Sometimes Eras Come to an End

In June of this year, I lost my race against the ‘rona and was out of commission for 10 days with, thankfully, mild symptoms. During that time a friend sent over some cross stitch fabric, I downloaded a pattern from Suberversive Cross Stitch, dug out my weirdly extensive supply of DMC floss and made the first of several projects that required zero knitting. This didn’t bode well for the sweater I started in January, but she’s still here patiently waiting for me to return. It also didn’t bode well for my little knit/crochet/indigo design and instruction biz…

I learned to knit in 2005, and that seems like a lifetime ago! I have enjoyed this journey of knitting, teaching, designing, and meeting amazing people along the way. For every year that I worked on KnitOasis as a side hustle, I would take stock in January and set goals for the next 12 months. When Covid showed up in the world, I tried the Zoom thing but I didn’t like not being able to have hands-on time with someone’s knitting or crochet to really see what they were doing. Having super close one-to-one instruction time was always one of the most important aspects of what I did as an instructor. So many times students told me, “I just needed someone to look at what I was doing to tell me how I was getting off track!” And online just wasn’t going to make that happen.

It’s possible that, if my focus had been sharper in 2020 (oh wow…punny!) I might have made that online pivot more of a reality. As it was, though, my schedule, time, and energies were diverted into other avenues.

And now, 2 years later, my schedule, time, and energies are still diverted elsewhere. My goals, free time, interests, and needs have changed a lot. The world shutting down due to a deadly virus changed things. Personal growth in my own life changed things. Downsizing, moving, developing a non-knitting career, coming out, losing my old community, building a new community, becoming more aware of my place in a world that so often resembles a dumpster fire….all this CHANGED THINGS…changed me.

I don't see myself actively involved in the fiber arts world any more. My desire to teach knitting or crochet has been replaced with other things that make me excited about my life. I’m at a stage in my journey where I want to examine old dreams and dream new ones. I want soak up the perks of being more authentic and intuitive about how I approach life. I want to learn new things.

All this to say, Sometimes Eras Come to an End:

• KnitOasis patterns and online tutorials are still available for now.

• Look for a redesign of the website to make it easier to find patterns…which will remain on Ravelry and possibly Etsy for the foreseeable future.

• I’ll even pick that UFO sweater project back up and finish it at some point!

Thank you SO MUCH for being part of my journey for the last 17 years! KnitOasis exists in large part because there were other knitters and creative people out here and I’m very grateful for you.

How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard—A.A. Milne

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

Hey, y’all!

Happy Thanksgiving Week!

I’m still over here, knitting on occasion, dragging my little dog to outdoor events, and wishing the pandemic were over already.

I’ve been getting questions about knitting classes (there aren’t any) and private lessons (scarce and infrequent), and while I applaud your efforts to learn to knit (!) I am not currently teaching at this time. Will I once the pandemic is behind us? Maybe. Do I know for sure one way or the other? Nope.

In the meantime, I am slowly updating the patterns for sale, contemplating making new tutorials, fiddling about with weaving, knitting a scarf for a friend, and trying to plan my Covid vaccine booster and flu shots so they will be optimally effective. All while wearing my mask still.

What are y’all up to? Knit anything cool lately? I’d love to see it!

And if you have any ideas for patterns you’d like to knit, techniques you’d like to see featured in my tutorials, or good ways to convince the cat to jump on the wearable hand knits bandwagon, let me know!

Bernie Sanders' Mittens

Raise your knitted gloved hand if you saw Bernie Sanders in his now famous mittens at the Inauguration of President Biden and Vice President Harris. To be honest, I watched it all but there was a lot to see (those coats! the hats! the talent! the history in the making!) and if not for the photograph taken by Brendan Smialowski, that Senator from Vermont would have been just one of many notables at a notable occasion.

In the way that knitwear has of bringing people together, our world found a positive, cozy thing to focus on for a brief shining moment. That moment, almost 2 weeks later, is still creating a buzz. Here is a roundup of Bernie Mitten goodness….

**Within 24 hours, the first patterns were appearing on Ravelry, with Meg Harlan’s version getting a nod in the Times. There are dozens of options for Bernie-avec-Mittens-themed crochet or knit items; hats, gloves, socks, pillow covers, cowls, and wee little Bernie dolls. Here’s one by Sheila Houle. Cute, right? Her website has a really detailed tutorial on how to make him, too.

**The Vermont teacher who gifted the mittens to the Senator has become a celebrity in her own right, and continues to be charity-minded, promising to send the proceeds from the auction of a pair of mittens to Outright Vermont, which supports LGBTQ youth. Y’all, Jen Ellis seems like a really nice person!

**Popular Mechanics weighed in on the gloves v. mitten debate, something that we can only guess at in mostly tropical Charleston!

**The latest news—Jen Ellis will be partnering with the Vermont Teddy Bear Company to manufacture more of the mittens. Some of the proceeds will of course benefit charity (Make-a-Wish Vermont).

How about you? Have you cast on a pair of Bernie’s mittens or something created from them? I want to see them!

Knit Together

This week, I joined with many of you as we watched in horror the events unfolding at the US Capitol building in Washington, DC. To say that the actions of those who chose to terrorize elected officials, staffers, journalists, and the citizens of the greater DC area was reprehensible is an understatement. 

I am aware that I am not alone in seeing this attempted coup as a line in the sand. For many years, I operated KnitOasis in as non-political a way as possible, avoiding talk of elections and policies. If you follow me on Instagram, or know me outside of the yarn biz, you already know that things changed for me rather drastically in the last 18 months or so. As I became more and more aware of the damage that the current president has inflicted on this country, on our people, and on the world, I began to speak out in favor of reform and change. I believe that the time to silently "stick to my knitting" had passed. 

Several times in the history of America, knitters used their skills and their savvy to serve their country in battles against tyranny and oppression, passing on intelligence through clever stitch work and subversive alliances. 

This week a sitting US president told his followers to storm a building where democracy was being enacted as an election he lost was being certified, and he did it after 2 months of over 60 failed lawsuits attempting to stop the counting of legal votes. It truly boggles my mind that this is something that was allowed to happen in America. They have called for war, for a fight to retain power illegally, and for harm against those who disagree.

In WWII, those who helped the occupying forces were called collaborators and when the war ended these people were publicly reprimanded for their complicity in fighting against their own country. Thus should it be for those who still support the evil being perpetrated by this man and his followers.

The time has come for me to say: if my statements against his racist empire offend you, so be it. I don’t want to knit with collaborators, and I won’t turn a blind eye to injustice. If you agree with me then I encourage you to fight for voting rights, for the rights of all citizens regardless of color, for the return of decency and compassion that trumps hatred and bigotry. Together we can knit a new future of healing and “build back better.”