...offering
classes on traditional techniques, and wholesale patterns.
About Beth
As of 2007, I am entering my eighteenth year of teaching
knitting on the national level. I look back on these years
with feelings of wonder and gratitude. I am doing things I
never imagined possible — I have developed a network
of friends, students, and colleagues that span the continent
and the world, working on a second book about knitting, creating
and marketing my own line of knitting patterns, and even financially
supporting myself and my children with what I love to do —
teaching knitting!
I remember that when I was seven years old, I felt
a burning desire to learn how to knit. Where I saw someone
knitting for the first time, I'll never know. I don't
even remember having seen someone, but I must have at some
point. It seemed as though it took me forever to locate
a woman who could teach me. I asked my mother, my mother's
friends, and the ladies at church to no avail. But I
also remember the day my mother told me that the lady on the
corner could show me how to knit. I was ecstatic! The
day of my first lesson I skipped down to her house.
All I can recall now is that she was Persian and taught me
to knit English style. Cast-on, knit, purl. That
was it.
 It
must have been at Christmas that I received a Barbie Knitting
Kit. It was a tall purple cylinder for holding your needles,
and the top had a hole in it which you could thread your yarn
through so it would feed easily. And there were instructions.
Here is my first sweater I ever made. My gauge was too big,
the back was longer than the front, so I hemmed that part
up. The sleeves were too long and it hung like an unlikely
dress. This sweater has been through two sisters after me,
cramming it on various Barbies. My mother never throws anything
away.
The next step in my education was hitting the yarn shop
after school, spending my allowance on needles, various wondrous
knitting gadgets, yarn (I always have preferred wool) and
a Columbia Minerva book How to Knit. From this, I learned
to increase and decrease and cable and work different stitch
patterns. When I was nine, a distant relative from Switzerland
came to visit and knitted a sweater for my Mom in a couple
days! I was astounded. She taught me to knit Continental,
as well as the purl I now call the "Norwegian Purl".
In my teens, I branched out into teaching myself crochet,
macrame, sewing clothes (and even some fringed and beaded
hippie boots), quilting, and fundamental basket weaving.
By my mid-twenties, I was obsessed with spinning, weaving,
and vegetal dyeing. In 1981 I opened a yarn shop with
two other women with start-up capital of $900. I taught
spinning and knitting there, and never made a profit, but
gained invaluable knowledge in the three years we all limped
along.
 At
this point in my life, I was married, had my seven-year-old
son Jorn and my brand-new daughter Chloë, and we lived
in Maryland, having come back "home" after trying
out San Diego and Oregon. I was beginning to design sweater
kits to sell my handspun yarns and I was exhibiting in craft
shows. Then, one weekend in October 1984, we four went camping
in Virginia and Chloë died that first night of SIDS (Sudden
Infant Death Syndrome).
 This
incredible loss served to teach me a lot about myself, compassion
for myself and others, and about courage. I designed a dress
for my little girl that she would never wear as my grief work.
It was so healing to knit that dress!
My Children, Jerod, Chelsea, and Jorn
And of course having my last two children, Jerod and Chelsea,
healed me most of all.
Where I had been timid before, I suddenly knew that nothing
worse could ever happen to me again, and I was able to accomplish
tasks which would have daunted me previously. Soon I was designing
more and got a position teaching knitting at the local community
college. I began to study knitting and developed a workshop
on Ganseys. I did a test run on my Knitting Guild and then
sent off a workshop proposal to The Knitting Guild of America.
They accepted my class and soon I was teaching for them every
year. My workshop grew into my book Knitting Ganseys,
and drawing upon the rich world history of knitting, I have
developed more workshops. I have been to Scandinavia twice
now to research knitting there, and hope to continue to travel
to expand my knowledge of this most exciting field.
Karen Frisa, hard at work on a mailing for Knitting
Traditions in 2001
In
1995, I opened up a mail order business, Knitting Traditions,
for traditional knitters, featuring authentic yarns for historical
garments, books, patterns, and other fun stuff. Teaching and
running a business left no time for my family, and I was thrilled
when my friend Karen Frisa agreed to work in the business
with me. Karen and I enjoyed our customers and had a good
time too! But, at the end of 2001, with my divorce looming,
we decided to close the mail order portion of Knitting Traditions.
I am lucky that Karen still lives nearby. We get together
often to knit and eat chocolate and cheese, and she continues
to do technical editing of my patterns and give me valuable
feedback and encouragement.
I feel so blessed to be doing what I am doing — working
with knitters, teaching techniques which enhance their pleasure
of their craft and which inspire them to challenge themselves
with their chosen projects. And I am ever mindful that I could
not be doing my work if it weren't for you, my dear students,
yarn shop owners and guilds. I am so very grateful for your
support.
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