Guest Post: Marsha of 1 Geek 2 Craft Them All

One of the great things about guest posts is that not only do I have the opportunity to introduce you lovely readers to other bloggers or writers or people I think are awesome, but I have the opportunity to get to know some of them better myself! Marsha of One Geek to Craft Them All and I started following each other on Twitter a few months ago (you can follow her @1Geek2CraftAll), but coming up with questions to ask her about her crafting life let me get to know the wonderful mind—and fellow nerdy scarf knitter—a bit more than the limitations of 140 characters really allows. And now you can too! Take it away, Marsha!

How did I start playing with yarn?
Now one would think that was an easy question. But I knew how to crochet before I learned to knit. A friend taught me on a subway ride, while we were in college, and before that I made friendship bracelets. And there is the spinning. Let’s focus on knitting. Way back in the far away summer of 2008, I had just finished grad school, and going through my yarn stash decided to finish the baby blanket that I had been working on since undergrad. To do that I decided I needed some yarn more interesting than the peach yarn that I been using.

The yarn store I chose had free knitting lessons with purchase of yarn. Sold. Once I learned to knit, the real fun began. I knew how to knit, and there were books and patterns everywhere. But also I had tons of ideas. I had been reading comic books again, since 2002 or so, and decided I was going to New York Comic Con in February (it was December at the time). It was winter—obviously, I needed a properly nerdy comic book scarf.

I looked for patterns, but nothing was quite right, that “colorwork-thing” seemed hard, and was not favorable for working in the round. Well that wasn’t helpful. I stumbled upon the concept of double knitting. This seemed to make sense, you got a two-sided fabric, great for a scarf. Now I just needed a pattern. Something easily recognizable, something like the Justice League. Everyone knows the symbols—Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern. There weren’t too many colors in any of the symbols. Only Superman and Aquaman had three colors in their symbols.

So I taught myself to chart and write a pattern that at least I could understand and later write for everyone. I started knitting squares, I shared my adventures, and soon started a knitting blog. The first post of course being the Justice League Scarf. And of course the geekery doesn’t stop there.

Comic Books, movies, TV, books. What are my fandoms? Doctor Who, Lord of the Rings, Marvel, DC, mythology, Harry Potter, Space–The Final Frontier, dinosaurs, spies, witches, monsters, clowns, dragons, vampires, angels, Slayers, plumbers saving princesses, genius billionaire playboy philanthropists, the list is long and varied. With all these interests, it’s not really a surprise I diversified in the crafts. Some fandoms inspire a lot of ideas, others seem to stick to one medium. Harry Potter, for example, is notorious for inspiring jewelry—Golden Snitch earrings anyone?

Stitch Markers, earrings, pendants, scarves, gloves, shawls, knitting, spinning, and my Etsy shop keep me pretty busy in the crafty realm. Balancing the crafts has been an act of association—when in front of the TV, I’m usually knitting or spinning. When I’m traveling, be it subway, bus, ferry, or plane, I’m reading or knitting, and usually when feeling extra crafty on the weekends, I’m holed up in my craft room/guest room. Though at this point to be livable for a guest I’d have to put the beads, cla,y and other odds and ends away. Or the poor guest might wake up bedazzled.

Now I’ve saved the best for last: Marvel or DC.

Despite my love of many of their properties and I do mean many, at the end of the day I’m a Marvel girl, their logos just make it harder to make a scarf. Really look at the Marvel scarf that has taken over two years to grow. The DC scarf took less than six weeks. Sigh. And then I had the Lantern Corps scarf. My favorite has always been your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. I love the X-Men, though I would likely be a member of the Brotherhood (sorry Charles). Likely why I have been known to don a unitard, red wig, and blue make-up to be my favorite shape-shifting mutant.

Thanks to Threadpanda for letting me ramble over here at her blog for a bit.

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Don’t forget to head over to One Geek to Craft Them All to stay up-to-date on Marsha’s geeky crafting adventures, and follow her on Twitter @1Geek2CraftAll!!