FOREWORD
“ I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”
— Robert Frost
I am often asked why and how I selected hand-knitwear design as a profession. With tongue-in-cheek I begin the story of my adventure in a time-honored way.“ A long time ago in a far-off land...” while working in the information technologies industry, a coworker asked me if I knew how to bind off. She had just learned to knit but had not learned what to do at the end. Even though I had not knit for years, I remembered. As I worked the bind-off, I experienced an epiphany that unbeknownst to me would change my life forever.
That evening, I visited a yarn shop and bought some yarn, needles, and a pattern book. Here I would like to say“ and the rest is history,” but I wasn’ t quite ready for“ happily every after.”
I began knitting every chance I got. Shortly thereafter, fate took the reins, and I fell ill. With major surgery imminent, I prepared for my hospital stay packing only my knitting needles as nonessentials. While in the hospital, my company was sold. Suddenly, I was unexpectedly unemployed.
There I stood at one of life’ s many crossroads( still hooked to the IV pole) free to“ follow my own bliss.” In the following weeks, I decided to take“ the road less traveled” and become a knitwear designer. Let’ s examine that logic. I only knew how to knit and sort of purl and could barely follow a pattern without a visit to the yarn shop for help. To any astute observer, this was not my“ calling.” When I announced my future direction, most of my friends thought that my post-surgery drugs had not yet cleared my system. Nevertheless, spurred on by the thought of truly“ following my own bliss” I picked up my knitting needles and measuring tape, took a“ vow of poverty,” and soldiered on undaunted by the reality that I did not have a clue as to how to proceed.
I was happy with my newfound freedom and had a burning desire to work in handknitwear design, but, I knew that I needed a clear, concise plan.