Settling In

Laura

How long can you say you are "new" to an area? We are about to pass our fourth year here in California, so I can’t really say “we just moved here” any longer, although it still feels like it. Roads, towns and even entire areas are still unknown to me.  As you spend longer periods of time it becomes more difficult to answer the question "where are you from?” I still say New York, but I found it interesting that my kid’s response recently changed from Chicago to California.

The look back prompted me to review my knitting history as it related to the various moves.

Connecticut: I was living in Stamford when I first started knitting again, influenced by my friend Frances and new mother and grandmother-in laws, both of whom knit. The concept of a LYS was completely foreign. If there was a knitting store in our area I certainly did not know about it.

Chicago:  Knitting took the back seat for a year or two after our move “out west” (that’s a New Yorker’s view of Chicago!) with a 1 month and 18 month old – I’m sure you can understand why. I can still remember the true feeling of homecoming I felt when walking into my very first knitting store in downtown Naperville one blustery Midwest day. I truly felt more at peace just walking in the door. I bought a Minnow Knits pattern for Jaclyn that I promptly revised (see photos). Sweaters in those days were the name of the game. Not too many scarves, and the idea of a novelty yarn was still in the future.

California: Moving disrupted my knitting a bit, but stash held me over. After several months I heard about store on a yet-unexplored side street right in my new hometown! My joy was immense. I stayed for three hours my first visit and only left because school was getting out. This store was the true incarnation of the Local Yarn Shop – friendly, informative, full of luscious yarn and knitting customers. This community of knitters is definitely my favorite find in California.

Notes on the sweater:
This unknown cotton yarn was a big change for me after all that mohair. As a cross stitcher I wanted to play with color and texture. I used Garter and Seed stitches and experimented with the impact of twisted stitches (knit through back loop) in the body and at the shoulder. The fish was duplicate stitched and was an interesting endeavor since I did not yet understand the variation in stitch and row gauge. You might also notice the issues related to intartia and garter stitch. C'est la vie. My daughter loved it and I had fun.

Comments

[Betty]

I was just thinking about this the other day. This fall will mark 4 years since we moved from Chicago to Nashville. In the past 4 years, when people have asked where I am from, I have replied, "Currently living in TN, but from Chicago." I think I am ready to make the switch. But I will always be a Chicagoan.

[Faith]

Your posts are often inspirational to me as a knitter, but are always an inspiration as a blogger! What a great idea! I may have to copy it- there have been huuuuge differences between the yarn stores VT, NJ, NY and CO that I never even considered before. Thanks for a great post.

[Karen B.]

Hmm. Sense of place (and how it changes us or we change within it) is an interesting concept. Thanks for giving us food for thought.

p.s. Greetings from your former hometown, Chicago!

[Suzanne]

First: I've been saying I'm 29 for eight years, so saying you're "new" to California doesn't pose a moral dilemma for me. It's just a matter of perspective: compared to my 80-year-old father, I'm 29 (more or less). Compared to, say, the giant sequoias, you're new to California.

Second: I'm a native of San Diego, and at least one evening a week on the news, I hear about a crime committed in a neighborhood I have never heard of ("...and there was a multiple stabbing in Golden Hill today..."), so don't feel too bad if you still don't know everything after a few years.

Third: I've lived in seven different cities in four different countries, and the universal constant is that the knitters are wonderful everywhere.