Answering Some Interesting Questions

What is your knitting philosophy? is knitting about relaxation for you? do you prefer a challenge yourself with each project?
Lolly at Lolly Knitting Around posted these questions. This is a good place to answer.

I knit to remember. Knitting for me is a link to my grandmother and mother. They knit and they taught me. They made sturdy sweaters and my mother made misshapen gloves. Yet anything they made was something special. Clothes came from discount stores. Remember Klein’s on 14th street in NYC? Or Mays in Brooklyn? Clothes weren’t special. But something hand knit was. It kept you warm and showed you were loved. This is a picture of my grandmother's knitting needles. My mother and grandmother never worked from patterns. They weren’t afraid of making mistakes. I am not as daring. Something keeps me from designing, even though I have visions of what I want to make.

I knit because my fingers won’t keep still. I do other needlework. I’ve crocheted, embroidered, and hooked rugs. But nothing satisfies like knitting. Although knitting calms me, I’m still not calm enough to do complicated knitting. I like stockinette or simple repetitious patterns. My mind races while I knit. I think of what I’m making and what it will be like when it is finished. I think of what I need to buy for supper and what I want to do tomorrow. I review today and I relive all my problems. I knit presents, but not everyone wants hand knitted items. So I mostly knit for myself. Most things I do are soon gone. Dust returns, food gets eaten. Children grow up and get married or move away. But my sweaters are pouring out of my closet, as I continue to add to the piles. They are a sign of how much I have accomplished.