I’ve never considered knitting cool until I met Chris Bertelsen. My general, perhaps rather stereotyped image of a knitter is a woman between the ages of sixty-five and ninety, with short, white hair, wrinkles, and a permanent Christmas sweater, even in the summer. Finding a boy that’s comfortable enough with himself to take pride in his knitting skills is incredibly rare—even I’m embarrassed about my friendship bracelet-making skills. But Chris is in his own league—he is a musician-rugby-playing-knitter who does what he wants and enjoys every minute of it.
I first met Chris when I saw that he knitted ear warmers in all kinds of patterns. I wanted one, so I bought a navy and white one with snowflakes on it. When I came home from school and wore it in New York City, I got so many compliments on it; people kept asking me where I got it and telling me it was so chic. Even my mom thinks it’s beautiful, and trust me, she’s a tough fashion critic. Chris’s knitting skills are so intricate and astoundingly good that people thought it was professionally made. That, in my opinion, is sheer talent.
He learned how to knit when he was really little from his mother. But he stopped after about a year. “It was a phase,” he says. But then, this past summer, he picked it back up again. “I was working at a summer camp and I just decided to knit. I said, ‘Mom can you bring me knitting needles?’ And then I just started getting really into it.”
He has picked up most of his knitting skills by himself. With a lot of experimenting, Chris has taught himself how to make all different kinds of patterns, from zig-zags to snowflakes to peace signs. He says, “Most of my patterns start from drawings and sketches. It’s not just a set thing. It’s a little bit different every time. The way that I knit, I know that my hat and headband designs are going to be wider than they are on paper. I do still make things up as I go. But with very specific things, I try to plan.”
In terms of reactions he gets from his knitting skills, there is a wide range. Some people stare at him when he’s knitting in the dining hall or the library or just walking around campus. They even gawk at him, sneering in his direction. But people are often amused by the fact that he’s such a good knitter. “People think it’s pretty cool a lot of time, my knitting. It’s fun, and it sort of feeds my diction. It enables a lot of conversations.” In terms of places he knits—I’ve mentioned the library, walking around campus, and the dining halls, Chris has “tried to knit in some classes, but I’ve got to read the professor. It’s sometimes hard to tell. Classes where you have to take notes are hard to knit in. I do it while I watch TV or movies or listen to books on tape. It keeps my mind sharp while I’m doing those things.”
When Chris isn’t knitting, he’s hustling out on the rugby pitch. He plays at the front of the “scrum” and kicks the ball, or something. I’m not entirely sure how rugby works, except it’s a cross between soccer and American football, and players can only pass backwards. Me trying to explain rugby to you guys would be a joke, but regardless of what Chris actually does on the field, his position is called “hooker.” Pretty funny, if you ask me. Either way, Chris joined rugby to get some exercise. He says, “I played sports in high school and was not good enough to be recruited to play varsity sports here. But I like playing on teams and stuff, so I joined rugby for that reason. It’s less of a time commitment, but I still get to play on a team.”
Off the rugby pitch, Chris plays the trumpet in two bands—the Colby Jazz Band and “Funktion,” a funk cover-band. “They’re very different styles of music. Funk’s very show-offy and you’ve got to be the boss. Jazz is much more subtle and artistic. Sometimes Funktion can be more fun because it’s my own stuff and we can do what we want.” Chris has played the trumpet since 5th grade, but he has taken lessons on and off. At first it was part of what he did in elementary school music, so he started learning there—once a week in a large band, and once a week in all-trumpet group lessons.
Chris will graduate in May with the class of 2012 with a dual-degree in Music and American Studies. He plans to be a teacher in the near future. But after four years at Colby, he has learned a lot. “I feel like I have a better sense of my identity. I was pretty young innocent and inexperienced in a lot of social settings, and I feel like I grew up a lot when I got to Colby. I faced things at college that I didn’t have to grapple with in high school. I learned more of how the world works, how people work, how to get stuff you want done. I think I learned more life lessons that specific academic ones.”
Chris is a great example of someone who tried a lot of different things when he was in college. Don’t be afraid to jump into a bunch of different things here—Colby has so much to offer!