When I make things, I try to imbue each item with a part of myself. I have thought about every stitch, every cut, every fold. My energy is now a part of the item and a part of myself goes with the item to its new home. To me, that’s one of the reasons that handmade things are so important in general. You’re not just getting an item, you’re also getting the thoughts and care and love of the person who made it.

Sometimes in making, we make “mistakes.” Something doesn’t turn out like we wanted or we skipped a step or did a knit instead of a purl. A lot of us makers would consider these mistakes, but they don’t always have to be. Angela Walters likes to refers to these occurrences as “unintentional customizations.”

A maker’s mark is more than just a bourbon. :P More commonly known today as a trademark or even just a logo, a maker’s mark is used to indicate the manufacturer or maker of a specific object. They’ve been used by makers for a loooong time, especially as related to pottery.

Learning to read a knitting chart can be tricky. There is usually a legend that tells you what the symbol in each square is representing. There are some common conventions, but once you figure out how that particular chart works, it can be easier to visualize what is happening in your knitting.

I learned to knit almost 25 years ago from a book at my grandma’s house, Teach Yourself to Knit the Easy Columbia Minerva Way. This was way before YouTube, before even how-to DVDs, so everything was in a book. Each step was illustrated, not even photographed. I still have the book and it holds a very special place in my heart.

In making, there are often 2 schools of thought: Are you a “process maker” or are you a “product maker”? A process maker is more likely to enjoy the act of making and the “doing” of the thing, while a product maker is more interesting in having the thing at the end. Both are totally valid approaches, just different ways of looking at it.

The supplies needed to start knitting are relatively simple: yarn and knitting needles. However, how do you know what needles to pick? There are so many options out there and it can be hard to know what will work for you. I’ve got a few basic concepts to consider that will help you decide what to buy.

I have been a maker for a long time. I learned to knit when I was 12 and I made my first quilt when I was 16. Throughout my childhood, my mom always made sure there was always a new craft or skill to learn. We did origami, we played with K’Nex, there were Perler beads, we did loom weaving, we made friendship bracelets, we tried calligraphy, I made accessories for my American Girl dolls. And there was so much hot glue.