outset

The first time I picked up a set of knitting needles to cast-on was 21 March 2009... a Saturday.  my inclination to knit was not out of some sort of nostalgia or life-crisis or the fact that I have a brand new niece named Zoey.  it came bubbling forth after careful consideration.  I already have plenty of interests and hobbies, why this one, why now?  the easy response is:  knitting is something I have been interested in for a long time.  so, why not just go for it?  The truth is that I have been interested in the _results_ of knitting for a long time, but was not sure I wanted to actually learn how to knit.  every now and again upon seen a beautiful or utterly amazing garment that had been hand knitted, I cataloged it in my brain as "knitting potential".  my fiancee is a knitter, 2 close friends are knitters... so, I have great resources if I was ever to start knitting.

I can track for you the last few things that finally pushed me to the point of casting-on.

1.  I was in St. Louis last October with my fiancee, visiting friends.  I was reading, ahem, loosely scanning the St. Louis magazine trying to figure out something I might want to do outside of our already planned activities.  I came across an advertisment for Skif International and a hot hot hot picture of a sweater.  wow, I thought, in St. Louis there is an awesome knit shop, sweet.  I took down the URL, and promptly looked it up on the interweb.  then, my socks were blown off.  finally, I thought, knitting that in my minds eye, resembles knit work I could see myself doing... my "knitting potential" file in my brain busted at the seams.  maybe, I thought, knitting is for me after all.

2.  since I had been employing wool (more specifically, felted wool) in jewelry I have been working on, helped lead me to felt bead making, which led me to felt making, and making felt from knitted items...  learning how to knit would help supply handcrafted, unique felt for my jewelry, if ever I need/want it.

3.  I decided to take a few steps into knitting and so I asked my fiancee if she would teach me to knit.  she said yes, so I began to look for some knitting resources on the web.  one of the first blogs that really caught my attention was Nora's blog, Black Dog Knits, and specifically, this project.  I drooled, I was envious and I became truly excited about the prospect of knitting...  the pattern that Nora started from to make that incredible sweater was in fact, a Skif International pattern!  full circle.

I was sold on the prospect of becoming a knitter and I also decided to be committed to knitting for a calendar year, and to try to document my journey... so I did more searching online for knitting resources.  that research and curiousity led me to Ravelry, an online knitting community.  I promptly put in my request for an account.  (the approximate wait time at that time was 6 days)  I was elated to have tools available to help me to keep organized and document my journey.  all the hard work was done for me.  

on 26 March, I receive my invite to Ravelry... so,

I set up this blog, ganzfeldknits on Blogger.  (as a companion to my Ravelry account)

I also set up a ganzfeldknits collection on my already existing Flickr account (although there is no knitting content yet)

and now, there is no looking back.

my heartfelt thanks goes out to Nora, Skif International, Ravelry and my fiancee.