Knitting For Christmas

For the first time in years my dreams have started to come true. I'm knitting for a living. Actually I'm trying to knit for a living. I have started to work on that dream. I teach some knitting classes and have made a few new knitters in the past year. I absolutely LOVE the looks on my students faces when they have started a project and it starts to look like something. To make others goals come true has been very rewarding.

My grandmother taught me how to knit when I was a little girl. I cannot remember how old I was but I remember wanting to learn the popcorn stitch because she was making a baby sweater for one of my cousins babies and it was so beautiful. Though I was a kid I remember how hard it was to achieve that stitch and had made some barbie blankets because they were small and easy to make.

As most kids do, they give up on things early and so did I. But I did remember how to cast on and cast off and knit and purl when I picked up my needles again as an adult. Some things I guess take time to grow. I was afraid I couldn't make the things that my grandmother had made so I gave up young, but now I can make the things I watched my grandmother make when I was a child and I am so glad that her teaching me how to knit is one of my favorite memories ever. Its one of those memories I will always cherish because they were with her.

So along with teaching some knitting classes I have been knitting projects for friends who like what I have made. I made at least 3 Olaf's from the Disney movie Frozen and I have made things from hippo's to dishcloths and other things. I have turned down orders for things also because I don't have a lot of time these days. I really, really, really want to make all the things I have been asked to make, but because I still have to work for an hourly wage it doesn't give me a lot of time, and I really need to get a start on my Christmas knitting.

Knitting for Christmas is my most favorite knitting projects to make. For years that's all I made, Christmas presents. I made them to save money of course but also because I knew that they would not receive a present like the present I was giving them. Home made has always been my favorite gifts. My grandmothers neighbor had always knitted us children mittens for Christmas every year and she still continues in her 80's to make our children mittens every year. It was a tradition that I wanted to start also and have made my daughter something knitted every year since I started knitting again. I cannot wait to knit my grandchildren mittens every year!

I absolutely want to continue with my knitting for a living and hope that it will grow into my own little business some day, but I will always need to have the time to knit for Christmas. I would love to hear about your goals as a crafter and what traditions you have started or would like to start :) Like knitting for Christmas!