For the 2024/2025 Season, we’ll be interviewing some of our members so that you can get to know some of your fellow members. To kick things off, we’ve asked Mary Pat McDonald, one of our greeters for hybrid meetings to answer some questions for us. Read on to get to know Mary Pat better!
TKG: What do you say to people who think knitting is just for “old ladies?”
MPM: Ha! No one ever says that to me, likely because I am (ahem…) an OL. What they say is, “Oh, I always wanted to knit, but could just never get it.” The response is usually about regret. (Their subconscious knows it’s too bad.)
TKG: Are you a project or a process knitter?
MPM: I’m absolutely a process knitter. I want those needles in my hands and that yarn gliding through my fingers. Much of what I choose to make is so off-the-wall, it won’t get a lot of wear – items that are asymmetric, weird colours, totally impractical but somehow alluring. I could certainly use a plain grey cardigan, but I’ll probably never make one! So the outcome inspires me to start, but it’s the doing that counts.
TKG: How many of your friends knit?
MPM: I love to hang out with fellow yarn-obsessives so I’m lucky to have many knitting friends. (Many, many!) In Toronto, I’m part of three small knit-focused groups, as well as the TKG. In Newfoundland, where we spend the summer, I’m in another three circles. (Aside: Never imagine you can visit Newfoundland for just a week. It shackles you to its rocky beauty.)
TKG: What do you find to be the most challenging or tedious aspect of knitting?
MPM: Finishing brings out my procrastinator, because I don’t enjoy ends and because there’s the suspense of whether I’ll love the final version. Knitting is gambling – hard gambling if you’re a project knitter, less so for me since the process was soothing and, if it’s a disaster, there’s more yarn in my stash.
TKG: Where do you go for reference material?
MPM: Where we all go these days – online. But I still consult some well-used cast-on and cast-off collections and stitch dictionaries, and scraps of paper with hints from classes. What I never look at again are notes from the many classes I’ve taken! And yet, I persist in producing copious notes for the classes I teach – is that wishful thinking (people never want to forget these gems of wisdom)?
TKG: Have you ever gone to a knitting retreat or taken a knitting tour?
MPM: My first knitting retreat, in 1993, was a week in PEI with Shirl the Purl and about a dozen instructors – it was exhausting and marvellous. It’s been non-stop since then. The giddy euphoria we all experienced was overwhelming – no one could sleep contemplating 1000 ways to cast on. A few years later in Halifax, again with Shirl, I met Lucy Neatby as a fellow student, and later couldn’t sleep because I found out I could secure steeks with a crochet hook instead of machine stitching. I tend to go overboard with emotion over matters that others would merely nod at.
Knitting weekends and retreats are like a glimpse of heaven to me – such focused energy and generous sharing. We pretty much all love one another at those events.
TKG: Do you knit with acrylic?
MPM: I’ve come to prioritize the sensation of the fibre on my hands – ‘yarn caress’ after decades of sometimes experiencing ‘yarn bite’. Life is short so now I don’t use anything that doesn’t feel sensuous, meaning acrylic is out for me. For babies I look for cotton, or especially a blend of wool and cotton.
TKG: Did knitting come naturally to you?
MPM: I inherited the knitting gene from my mother’s family, but it took a while in the early years to eliminate unintended yarnovers. My mom and aunt taught me mainly the basics (English style), even though they themselves could turn out fancy suit jackets with lapels and peplums. It was joining a guild in 1993 (after the PEI knitting week) that truly accelerated my learning curve. There is nothing like a guild, big or small, for passing on knitting skills -– knitters are generous with their knowledge.
TKG: Have you ever injured yourself knitting?
MPM: Oh yes – right now I’m purling Portuguese style because of tendonitis caused by using short metal needles, ropey silk yarn and a mostly-rib pattern: there was no give in the needles or yarn, not enough support along my thumb, and too much switching from knit to purl. Of course, this is hindsight, and I’m grateful I know another technique so I don’t have to stop!
A less likely injury occurred to my friend, Jean, when we visited another knitting buddy at her farm. We were working away, Jean on her ubiquitous socks on double-points, when our friend’s husband came in from the barn shouting, “Northern Lights!” We dropped everything to run out and look. Coming back in, Jean was limping. She had a needle lodged in her heel!
(It came out easily with no lasting effect.)
TKG: Do you accept the proposition that knitting is about “mindfulness?”
MPM: I find knitting meditative mostly. It soothes my impatience in a waiting room, maintains my sanity in long meetings, and comforts me at a sick bedside. A bit of interesting pattern makes a big difference so straight garter or stocking stitch can be sleep-inducing!
TKG: Tell us how you go about establishing gauge?
MPM: Swatches are an exercise in clairvoyance – they show you the future (of your project). After some spectacularly botched sweaters, I finally embraced swatching. Now I enjoy it – it’s like a first date at a coffee shop; checking out the yarn, needles and stitch pattern but without any commitment.
TKG: Do you follow patterns?
MPM: There are so many ingenious patterns, I’m happy to follow them – but, of course, I make lots of changes. And I’ll make up a pattern for simple items like shrugs and shoulderettes (my absolute favourite garments).
TKG: Do you think that knitting should be a mandatory subject in grade school?
MPM: Creative Skills should be on the curriculum: fibre arts, painting, pottery, woodworking, … We all need a creative outlet, making something satisfying out of raw materials. An artist friend told me that a little bit of her soul is in every piece she paints, even when it’s sold.
TKG: What question didn’t I ask that I should have asked?
MPM: Would you say ‘you knit’, or are you a Knitter?
I’ve arrived at being a Knitter. Knitting defines much of my life; I think about it, use it as solace, I’m never bored, and there’s constant creative potential in my wool room.
(I’m so glad it’s knitting and not chocolate.)
