Is knitting your hobby or a way of life?

A few months ago, you all surprised the heck out of me by sharing that you’re all mostly solitary knitters. I asked the original question after sharing the memory of attending my very first fiber festival and how meaningful it was, for me, to look around and see people who were just as in love with knitting and yarn and fiber as I am. Most of my life, I’ve felt like a square peg in a round hole, and at that, my first, fiber festival, I felt like I had found my people. I had no social anxiety, no shyness, no hesitation to talk to other people. It was easy and fluid to be with people—in line, in crowds, or on a bus. Our common love of knitting, well, it knit us together.

At the end of that essay, I asked how you fill your own knitting “love bucket”. A full 60 percent of you said that you are solitary knitters. I have been mulling this over since October because there is just so much to unpack with the idea of solitary knitting.

I may be in my solitary knitting era, as well, so here are some things your unexpected survey responses prompted me to ponder:

Knitting has become a way of life for me. It’s no longer a hobby or “just” something I do in the evenings. Knitting—like crocheting for some people, or spinning or weaving for others—has become a place where I find joy. I love everything about this small, portable, seemingly insignificant craft: the physical feeling of yarn running through my hands, the rhythm of working with both hands in coordination, the way my brain can calm down and lose track of time as I slowly knit loop after loop (complicated or simple) and create fabric.

My home reflects my knitting way of life. Sprinkled throughout my home are signs that a knitter lives here. Some of my husband’s relatives visited this past fall, and one particularly observant cousin noticed the small knitted pumpkins I had placed on our fireplace mantle. He admired them and immediately connected the fact that these little pumpkins express my inner self: my love of knitting, of yarn-dyeing, of fiber, and of making things by hand. It was a beautiful moment where I felt seen. (How many other visitors to my home saw the little pumpkins but didn’t make the connection that they are an outward sign of the inner me?)

I don’t need to share a love of knitting with anyone else for me to feel nourished by it. I love when someone admires a sweater I wear (and I always, so happily, say “I made it!”), but I feel just as proud and just as beautiful when I am dressed in a handmade sweater and stay cozy in the house, never seeing another person outside of family members (who have long since stopped being impressed by my knitting!). I love knowing that I spent so much time making this garment and that this garment is for me. I am worth the time. I am worth the cost of the yarn. I am warm and loved, and I don’t need anyone else to see this fact for it to be true.

How about you?

If you are also a solitary knitter, or if the way I am describing my own solitude resonates with you, tell me more!

It’s ‘open cart’ for Winter Blues & yarn club subscriptions

When it’s deep winter, I start craving deep, saturated, unfussy, not showy color, like these:

On the left: Depths of Despair. On the right: Evergreen

Depths of Despair (on the left) and Evergreen (on the right) are my seasonal color offering for deep winter. They are the perfect bluey and greeny shades that I start craving right about now: nothing too bright, just rich, deep, naturally saturated color, like the depths of the ocean or a fresh evergreen forest.

Both colors are available for preorder and will ship in about 2 weeks (although if y’all go crazy and order more than the base yarn I have on hand, it will be the standard 4-6 weeks. I’m afraid to say there’s still plenty of winter to go for you to enjoy these winter blues on your needles, even if they ship in the longer timeframe).

Both colorways are available on two bases (Cashmere Blend and Mohair-Silk Lace) and can make:

• Plush and extra-warm socks

• A squishy, drapey shawl

• A soft and drapey sweater if you use Cashmere Blend by itself

• The perfect floofy haloed sweater of your dreams if you hold both bases together

You can also order a single skein just because you love this color and want to see it sitting in your stash for future knitting inspiration!

It’s “open cart” for my yarn subscription club!

If you consider just one yarn subscription club this year, I want it to be mine.

I put so much thought into structuring my club for maximum yarn delight. It’s a present to future you, and so, so often, I hear from subscribers that their club package arrives just when they need a pick-me-up, and that club skeins become a treasured part of their stash (and often get cast on as soon as they arrive).

Here’s what you need to know:

• Yarn arrives every other month, so it never feels like you’re accumulating too much

• You pay as you go, so you never have to budget for a large purchase

• It’s my most economical offering, at a flat $34 rate. (I pay for shipping, which ends up being an 18% discount for you, compared to ordering a single skein at any other time.)

• I aim to create crowd-pleasing colorways. Nothing wild, nothing variegated. There’s absolutely a time and place for the outlier skeins, but this club isn’t it. This is about easy to use, easy to love colorways.

• The yarn is my most luxurious (nothing limp or plain here). It’s Cashmere Blend: a plump round 3-ply yarn, with 70% extrafine merino, 20% cashmere, and 10% nylon. It’s swankier than swank, and as primo as can be.

Next week, I’ll be launching a new sock pattern, together with yarn sock sets. The pattern is called Jeff’s Groovy 70s Socks, and it’s inspired by the basketball style tube socks and original Chuck Taylor’s that my little brother and I used to wear growing up in the 70s. There’s a very tender story that goes along with the sock pattern, and I’m hoping to give and receive some big hugs when I share it.

(Content warning: my little brother died at the age of 20, so if you are managing grief right now, you might want to skip next week’s newsletter. Or you might want to make sure to read it. I’m not sure. Only you know how your heart will be feeling and what would feel supportive. I trust you to take good care of yourself.

Whether you are a solitary knitter or a social knitter who loves to gather with knitting family or friends, or whether both types of knitting connection fill your love bucket, I hope the coming week, and indeed the whole season ahead of us, brings you more connection and times when you feel truly seen.

With love,
Anne