Before I jump into this fun story, go take a look at my new Yarn Shop page! That’s right, I’m working to open up my own yarn shop stocking Scheepjes Yarns for US customers. For now, you can get your hands on exclusive yarn&pattern kits – go check it out – I’ll wait here.

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You back? Okay let’s settle in, where was I?

Ah yes… once upon a time, I was a knitter. Surprised?? I actually started out my fiber arts journey as a knitter when I was in college. It wasn’t a whole lot different from now, as I was knitting every day with no end in sight, even sometimes cutting class to knit (sorry mom!). Knit and crochet were in the beginnings of making their comeback and us gals would meet at a cafe on campus and stitch the afternoon away.

I made a ton of camis, sweaters, and cardigans, and I even made a blanket! Well, the beginnings of a blanket lol…

These mitered squares were found at the bottom of my WIP bin many years later..

But I never made anything with them as a knitter! When I re-discovered them as a crocheter, I made them into three blankets that look like this:

Read more about that transformation in the blog post!

So after five years of knitting non-stop, I graduated college, moved into an apartment, and suddenly picked up a crochet hook. As they say, the rest is history. I became a blanket-obsessed fool and over 300 crochet blankets later, I️ never picked up knitting needles again.

Until today! Lol.. somehow all this gorgeous knit work pops up in my social media feeds, and gives me this great urge to re-learn knitting. In 2013 or so, I️ actually sold all of my knitting needles, knowing I wouldn’t pick them up again, so of course a trip to the hobby store was in order. Nothing grabbed me though so Amazon saved me! Anyway, I like being able to read all the reviews..

I picked some ChiaoGoo needles which seemed like the best reviewed for the best price, and then had to sit and wait for shipping haha… ain’t that the worst??

But here they are – so pretty! With some gorgeous Scheepjes | Colour Crafter* Back in 2001, there was no YouTube, so I had to learn how to knit from books, and eventually had to re-learn everything I was doing wrong from my stitching pals. It was rough! But today we have it easy.. everyone knows learning by watching someone do something is so much easier!

Before going straight to YouTube though, I decided it may be funny to video myself trying to remember how to knit without any help at all. Just picking up the needles and giving it a go. So I did! Haha, you can watch that torturous 6 minutes if you like:

It was shocking how quickly everything came back to me after 12 years of absolutely zero knitting. But I’m very slow at it and definitely need to practice a lot before trying to come up with knitting patterns.

Here’s what came of my efforts…. some Stockinette, Garter, Moss, and Rib. Now ask me how I remembered all of that, with this cobweb-brain of mine??

And in fact, I️ should mention, the reason for this knitting madness is an urge to push the boundaries on mixing and matching stitch patterns in my works. I have a fondness for mixing textures, which you can see in many of my projects, such as Cottage Quilt and Desert Bloom.

So in the interest of mixing stitch patterns, I felt like I was ignoring an entire art form’s worth! Now my patterns can feature both knit and crochet elements, and that makes me so happy. Of course not all will include knitting, and I’ll probably give notes in the pattern for those who only want to crochet the whole piece, but still – it’s an adventure!

And why wait??

I received some incredible River Washed* yarn – actually to be more precise, I received one of each of every color of both River Washed, and River Washed XL – feeling incredibly lucky!

Look out world – my next pattern will include a mingling of 2 yarn weights (DK and Aran) and 2 fiber arts (knit and crochet) for an exciting creative journey of color and texture.

I have a sketch, and plans, and loads of chicken-scratch scrawlings in my design notebook, but for now all I think I’ll share is a little peek at the beginnings of “Merging Rivers”

The rest shall remain hidden under my wing. Maybe I’ll make a CAL of it! If you’re interested in sneak peeks, behind the scenes, and exclusive content, you should head to my Patreon page where you get fun rewards for being a CypressTextiles supporter.

*Shopping through affiliate links marked with an asterisk will support CypressTextiles at no additional cost to you! Affiliate links are better than click-bait – all click, no bait! 😁❤️