Interview

I ask my fellow blogger over at Knitting Zeal to interview me and she has done her homework. She came up with some great questions. So, here are my answers...

1. When did you first learn to knit and who taught you? What was your first completed project?

I first learned to knit when I was a little girl, probably around age 6 or 7. My mother invited two of my female cousins over and sat them down with my three sisters and me and went down the line teaching us all to knit. It seemed to take forever to get my turn.

I don't think I actually knitted anything as a child. I did a lot of crochet though. I crocheted in college which caused one of my friends to dust off her knitting needles. She encouraged me to try knitting something (thanks, Jana!!!!!) I was afraid that knitting would frustrate me because I was so comfortable with crochet. I thought I would be all thumbs with two sticks. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

So I knit a pink, acrylic, stockinette vest. I got baby yarn (don't ask me why) and size 2 needles. I had to recalculate the pattern to fit my gauge. The vest came out fine. I realized a few months after I finished the vest that I had wrapped every purl stitch the wrong direction and didn't compensate when knitting the next row. Since I was consistent it didn't look "wrong". I wore the vest a few times. I didn't use a smaller needle to knit the bottom rib and it seemed too chunky for the sweater. I finally gave it to my mom. She wore it a few times. I don't know what has happened to it since then.

2. What are your favorite local yarn shops and what is it that you like about each of them?

The yarn store I always think of first when asked about LYS is Justa Knitting Basket in Southampton. They have tons of great yarn - both classic and novelty, lots of space and light. They have lots of books, bags, needles and accessories. Best of all I love the owner, Marie. She is such a mellow person. She is very happy to help if I have questions but also willing to sit back and let me take my time to browse and fondle all of the merchandise.

There are three more stores that are actually closer to me but the shopping experience in them is just not the same. It's a great time to be a knitter because knitting stores are popping up all over the place. There are several other knitting stores within reasonable driving distance that I want to explore.

3. What are your top five scariest movie recommendations?
The movie that scared me the most as a kid was Poltergeist. I saw that in the movie theater (a rare occurrence when I was a kid.)

I liked Amityville Horror (I read the book before seeing the movie.) The original Halloween movie taught me that when the musical tension builds I need to clench my teeth to protect my tongue.

Most of the scary movies I saw were Friday night "Fright Night" movies on TV. I don't actually remember many of the movies - just the thrill of running upstairs, away from every imaginary monster that was chasing me when the movie was over.

4. If you could go away on vacation anywhere in the world, with or without your kids, and money was not a factor, where would you go and what would you do?

This is a tough question for me. There are so many answers. Wherever I go the kids would come with me. I love being on vacation with them. If money were no object I might take a babysitter so DH and I could get away for a dinner or two.

I would love to tour Europe. I would love to explore the cultures of Asia. Textiles and handwork are an obsession for me more than just a hobby. I think my ideal vacation would be a world tour to see, touch and learn about textiles of every culture.

5. What kind of business would you like to start?

A yarn and sweater design business! Yeah!!!

Thanks for the interview. That was fun. Following are the rules for these interviews. I shamelessly stole this text from Grumperina's blog. (As I am stating the source for this text and carefully marking it to indicate that it is a quote I am technically not "stealing" it - it just sounds cool to say that.)

Thank you for interviewing me! And now I can interview you! Here are the rules:

1. Leave me a comment saying "interview me."

2. I will respond by asking you five questions here. They will be different questions than
the ones above.

3. You will update YOUR blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Do YOU want to be interviewed? Leave me a comment and let me know!