Thursday, April 24, 2014

7 Reasons You Should Hire a Knitter

Having recently updated my resume just because it's good practice to do so, I realized that a lot of the positive attributes I found myself listing can be attributed to being a knitter. Since I love knitting and a number of my older posts clearly indicate that, I've comprised this list to help all potential employers out there not be so quick to dismiss that "knitting" blurb listed under someone's hobbies.

(Please remember these are generalizations and my own observations and not meant to paint all knitters with a broad brush. Everyone is unique and special and there will be knitters who don't exactly mesh with what I've written and that is ok!)


7. Attention to detail
Knitting any project whether a simple baby blanket or lace shawl requires the knitter to have a certain way of looking at even the smallest details. An entire pattern, even a simple one, can be thrown off by just a single stitch out of place. An experienced knitter will be able to find and fix a mistake without anyone else being the wiser once the project is finished. The knitter can also see if there's a mistake in the pattern as well, experience tells the knitter something won't look right and they'll be able to avoid the problem.

6. Patience
Many projects are time consuming, especially large projects or projects using a thinner yarn (socks, shawls, etc.). Blankets knit with a thick yarn can take anywhere from hours to weeks or months to finish. One sock could take a month or longer to complete. "Instant gratification" for a knitter means a project you can complete in a weekend, it is a very rare project indeed that can be started and finished in one day. A lot of projects also require some type of finishing work even after the pattern is complete. Ends of new stands of yarn need to be woven in, or the finished object (affectionately called an "FO") needs to be blocked. Blocking involves soaking/misting/steaming the object with water then physically shaping it and waiting for it to dry. Wool can take a while to dry.

5. Giving Nature
Generally, people who are knitters will knit gifts for their friends, family, or co-workers. I don't know a knitter who has kept every single thing they've made, except maybe a brand new knitter who has only just finished their first scarf. This type of person makes a great employee for a variety of reasons but e biggest one is that they care about the people around them. Serious, they spend hours/days/weeks/months in a project just to give it away and not enjoy it themselves! Yarn isn't cheap, even "cheap" yarn isn't cheap, and time is the most precious commodity of all, knitters freely and happily give both to others.


4. Adaptable
A quick look through projects on Ravelry.com and you'll start to see a trend. Many projects contain notes about modifications (or "mods") made to the pattern by the knitter. While newbies may follow a pattern exactly (nothing wrong with that!), many experienced knitters will modify a pattern to suit their needs as they go along if something doesn't look or fit quite how they'd like. Knitters can also look through a pattern and plan their modifications out, a great example is sock patterns and heels. There are many different ways to knit a heel (none of them right or wrong) and a knitter can choose what works for them based on yarn, color, wearer's preference (if not themselves), speed to knit, etc. So many options exist and knitters make good use of them all!

3. Grateful/Appreciative
Knitters know how long it takes them to complete projects. They understand how much work goes into lengthy projects. Everyone loves handmade gifts, everyone knows that a great deal of time and care went into them, but knitters recognize exactly how much work went into something and are especially grateful when the same care is lavished on them.

2. Forethought/Planning
Many projects require more than just the thought "Gee, I'd like a scarf." How much yarn is required? Will there be multiple colors? What size and type of needles are needed? More than one size/type of needle? Often times, even though the pattern will tell the knitter most of these things, variations will occur as everyone knits differently. Most people even knit differently depending on the type of needle or brand of yarn. This difference is caused by the tension of the yarn as it is held by the knitter and is called "gauge." A gauge swatch is an important part of a project, even though it rarely ever makes it into the final product. A swatch is essentially practice, the knitter ideally uses the same yarn and needles as they intend to use for a project and makes a small piece of sample fabric. Most often this is a square, but sometimes it is a tube or miniature sock or lacework. Gauge is important when sizing is important, which is usually the case in garments or lace.


1. The Bigger Picture
Because of the nature of knitting, a knitter has the ability to see the bigger picture even when in the middle of minutia. Knitting is creating a whole something (sock, shawl, blanket, sweater, whatever) out of a combination of stitches. Each stitch has it's place in the row, each row it's place in the pattern, and together they all form the finished object. A knitter looks at an unwound hank of yarn and sees not just the yarn but the potential of what the yarn can become. A knitter looks at the first few stitches of a sock cuff and sees the whole sock. One stitch among many might not seem important until it's gone, then the hole that's left is obvious. One stitch supports the other stitches around it, conversely one stitch requires the support of others. No project in the world is one stitch on it's own but the culmination of hundreds (or thousands or hundreds of thousands) of stitches working together. The same can be said of employees within an organization.

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