My Knitting Journey: A Personal Collection

A 20-year record of needles, yarn and the search for the perfect tropical knit.

The Inherited Needles

My knitting journey starts with learning to knit with a pair of knitting needles that belonged to my elder sister. She attended a convent girls’ school that expected her to be a lady. This apparently included knitting.

To say she has no talent is an understatement. Her lack of talent aside, she was asked to knit, of all things, a pair of baby booties. An ill-advised project for a beginner. She wanted nothing to do with the needles after that and so, I inherited it.

Self-Taught Techniques

While my late grandmother taught me to cook, sew, quilt, crochet, and macramé, knitting was a skill I pursued independently. In an era before the Internet or YouTube, my primary research sources were public libraries and bookstores.

Living in Singapore, a crossroad between the East and the West, I was exposed to diverse knitting traditions. I was exposed early on to the Japanese tradition, and they tend to use a lot of charts and symbols. The Chinese knitting books take after the Japanese but with much less information and illustrations. Western knitting books have more written instructions and step-by-step pictures.

A major part of my early journey was translating the “global code” such as reconciling the differences between US, UK, and Japanese needle sizes and the various yarn weights used across the East and West.

My First Project

Knitting supplies in Singapore can be quite expensive. I used the knitting needles my sister left me and the cheap pink acrylic yarn she bought for the baby booties to practise for a long time.

I finally had enough money to go to my local yarn store to buy yarn. I still remember the yarn: it is cotton and orange in colour. My mum was my first “customer“. I knitted a blouse using a Japanese pattern with a lace front. My finishing wasn’t very good, I must admit. My mum said she looked fat in it and so it got relegated to the bottom of a cupboard together with the knitting needles and yarn.

This experience served as a foundational lesson in garment construction and fit.

Rediscovering My Mojo on Ravelry

In the interim years, I explore other crafts like cross-stitching, crocheting and sewing. My knitting mojo came back through Ravelry.com. This digital community introduced me to high quality yarns, professional grade needles, and a global network of knowledgeable knitters. This moves my practice into a more frequent and intentional phase.

The Practical Tropical Knitter

I live in Singapore, a little tropical island in Southeast Asia. Winter knitting is not very appropriate or useful to me. Therefore, I gravitate towards a specific niche: practical tropical knitting. I prioritize utility over ornament, focusing on patterns appropriate for Singapore’s climate, with a particular interest in knitted bags.

The Art of the Frog

My knitting journey is full of tinkering and frogging. I often experiment with different methods to achieve a specific aesthetic or structural result. Understandably, it takes me a much longer time to complete something.

The Pattern Notebook

As a professional librarian, I can’t help but organize. I spend my time curating and annotating patterns, re-writing instructions for better clarity, and creating my own original knitting patterns.

Personal note: you can find these curated pattern compilations and original designs under this section.