About
Welcome to Black Sheep. I’m Moni and this is my knitting/crafty blog.
I taught myself to knit in the spring of 1996 (or thereabouts). I caught the bug when I was in a bookstore and saw the book, “Knitting with Dog Hair.” It had recently been published and was displayed on a table. For some reason, I was enamoured with the idea of spinning yarn out of dog hair. I decided to buy the book. I remember looking at it several times trying to wrap my head around this yarn spinning thing. I couldn’t grasp it by reading about it. Eventually I decided that if I was going to spin yarn I would need to learn how to knit first (Looking back, I don’t really understand my logic but whatever). I think I was thinking about my Grandmother and Great-Grandmother and thought it would be really cool to carry on thier knitting tradition in our family. So I searched the Yellow Pages for a yarn store.
The closest one was a yarn store in Los Altos, CA called Uncommon Threads. When I told the sweet little old lady there that I wanted to learn to knit she handed me a video and gave me some yarn and needles. I learned how to knit using this video (I can’t even remember what video it was). I remember the yarn she gave me was a beautiful worsted yarn that felt wonderful to knit with. It was a really pretty steel gray color. It didn’t become anything except my practice knitting rectangle. I don’t even know what happened to it! I think it was attacked by moths.
The next thing I bought when I went to Uncommon Threads was the book for the Learn To Knit Afghan. Again, it was recommended to me by the nice old ladies who worked there. At the time chenille throws were all the rage, so I decided I was going to knit a chenille afghan. I used Lion Brand Chenille which was kind of disasterous to work with. Especially for a new knitter. I worked on it and worked on it. I had quite a few squares done with it, too. And for some reason I decided I didn’t like the Chenille, so I started over with Wool-ease.
In the meantime, I was given Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitting Workshop and totally ate it up. I read through it dozens of times and made the watchcap pattern for everyone in my family. I was kind of daunted by the sweaters, though. Plus I was a poor college student and couldn’t afford to buy enough yarn for a sweater. When I finally graduated and got a full time job and could afford enough yarn for a sweater I bought Knitting Without Tears and I used both books to knit my first sweater, the fair isle yoke pattern. The first sweater I ever made was over Christmas of 1999. I made it with Lion’s Wool-Ease. It was green for the main color. I was really proud of myself for making a sweater but the finished product was so heavy and uncomfortable. I just couldn’t wear it. So I went to another LYS and bought some nice wool yarn. By this time I was living in Santa Cruz, CA and the yarn store I went to was The Yarn Place in Capitola. At the time it was called “The Yarn and Rug Place.” It’s this tiny house in Capitola Village and yarn is stuffed everywhere. When I bought my yarn there really weren’t a lot of choices. I don’t remember seeing any gorgeous verigated yarns or Noro there. I chose some nice, basic, Brown Sheep for my sweater. I still have that one and wear it to this day!
I took a few years off from knitting at that point and really didn’t think I would pick it up again. After I graduated from graduate school in spring of 2003 I was looking for something creative to do with all of my newfound spare time. I attended a craft show in Feb. of 2004 with my Mother in Law at the Santa Clara Convention center that year and happened upon a booth that was selling yarn. I fell in love with an Eros scarf that was displayed. I had never seen yarn that looked like that before! I bought a ball of it and made one for myself later on that week. Another craft that I was introduced to at the craft show was Punchneedle Embroidery. I took a class from Gail Bird and really enjoyed it. One day, not long after the craft show, I went to JoAnn’s fabrics to buy some embroidery floss for a punchneedle project I was working on and I saw the book, Stitch-n-Bitch. I couldn’t believe my eyes. This did not contain the frumpy patterns in the Zimmerman Books I was used to. This was fun and hip! I bought it on the spot and my knitting life has never been the same since.
This book introduced me to the world of knitting blogs. I never really thought I would start my own knitting blog until I came up with the name. I was out hiking with my DH and the name “Black Sheep” kind of popped into my head and I thought, “That’s a fantiastic name for a knitting blog” and so it came to pass. I’ve been a knitblogger since February of 2004.
In September of 2006 I finally, really learned how to spin yarn. And I’m even spinning yarn with dog hair! After 10 years it has come full circle.
I have another blog called Blatherskite . That is my personal blog. I post photos, book, reviews, current events, etc. Basically, anything that isn’t craft related.
Enjoy your visit!