Sometime in the late 1990’s, I saw a sheepdog demonstration at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games I had an epiphany – the skies opened, a beam of light hit me, and I heard the sounds of horns (or maybe it was bagpipes) and I saw the life I wanted. I realized that if I wanted a sheepdog, I would need sheep. If I had sheep, I would need to do something with the fleece. To do something with the fleece, I would need to learn to spin. If I was spinning yarn, I would need to learn to knit.
Dad and Aunt Elizabeth, 1947
I learned the basic stitches from a terrific little book by Vicki Square called The Knitter’s Companion. I had a pattern book called Homespun, Handknit and the advice and patient correction of my Aunt Elizabeth. “Try relaxing your hands a bit.”
Soon after completing a garter stitch scarf that turned out to be in the shape of a polygon , I moved to Norway and was looking for a way to share what I was doing with with friends and family in North Carolina. I stumbled on a few knitting blogs:
- Carolyn Zick’s Dangerous Chunky – which is sadly no more, but you can follow her on Instagram
- Becky Delgado‘s Fluffa! at SkinnyRabbit.com
- Modeknit by Annie Modesitt
- Amy Singer‘s blog, which is now Knittyblog.com. Amy is the creator of Knitty.com and is active on Instagram personally and has another account for Knitty.
- Shetha Nolke‘s blog – you can also find Shetha on Instagram
- Ellen Margulies who is a contributor to the fiber arts blog at the Times Union and is on Instagram
- and Wendy J. Johnson’s WendyKnits – if you need a floofy kitty fix, follow her and Loki the Wonder Cat
- Lisa Shobhana Mason who is also on Instagram
- Kate Wisson‘s blog. Kate taught me to spin by email but I’ve lost touch over the years.
- And several more that I’m forgetting at the moment!
So I started one too and called it Bagatell. I added it to the Knitting Blogs webring, which at the time was only about a dozen or so blogs.
That early group of knitting bloggers are featured heavily in the wildly popular book Stitch n Bitch – the Knitter’s Handbook by Debbie Stoller and in the first issue of Knitty.com – that’s Kate Wisson on the cover! We even had a miniature launch party on Wendy’s little chat feature on her blog. Ah, nostalgia.
Based on a post on Bagatell, Amy asked me to write a feature on Knitty called Techniques with Theresa.
The articles have been referenced in some cool places, like:
- the wikipedia page on Grafting (Kitchener Stitch)
- in the reference section for the Master Knitting program of TKGA
- in a live chat with Jared Flood for Vogue
You can learn more about patterns I’ve designed on the Patterns page.