instruction is passed person to person, hand to hand.
After a high school charity layette club piqued my interest, my grandmother taught me to knit, continuing a handicraft that stretches back generations in my family.
A retired elementary school principal and expert quilter, knitter, seamstress, and crocheter, she was the consummate teacher. Patient, skilled.
She would teach me the stitches and would un-knit and re-knit whenever I dropped a stitch, accidentally decreased or increased, knit things that weren’t stitches, or made other mistakes common to new knitters. I knew I could find what I needed with her guidance.
It was similar years later at Looped. I dutifully wrote out the staff’s instructions for “sk2p,” and practiced making the lace stitch there in the shop.
And again, five years after that, when doing a graduate degree at Cambridge. I’d bought a sweater’s quantity of swoon-worthy, breed-specific, Lake District English yarn to make a gorgeous cable-knit Aran cardigan from an out-of-print pattern I’d saved … only to find that I could make neither heads nor tails of the pattern.
It didn’t explain or chart out how to incorporate the cables with the increases needed for a top-down cardigan. An experienced knitter and fellow church parishioner came to my rescue when she offered to transcribe the pattern. She painstakingly typed out and emailed me the instructions from cast on through the body.
A couple of years ago I found myself doing for a colleague in a PhD seminar what my grandmother had done for me. A new knitter, he’d made some mistakes and didn’t know how to correct them. I read his knitting, explained my correction, put in a lifeline, unraveled, and reknit to get him going again.
It’s moments like these that have enabled my twenty years.
There are so many things I love about knitting—structure, design, texture, color, meditative “flow state,” unbridled creativity, making mistakes as an empowering part of learning (I wasn’t afraid to tackle the mohair scarf simply because I didn’t know to be).
But knitting’s communal “know-how” is like a life raft for all of it. It’s sustained and kept me afloat in the practice. And this community encompasses one-off encounters as well as longer, deeper relationships. All have facilitated the reward of tactile making and the achievement of a finished object.
This holiday season, my mom informed me that the mohair scarf I knit that summer, which I gifted to her and which she’s worn ever since, now has holes and is unraveling. We took it to an LYS, where an experienced knitter offered mending advice.
It’s time for a refresh, so I’m casting on another mohair scarf. I’m feeling well armed and up to the task—this time, when I cracked open my copy of Stitch ’n Bitch: Superstar Knitting, I found tucked into its pages my instructions on how to “sk2p,” written on Looped stationery.
Well written piece – bits and pieces are very similar to my journey. The community of knitters is like no other. Looking forward to future articles Jeania.
I really enjoyed your article! There is goodness and kindness shown by people today… knitters seem to have that little something extra! My mom taught me to knit as a child. One of my patients reignited my desire to knit as she was knitting for her first grandchild as she was dying on Hospice Care. Laughing and learning… unknitting…. Finding joy in making something unique! Your article, makes you think and feel… to remember! Thank you!
Your essay resonated with me on many levels: the eagerness, the challenge, the fear, the resolution. Knitting evokes more than placid emotions and it certainly has helped me be part of a community. I knit with friends where I live but I also travel to knit in far away places. What I once thought of as a solitary activity, knitting has provided me with friendship and has gotten me out of my comfort zone many times.
Your article is a delight to read – I love how you specify, I miss Borders too – and reflects my experience also. An LYS once helped me detangle a sticky issue in my lace project with patience and skill, and now I have a fully completed Summer Flies and no longer fear any beginner-to-intermediate lace project. I wonder if any other craft (weaving, pottery, etc.) ignites such a strong desire to Share. I never remember discussing my former sewing or beading life with anyone but I will plop down with any stranger in just about any public space, my knitting in hand, and teach, learn, or simply share delight with anyone who expresses an interest. Is it unique to knitting or does the Internet spark it? And like Sharon, my mother helped me with my knitting while in Hospice also. What stories we knitters have!
While I am a knitter and pick up work whenever I sit, I am also a weaver. Knitters do share in a most friendly way which is truly delightful, but the weaving community feels somewhat tighter to my experience. You just don’t see it because it takes a loom, which isn’t such a public tool as needles. Nevertheless, I am grateful for both! (Then there is spinning and dyeing too…)
I love the knitting community. I also sew-piece-make quilts and have found delightful communities working together making comforters for relief. It is not portable in the same way knitting and crocheting are, so not as likely to be out in public. I also don’t feel the same about ripping out a seam as educational as frogging is.
I thoroughly enjoyed this essay!
I have also visited Looped in DC and found them to be friendly, helpful, supportive, and interesting people. Sitting and knitting with a few women you’ve never met before is always a positive experience for me. I wish I had met you there!
What a great record of your knitting! Thank you for sharing. Brought back some memories of my own. Cheers
What a joy to “meet” you Jeanie! I’m looking forward to more inspiration, not only from your words, but from your smile!! (It’s contagious)
Oops! Autocorrect got me on your name.. apologies!
Wonderful!
Lovely piece Jeania, thank you! Do you have a knitting account on instagram? Would love to follow you there!
Yes! Yes! Yes!!!!
Such a lovely personality. Fun to read her knitting adventures, recognition within all of us lifetime knitter’s. Thanks so much!
Yes. Exactly. –Except I’m more of an Embrace-my-mistakes knitter than a fix-my-mistakes knitter. -Fun to read.
You get me. I have been chewing on my knitting experience as the new year dawns after a year of misread patterns, false starts, and (many) failures. I have been knitting for more than 20 years and still feel like a rank beginner. I’m not, but my errors last year beat me up. How much kinder to myself to focus not on production but process — to learn and to experiment and to marinate in the joy of lovely yarn and time to create. And….the need to find a regular knitting community that can hug me and tell me it’s just knitting when facing knitting despair.
What an enjoyable article, I am sure it has had a similar effect on others as it did for me, reawakening memories of my knitting journey. I have learned so much from others, in classes not just from teachers but from other students in the classes, from staff and knitting stores and the customers who happen to overhear and join in the conversation, from knitting friends, and so on. The community of knitters is a welcoming and generous community.
Perhaps my most important lesson was to have a sense of humor. My favorite project is always the one I am about to start, the perfect item in my mind before reality hits when the finished object is not quite as I imagined. Especially as I always think my body is bigger than it is and am swimming in yet another huge, “oh well I can wear it around the house“ sweater. The school of hard knocks taught me that, yes, I will notice that mistake when it is finished so buck it up and fix it now. I always remember what one teacher said, “When you frog, what do you have? More yarn to knit with.“ That little chuckle I get from repeating that before frogging gives me the fortitude to rippit, rippit, rippit.
I’m very disappointed that the name of the sweater design at the top of the article “Nubian Queen” and the designer Sylvia Watts-Cherry are not mentioned. Whether it’s unintentional or not, it makes the source and designer invisible. Sadly this is too common a fate for the work of women, particularly women of color.
Hi Barbara! Thank you so much for speaking up on this important point. Yes, absolutely; I’m glad we were able to amend the essay to appropriately credit Sylvia and her design. I’ve long been a fan of hers and have been gratified to meet her and see her beautiful work up close in the U.S. and in Scotland!
–Jeania Ree
So happy to hear you did that!
The post has been updated to reflect the name of the pattern and its designer.
The oversight was entirely mine and I apologize for the error. Jeania didn’t see which image was chosen for the header.
I will be more cognizant of this going forward. Thanks you for pointing it out.
Ditto — really enjoyed and related to your letter this morning. I’m so glad to be one more enthusiastic person in the knitting community. Looking forward to more letters from you!!!
All I can say is, “Yes!” This rings so true. Thanks for the very thoughtful and fun essay.
Absolutely wonderful! A truth we all know and have experienced put down in writing that warms the heart and evokes gratitude for all who have helped and inspired us and how we continue to pay it forward. Thanks!
Lovely piece of writing and reflection! Delightful way to start the day and year! Thank you, Jeania Ree V. Moore!
Jeanie Ree–Welcome! I learned to knit from a wonderful women on an airplane flight. After that short lesson, I walked into the lys, (which I had seen a thousand times but was too intimidated to actually walk into) looking for needles, pattern and yarn to make socks. That shop isn’t around anymore, but I still wear those socks, 20 years later.
What a sweet piece of writing about your journey, and some of ours, as well. Thanks!
Lovely article!!! I’m betting the majority of us have benefitted from the knitters who came before us and shared their experience selflessly and joyously!
Loved this article. Well done. I felt as if I road the journey with you. What is the pattern for the beautiful cable cardigan please
Hi Diane – Thank you! The out-of-print Aran cardigan with cables is the Land Girl: Cable Aran Cardigan (Top Down) by Kyoko Nakayoshi (https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/land-girl-cable-aran-cardigan-top-down).
–Jeania Ree
Thanks for the opportunity to mentally give thanks to the woman who taught me to tink as we were waiting in a room for jury duty.
Your essay is a life line for me, coming out of 2 years of illness, losing best friends and supporting others with life threatening disease. Thank you!
Sharing knowledge, learning and community – this really resonated with me. I’ve been knitting for years, I’ve found myself defaulting to “simpler” things, not wanting to take on a challenge that I “don’t have time for.” THEN, my son gave me a colorwork book for Christmas. “You always knit hats! I thought you’d like to try something different! Maybe if you like it you can show me how.” And that -sweet boy-is the road straight to my heart – of course I will try, so I can show you how, and then we can do it together.
Loved your article and I feel your pain about the closing of Borders! It was located in Bethesda near my LYS. My errands always included stops to both!
Such a lovely read! Thank you! Loved your DC references, as I must have been there at the same time as you. It definitely took me back!
Very entertaining article, thank you. I love the knits that you’re wearing in the photos. I’ll look forward to future articles from you!
Your Aran sweater turned out beautifully!! I look forward to seeing more of your creations.
Your beautifully written essay resonates! It’s a particular joy to me that so many great writers are also great knitters, and find their way to Ann and Kay and MDK. Looking forward to more of your thoughts.
I agree with your great perspectives and your knitting journey. Let’s hear more from you!
I would love to read that dissertation!
Me too! Hoping for a “knit to this” article of her favorite romance books.
Thank you for a lovely introduction in this new year! Welcome, welcome new friend! You are inspiring and I can feel your presence in your words. Along with all the others I relate to your knitting experiences and love the instant of recognition in meeting you. Can’t wait to hear from you again!
Welcome! I love Sylvia’s designs and what a great idea to turn Nubian Queen into a wall hanging instead of despairing and frogging.
You hit on what I think is the great thing about fibre arts–the bringing together of such a diverse and eclectic community. We don’t do all the things, but we appreciate everyone who works in yarn or thread, from weaving to embroidery to hand-sewing to knit/crochet.
This community might be the one that keeps the world spinning during these crazy times.
That’s about the same amount of time I’ve been knitting — I recognize the cast-on yearning from the same books. That cardigan is divine!
I do not live in Washington DC but I go to Arlington National Cemetery about once a year. The first year I went my heart which had already broken earlier broke again. Yarn is how I fix that. I found Loops and even drove into DC to go there. As you mentioned they were so nice. I had no idea what I wanted but they walked around with me until I had what felt like what I needed. One skein in particular eventually became a cowl that I designed and wear if it is cold when I go to Arlington. I love what you said about how knitters take care. They knew I needed just to feel the yarn. A really great store.
Jeania Ree,
Was that you in the gorgeous long sweater at the Edinburgh yarn festival in 2017 or 2018? It had what appeared to be your portrait on the back. Beautiful sweater on a beautiful woman and if that was you, brilliant as well!
Thanks so much for an article that made me happy to read!
Hi Sharon! I suspect that the woman at the Edinburgh Yarn Festival may have been the designer herself, Sylvia Watts-Cherry, wearing her own stunning pattern, Nubian Queen! You can find that pattern here: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/nubian-queen-pullover and learn more about Sylvia on her website here: https://www.withcherriesontop.com/.
–Jeania Ree
What a wonderful first post. I love your thought process about knitting. Many of us can relate to your experiences! Knit On!
I loved this ‘history’! I am 9-1/2 years a knitter, and much more experienced knitters are often amazed at the things I have made. The ‘not knowing better’ approach has served me well, and allowed me to tackle (with mixed results) a wide range of projects/techniques. Why be afraid? What is the worst that can happen? You rip it out (or make a wall hanging!).
Joy is the goal, not fear of failure. Be bold!
Such a beautiful description of what so many of us experience with our craft ❤️. I’m sharing with my Thursday knitting pals. Thank you!
so very kind and encouraging to us lapsed knitters who are returning shyly to the world of yarn and the beautiful things it makes. Thank you, Jeanie, you give me courage.
I first learned to knit with a group of friends at an herbal conference in NC. I was astonished. What a blessing to have creative friends who share their craft.
Now, 20 years later I’m still knitting. Thank you for sharing and passing on to others the gift of knitting!
I love Elijah! Perfect baby gift.
Easy but looks hard
The really would appreciate sweater patterns
It is really obvious to me that you are going to be a welcome addition to MDK! This was a wonderful read about your knitting journey. When I was a teenager, I knew how to knit, but had never made a single thing, not even a scarf. My first project was a (simple) sweater that turned out OK. No help from LYS, no internet, but it was OK.
I have yet to knit another sweater, but you have inspired me to try again. I will look forward to your next posting.
What a wonderful story. I love that your Mom loved the scarf so much that it needs mending or replacing. Happy Knitting.
I very much enjoyed your article and look forward to future ones, Jeania.
My experiences are very similar even if over many more years. The continuity of our creative crafting community is comforting and reassuring when so much else is less so.
Much success to you!
Loved this piece. Though all our paths to love of knitting are different they are all similar in the support and love we have gotten from the community. It reminded me of all the knitting help I have received over 60 years, from my brilliantly skilled neighbor who taught my mother to knit so she could teach me, to my Danish friend who had learned to knit in the womb and offered to knit me a sweater if I bought the yarn (sneaky since she knew once I got into a yarn store I wouldn’t leave without a commitment to learn to knit myself); from early MDK inspiring me with so many gorgeous designs and ideas then the advent of Ravelry, nervously waiting to be “accepted” to the group; from my friends local and far who knit for Afghans for Afghans as we challenged each other to try new techniques and designs in our volume knitting; to my present local group of so many talented and supportive friends. It has been a long and joyous journey that I hope has many chapters yet to be written. Thank you Jeania Ree for sending me on this journey to my knitting past.
Thank you all for the warm welcome!
–Jeania Ree
I just completed the Nubian Queen sweater for my granddaughter for Christmas. Absolutely THE hardest thing I’ve done in knitting! But it came out great and I’m relieved it’s done! And, LOVE your main color choice!!!
Thank you for the article. It has inspired me to pick up my needles and get back to knitting!
I’m a knitter n go to a knit n natter group my mam has knit for 65 years n still knitting
Oh my goodness, how wonderful to hear about the life, trials and tribulations of fellow knitters.
My grandmother and mother taught me to knit when I was very young. I have tried, failed and triumphed many types of knitted objects. My latest being a sweet terrier puppy for my great granddaughter. She loves it.
Knitting is great to do on a train or in the car or in front of the tv. My husband always says, how can you do that and watch at the same time. I feel I’m wasting precious knitting time if I’m not.
I’ve knitted many toys, hats, bags, cardigans, baby shawls and cot blankets to name a few.
I’m knitting a baby blanket at present and had to unravel it twice due to the yarn I’ve chosen, failing eyesight and lack of concentration. But I’m determined!
Knitting is a joy and it’s amazing how many people speak to you and ask about your project or cardi, hat, scarf.
Thank you for sharing your experience Jeania Ree.
Happy knitting!
You and your cabled cardigan are both beautiful! Thanks for expressing so eloquently how most of us feel about our knitting and crafting communities. I learned to knit around 70 years ago, in Girl Scouts. And was lucky to have a neighbor who I discovered was a great knitter. She kept me going and I’m still knitting all these decades later. Keeps me sane!! ❤️
Loving the top you’re wearing in the workshop photo.
Thank you for sharing your knitting experience. I am a knitter who learned from my mother in the 1950,s. A long period of time elapsed while I was married, travelling, raising children and had my mother alive and knitting for her grandchildren.
Then 20 years ago my life changed and I went to college to practice art and it was there I met several women who knitted. Since then I’ve knitted on and off. I’m of the cautious school of knitting!! I’ve learned to knit in the round with the result there are a lot of my socks in the family. I did stretch myself when I saw a pattern for a beautiful shawl. I bought expensive wool, made some mistakes, ripped it all out and reknitted it and have since made 3 more.
There are at least 3 knitting groups in the small town where I live in Yorkshire. I am a member of none now but know I can get help if I need it.
Knitting folks are all so friendly and keen to share help and tips.
You made a beautiful cardigan from your Aran wool.
I see you know Ravelry. You might find Drops and interesting website to visit. Good luck and keep knitting.
I have always had an in interest in knitting from an early age. My mother taught me and we often did joint projects where I would knit bobble hat and scarf and she would knit the gloves. With my first baby I went into overdrive and knitted jackets bootees bonnets and mittens. I finally tried my hand at Aran knitting and just loved seeing the pattern come to life. When my first grandchild was due 21years ago it was time to try and knit a baby shawl and it was lovely when it was finished. Haven’t knitted for a while and your article has given me a spark so this year I may have a go again.