First off I have to clarify of what I mean by saying I'm a "Straight Knitter." When I tell people I'm a knitter, there is one connotation they think when they hear of a man knitting. They automatically think I'm a homosexual. I'm not, but I get this stereotype all the time and I just have to point out that I'm not that way.
You might wonder how I became a Knitter and this is My Story.
Gray's Drug Store has apartments above it where Bob Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan used to live in Dinkytown, at the corner of 14th St SE and 4th St SE. (see article about him here). I met a male knitter selling hats next to where the red garbage square to the left of the traffic light.
It Started Outside of Gray's Drug Store
I started to live off campus at the University of Minnesota in a neighborhood called, "Dinkytown." It is a residential area with shops and restaurants just north of the main campus at the University of Minnesota. It has seen many eras and the latest is that the residential houses are being bulldozed for apartments and condos in multi-story buildings. There is a rising amount of violence in that neighborhood. Where my story started was in 1995 when I became a boarder at Kappa Eta Kappa (KHK), an Electrical Engineering Society as they allow women to join it. It's still there but next door to it there's a towering apartment building that wiped out the old Collegiate Lutheran Church and it's Parish house for the Lead Pastor.
I used to walk about 5 blocks or more to my Engineering classes at the U of MN. On the way to or from campus I would walk down University Avenue or 4th Street which is a one way street a block north of University Avenue. I'd walk passed a store called Gray's Drug Store at 14th St SE & 4th St SE. It was a 2 story building with a shop on the bottom and apartments on the top floor. The building is still there but Gray's Drug Store passed away into history in the early part of the 21st Century. It was made into the Loring Pasta Bar, and I think it is probably been something else since then. (I just went passed it the other day and it's vacant and the old "Gray's Drug Store" is still lettered on top of it).
Gray's Drug Store had a pharmacy and had other things in it that was much like a Walgreen's except the place had character that none of the modern pharmacy led buildings have these days. Usually in front of the building somebody would have their guitar or instrument case open to collect tips from people who liked the tunes they were playing.
People would also set up a stall and sell handmade items, or knockoff items. When I think about it I rarely went into the store, except to get a spare key made for my KHK keys. It had a dime store, or rather Dollar Store kind of feel inside. My building manager, Lonny (Lonny is a classic Frat Member name) would get new panes of glass there to replace windows that had been busted out at some kegger they had.
One day on the way back from class in front of Gray's Drug Store, a college age guy was selling hats that were of a Peruvian style that was popular then. They had ear flaps and draw strings to bundle up for frigid January Winter days. He had a sign that said "Hand Knitted Hats." I had some time to spare so I asked him if he had made them. He said he had knitted them. I looked at him funny and asked the question, "You knitted these?" He said that he had and he said knitting is real easy to do. He said what I seem to say all the time now, that guys who knit are not fruity as people tend to think. He said it is a great way to meditate. I asked him how long does it take to learn how to knit and he said there's a bit of a learning curve but not long after you start it's real easy. I didn't buy one of his hats, but I think from then on I had it in the back of mind that I could do that too.
This is like the first knitting kit I bought. I had purchased 2 others for my 2 nieces at the time whose birthdays were a few months apart.
Teaching Myself to Knit Kit Failed to Teach Me
Some years later after this knitting bug had planted a seed outside of Gray's Drug Store, I was trying to think of a way to be in the lives of my 3 nieces at the time (I have 5 nieces total but the last 2 were born in 2003 and were too young at the time to get them involved in knitting). My oldest niece wasn't really into anything like this but the next 2 nieces were born a few months apart in 1994 and at the time I tried this attempt they were 9 or 10 in 2004. So I got 4 kits on how to learn how to knit and how to crochet. One of each for myself and one for knitting for one niece and the other got the crochet kit.
I have to be honest that it was a complete failure because neither niece got into this. Though now that I think about it they might be interested now that they are early 30 somethings, though I haven't talked to them in a very long time. One works with Autistic Kids in Salt Lake City area and the other is a Veterinarian in San Diego. Maybe I can go visit them someday.
I tried my hand with both kits and I realized right away that I'm more of a hands on learner. The pictures in the kit really didn't speak to me enough to get beyond the "Cast On," stage which is making some slip knots along a needle. After that the photos were confusing and after trying it several times I quit. I had similar problems with the crochet kit.
I think my first attempt at learning to knit also happened when I had befriended a woman I had met at church who had at the time had quit smoking. I thought she needed something to do with her hands, so I thought if I could learn to knit I could teach her too. Well when I didn't learn to knit then, I didn't compound my embarrassment by telling her I had failed as well.
The Tight Knit Group de Facto Leader
In September 2007 I was asked to start up a knitting club at my sister's coffee shop, Polly's Coffee Cove. Her name isn't Polly, but it is a nickname of my family as our last name is often hard to pronounce. I had been known as "Poly" all throughout my school days growing up in Winona, MN. I put out a flyer and a number of women signed up to be in the knitting club.
Our first meeting was on September 29th, 2007. There were 4 women who knew how to knit, and there were 3 women and myself who didn't know how to knit at all but wanted to learn. I guess I was a "Begin-againer." Two of the four women who knew how to knit could teach others. Angie, and Michelle taught me how to get beyond the "Cast On," stage of knitting. I learned the knit stitch, and the purl stitch. One of them brought a sheet by Theresa Gaffney with about 5 knitting patterns to try. The first one was called a "Puzzler's Scarf." There were about 36 cast-ons of worsted weight yarn, and there were 6 rows of knit stitches and 1 row of purl, then it would repeat. The result is a scarf that is in a garter stitch pattern and 1 stripe of stockinette stitch pattern.
Puzzler's Scarf by Theresa Gaffey (I'll correct the pattern below when I find it in my knitting stuff)
Here's the Best Estimate of Theresa's pattern. Worsted Weight yarn a color not white or black. Needle Gauge 7 or 8.
Knit 7 rows front and back (Right Side and Wrong Side)
then Purl a row on Row 8, Repeat until desired length, ending garter stitch pattern (all Knit rows)
This scarf took me a month and a half to do and I gave it to a neighbor of mine named Minnie. Years later I felt compelled to make her a much nicer scarf and I gave it to her and a potholder I had made.
My sister owned the coffee shop (it closed down in September 2017) and because I was related and I facilitated the hour or so on Saturdays from 11 am to noon I became the de facto leader, even though I wasn't the best knitter of the bunch. I also gave the knitting club the name of, "The Tight Knit Group."
I learned a number of things about knitting that I taught others about, and because I was the de facto leader I would practice different knitting techniques and stitch patterns. I got a ball of yarn I had been given. It was yellow, worsted weight yarn. I would practice a technique, study what it looked like and then pull out the stitches.
About 3 months after I first finished my first scarf I discovered I had been adding stitches to that scarf without knowing it. I learned this by watching a video on how to make a wash cloth.
Video Lessons are Priceless
The first time I realized I was knitting wrong was when I got a video at the Ramsey County Library at Roseville Minnesota called "The Art of Knitting." The woman on the video showed that if you are to perform a knit stitch one needs to put the working yarn behind the needles, and when one wants to do a purl stitch you put the working yarn in front of the needles. If you don't you end up adding stitches and get a lot of holes in your pattern because you are basically performing a "yarn over." From then on my Puzzler Scarves were the way Theresa Gaffey meant them to look like.
Now I follow Studio Knit by Kristen McDonnell, her website is Studioknitsf.com. She has a YouTube channel too with easy to follow instructions.
Kristen's channel is one of probably 1000s of Knitting YouTube Channels. I've sent emails to her asking her about specific problems I was having and she would refer to one of her videos. She is very helpful and I don't mind promoting her here.
She also advised against putting up an Etsy Store because she says that there are Sweatshops in South America and China that will pump out knitted items and Etsy doesn't police this. I don't know about that, but she spoke from experience at trying to sell some knitted items there and she said she couldn't compete. So this platform allows one to sell just about anything. Though it's not really ideal, I wanted to get a feel for what one needed to post and sell items; and I've learned a lot so far.
Michaels Stores has an Etsy like store called MakerPlace. It looks like something I might try.
Tom's Bright Knits was Born in December 2019
On my computer at home, the one not hooked up to the internet, has a file on it called, "Tom's Bright Ideas." It's a file with intellectual Property in it. I have sketches on napkins, Word Documents with a brief description of what it is and concepts that need to be explored.
Why did I come up with that name, specifically? I don't really know but in Mr Wing's 8th grade Economics class at Winona Junior High School we had to create a Union contract agreement between a business and a union. It was a bit ambitious but I had some help from my dad who was an IBEW member (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) and also an electrical contractor. Mr Wing I think may have had a long hard to pronounce Polish name so he was not Oriental as you might think. He died in his 40s when I was in College in the 1990s. He was a good teacher. Anyhow my contract agreement was with a company I came up with called, Frank Smithe's Bright Ideas. It was an electrical products company. So in April 2010 I was trying to come up with a good twitter name and I used that name except I used my name instead. For awhile I used the initials TBI, until I heard that a T.B.I. was a Traumatic Brain Injury. So I started saying the entire name.
When I was in a Job program called Compensated Work Therapy (CWT, a job to help me find a full time job) I told my boss at the VA-Minneapolis, Clarice C. about my intention to make and sell knitted items and she suggested I have a cool name for it. So I took that file name and added Knits Division to it as I have other divisions in the File, and thus Tom's Bright Ideas--Knits Division was born, or Tom's Bright Knits was created. Clarice thought that was a cool name too. She was a Marine and she works in the Logistics department at the VA-Minneapolis. She is Navajo and she is quite the shopper. I also knitted some items for her because I thought she was a good boss.
So Far No Sweaters Knitted Yet
That just about sums up how I came to be here on Buy Me A Coffee. Since I've been a knitter starting on September 29th, 2007, I've knitted countless items that were practical, and sometimes things to wear. I've yet to knit a sweater because I have this fear one sleeve will be longer than the other one.
So I've decided to knit a Sweater Vest this year. (no sleeves).