Jennifer J. Albright
Cincinnati, OH USA
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Books |
Passing it Down, Nana's Raglans
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| Specialty |
Intarsia work, mostly on adult sweaters. I do, however, probably knit a sock every week (two pairs a month or more) because I knit them on the treadmill or whenever I have to wait places (appointments, restaurants, in line at the post office....)
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| Contact Information: |
No mailing address is available...
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| Favorite Knitting Book |
The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns : Basic Designs in Multiple Sizes & Gauges
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| Favorite knitting reference |
My Grandmothers
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| Favorite Cast-On |
Long Tail
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| Favorite Knitting Tip |
Don't try to knit tighter or looser to get gauge, CHANGE YOUR NEEDLE SIZE.
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| Classes |
Learn to knit
Basic Socks in any size or weight yarn
Top down seamless raglans
Felted Slippers & Clogs
Fix it & Finish it
Entrelac knitting
Pretty much anything people want to learn!
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| Biography |
My Paternal Grandmother used to knit 8"x8" garter stitch squares for her church group to sew into afghans for the poor (she lived near Appalachia). To try to keep me busy at the age of six or seven, she taught me how to knit them. Just knit. She would cast on the stitches & bind them off. I think I made maybe 3 squares, got bored, and stopped knitting.
A year later, I received an Icelandic-style cardigan from my Maternal Grandmother. She told me she had knit it herself. When I told her it wasn't knitting (because it was in a different (stockinette) stitch, had several colors, and, well, sleeves....) she cleared up my confusion by showing me how to cast on & purl.
Mom filled in the rest of the basics of shaping & binding off. I found a child's sweater pattern with (intarsia) circus elephants and balloons on it, and I told my mother I wanted to make it. Mom took me to a yarn shop, where the owner flatly told her that under no circumstances could an eight year old make an intarsia picture sweater as a first project. I was determined to prove her wrong. And I did. Mom taught me how to use bobbins and read graphs.
From that point on, I'd do a project here & there, but I wasn't knitting consistantly.
That changed when I went to college. I was trying to find a burgundy cardigan with cream trim on the sleeves & neckline for my brother for Christmas, and went to an upscale men's clothier. They had a sweater that, though wasn't exactly what my brother wanted (no cream trim), was at least burgundy. It wasn't his in his size, however. I asked the salesman (who had completely ignored me up to this point) if he had it in a medium. The salesman looked at young, freshman coed me and said, extremely condescendingly, "No, I don't. Why don't you go knit him one, Sweetheart?" Remembering both the little shop three blocks down the street that sold yarn and my grandmothers' lessons, I responded that I would go do just that! From that day forward, I spent any free time I had at that yarn shop, learning any new techniques I could from the shop’s amazing owner and her plentiful clientele. By my junior year, I was taking commissions for projects and buying my college textbooks with the proceeds.
That was over 15 years ago, and I have not been with out a knitting project ever since! The Princess of Multi-Tasking, I have projects in my car, at my job, and in several rooms of the house. There are intricate lace yarns & charts in the living room; sprawling, multi-colored intarsia projects in the entertainment room all over the floor, a Fair Isle in the computer room, and socks in the car. In short, there is a project on needles for every craving I may have from huge, complex projects that will take a year or more to complete to small, easy, projects that can be carried over to friends' homes for movie nights. And I always something that's less than a week away from completion if I just sit down & do it, (like a hat, scarf, or baby blanket) for when I feel like I have too many "irons in the fire" and need to get something done. If I don't have some sort of knitting at arm's reach, my friends start to worry about me. It keeps me busy, and as my mother hopes, "out of trouble."
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| What is your knitting mantra? |
It isn't my hobby. It's my Zen.
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| What inspires you? |
Anything that looks challenging. That & yummy yarns in amazing colors.
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| Confess - when it comes to hiding your yarn, what are your secrets? |
It's not really hidden: It's all over the house. But I can always claim that one of the cats was playing with it.
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| What is your idea of knitting heaven? |
A place where no one gawks when I'm knitting in public and is then compelled to tell me, "Wow, you crochet fast..."
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| How many UFO's (Unfinished Objects)do you have going at once? |
Too many to count. But I don't count them as "official" UFO's (ones that may never be completed) until they've been ignored for over a year. That number is around 5 I think.
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| My yarn stash equals the GNP (Gross National Product) of ... |
Luxembourg. As a general rule, I don't stash a lot. I get new yarn for a specific project and need to use it ASAP.
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| Whom would you like to see accept an Academy Award wearing your creation? |
Since I tend to knit very classic things in yarns void of glitter, eyelash, and other frou-frou, I doubt any actress would wear a knitchick design.
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| What knitting commandment do you most like to break? |
hand wash only.
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| What frequently-asked knitting question do you hate to answer? |
Why do I have to do a gauge?
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| What is your most dog-eared knitting reference? |
a notebook that belonged to my grandmother with changes to patterns and references to things made for my mother, my aunt, and my cousins
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| When and how did you learn to knit? |
See bio.
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| What is the most unusual place you've ever knitted? |
Paramont King's Island Amusement Park in Mason, Ohio during their Hallowe'en celebration. I knit a sock while actors in zombie makeup tried to scare me, and while standing in queue for roller coasters
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| How long can you last without knitting? |
20 hours, max.
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| If you were stranded on a deserted island, what one yarn, book, or gizmo would you want along? |
My wooden umbrella swift. When I got it as a Christmas gift years ago, I was as excited as a teenager would have been receiving a car key.
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| How many hours have you knitted non-stop - and why? |
22, non-stop, with the exception of potty breaks and a few nibbles. A cousin had a child celebrating his first Christmas, and I had knit our family's heirloom Christmas stocking pattern for him sometime in early November. My cousin called my mother on the afternoon of Dec. 21 asking why I hadn't made one. The post office apparently had lost the package, so I stayed up all night (and the entire day of Dec.22) to knit this extremely detailed intarsia Santa Claus stocking for the second time. The post office shipped it (free of charge) urgent next day, and it was delivered in the late afternoon of December 24th. Just in time to hang it by the chimney with care.
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| What do you want your knitting epitaph to say? |
To save time, take time to check your gauge.
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| Who would you like to greet you in knitting heaven? |
My grandmothers. They should just SEE what they'd started
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