Fruity you and me KAL

I must confess I am definitively not a podcast lover. In my present state of mind – a bit nervous and melancholic – watching what others are knitting right now, are going to knit or what they are dreaming to knit in the future is not overly fascinating. Perhaps the podcasts I came across were not too interesting, but on the other hand I didn’t have free time to spend it otherwise than knitting. However, some time ago I was so exhausted that I sat down and watched a couple of different podcast episodes. It made me feel better and I found that „The Fruitty Knitting” podcast is definitely worth watching more or less regularly. When I watch a new episode, my hubby looks over my shoulder and says in disbelief something like „this man is knitting again”. In every other way he is of great help, being something of my PR specialist, although he consistently refuses to learn to knit. I accept that, as he is not the first one of that kind in my family.

My grandpa Antoni was not too talented as far as crafting goes, but thanks to his innovations and open-mindedness my family could develop their crafting skills to perfection. He was the first in the neighborhood to order and bring home an electric sewing machine. It was a Husqvarna and still stands on the bookshelf in my mother’s flat, but after many years and numerous sewed dresses, coats, trousers and weird non-garment products, it is retired now. In the early fifties it was very difficult to buy anything like that in Poland. And when it was necessary, Antoni was able to order a missing part directly from the factory in Sweden. At some point he translated the instruction manual from German and English into Polish and his translation was published and came with the second batch of imported machines, which arrived a couple of years later. His translation was undoubtedly useful to many peaople although, printed in Sweden, it had many editorial errors. Antoni also bought my mum her first knitting machine.

My mum was then only eight and the machine was a junior model. Nevertheless she managed to knit quite a lot of garments for her sister and some twenty years later also for myself. It was used for four generations so far and is still in good condition. Antoni brought home a lot of knitting stuff, such as wool winders, yarns or needles. In those days, during the communist regime, it was extremely difficult and in some cases impossible to order anything from abroad, not to mention from outside the communist bloc. It's hard to imagine how he managed that, to say nothing about the cost. Little wonder that the same grandpa Antoni bought me my first weaving loom when I was five. And my hubby is on the best way to become like Antoni, accepting, supporting and helping me in everything related to crafts.

Getting back to the podcast, it was so convincing that I decided to join the „Fruit You and Me KAL”, which is my second KAL ever, where each participant should knit something for their beloved person and for himself or herself. Being a rather busy person, as usual in such circumstances I was in a quandary over who would be the chosen family member. It is probably even a more difficult task to decide for whom to knit something than what to knit. Finally, I've chosen my daughter and decided to knit a sweater for her. I had an intensive light green skein of Aãde Long yarn, some leftovers in the natural red shades, most probably of Norwegian origin. I've taken them from a big box with leftovers I'd got from my aunt.

Instead of choosing an easy pattern, I've decided that a) I won't be able to knit anything serious with the available amount of yarn, b) the patterns are not in correct sizes an c) I don't like the patterns that wouldn't violate the two previous criteria, and decided to design my own pattern. It is almost perfect, except for the fact that in one place it calls for a succession of six knits of the same color, where I should used five at the most. I'll try to do better next time. I had no intention to do complicated calculations and decided to start straight away and from the top, although it is not my favorite way. Overall it was an easy and fast project. The colors are intensive, yet pleasant to the eye and fresh. My kids helped me choose the buttons. Now it's time to finish the second one. Thank you for a good idea - it would be great to have more knitting challenges like that.