Anchorage knitters get newspaper column

Welcome to my new column on this popular and creative pastime. I plan to alert you to important events for knitters and crocheters around town, and I plan to answer your questions and offer help with technique and yarn choices.

First, a little about me: My love of knitting began when I was a 10-year-old. My grandmother gave me a "Learn To Knit" book, plastic needles and Red Heart acrylic yarn while I was visiting her one summer. She didn't knit, by the way.

Since I have always had a one-track mind, and the challenge was probably better than being bored the whole summer, I picked those needles up. It was tougher than I thought. All I had to teach myself were little

pictures of someone's hands holding the needles. The yarn was perfectly formed into beautiful, even stitches.

I worked and worked, reusing the yarn over and over. Finally, I got those loops to look somewhat like those in the picture. Eventually I had a little swatch of frayed, dirty yarn that was crooked and full of holes, but I was so proud of it. From that summer on, I have been a passionate knitter.

My knitting has grown from by-the-pattern garments to my own original designs. I have been published and won competitions, and my knitting appears in publications for yarn companies. I have designed knitwear patterns for everything from charity Teddy Bears to scarves for students to knit at Service High School.

My passion for knitting spills over into everything I do. I even put a bit of knitting and crochet on "Incognito Coho," a Wild Salmon on Parade sculpture on which I collaborated with Kathleen Meggitt.

Knitting has become my creative outlet and my new art medium. I have served on the board of our local knitting guild, Knitters of the North, for almost two years.

In the past year I have been able to meet many avid knitters around Anchorage and have gotten to know the folks who own and manage the many yarn stores in Anchorage, Wasilla and Palmer. Anchorage's widespread interest in knitting has even attracted experts: I've been fortunate to meet several knitwear designers who visited or gave workshops here. Among them: New Yorker Lily Chin, who holds the title of "world's fastest crocheter"; Australian Jane Slicer-Smith, who has a degree in knitwear design from Trent University in England; Brandon Mably, an Englishman who designs for Rowan Yarns and manages designer Kaffe Fassett's studio in London; and New Yorker Carla Scot, who edits and designs for Vogue Knitting.

I have spent time chatting with the staff at Lion Brand Yarns, Vogue Knitting and The Knitting Guild Association. A comment I hear frequently is that Alaska has an unusually high number of knitters and yarn stores for its size.

I hope this column will become your venue for sharing knitting tips, information, patterns and the overwhelming enthusiasm so evident in Alaska. If you have questions for me, please e-mail kmccoy@adn.com and put "KNITTING" in the subject line.

Catherine Hollingsworth, interior designer, artist and professional knitter, has lived in Alaska for 17 years. A past-president of Knitters of the North, she currently designs knitwear patterns for publication.