Lion Brand Notebook ®
Susan Haviland is Lion Brand’s Design Editor. She loves to knit and crochet in the company of her favorite films and televisions shows.
Do you find it impossible to sit in front of the television without knitting or crocheting? Are you attracted to projects with many mindless sections so you can stitch and watch the screen?
I find my appreciation of television entertainment increasingly linked to my daily stitching. And by that I mean watching movies and streaming reruns of my favorite television series surrounded by bags and baskets brimming with easy projects.
Costumers may rejoice – I am appreciating your work! How can one forget the countless knitted vests in “All Creatures Great and Small”, the terrific crocheted shawls in “Babette’s Feast“, Holly Golightly’s work in progress in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s“, Faye Dunaway’s pullover in “Bonnie and Clyde”, Greer Garson’s bed jacket in “Random Harvest“, the knitting hidden in the office drawer in “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying”, Miss Lemon’s outfits in “Poirot”, Mr Ingelby’s jumper in “Murder Must Advertise” … I could go on …
And then there’s the thrill of the shared moment of catching a star with needles in hand: Bette Davis, Meryl Streep, Renee Zellweger, Katherine Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck, Julia Roberts, and of course, many others.
Do you have a favorite knitted or crocheted moment from television or film? Is there a project inspired by some of these costumes and knitting moments that you’d be interesting making? We’d love to hear about any crocheting or knitting that appears in something you enjoy watching.
We’ll feature them here and maybe one day you’ll even see a free pattern inspired by your selection!
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smalltalk23
There are a lot of great knitting and crochet moments in the movie Foul Play with Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase. Goldie’s apartment is packed with beautiful blankets, and it is a little gruesome, but she even uses knitting needles as a weapon! I did a blog post about it a little while ago: http://www.burymewithmyneedles.com/embarking-on-plans-of-world-domination-through-crafted-objects/knitting-out-in-the-world-or-how-to-write-about-books-and-movies-you-like-on-your-knitting-blog
Zoë Williams
I love Foul Play! Thank you for mentioning it! 😀
Shellie DeYoung Dunn
A couple of weeks ago, I watched the beginning of a McMillan and Wife episode in which Sally was pregnant. I swear she was making a crocheted corner to corner baby blanket. Wow, can Susan St. James crochet fast!
Sherry Haun
In Tremors 4 the Legend Begins, the hotel owner (played by Sara Botsford) wears a knitted shawl in just about every scene – and not the same one each time. I’d love to get a close up of them. PS, I knit any time I sit down.
Jaclyn Struve
The 2005 version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has a yarn scene where they all turn into wool-versions of themselves! It’s pretty neat!
Kristy
I love Julie Louis-dreyfuss and her giant yellow scarf project in her last film with James Gandolfini (title?? can’t remember) and also the yarn scene in THE UGLY DACHSHUND….
Bookworm
And don’t forget Estelle Getty’s handknit sweaters she wore throughout the run of the series! They say she would knit them while waiting for her turn in front of the camera. There are several patterns that I would dearly love to have. Some I have figured out, but some will forever puzzle me.
Bookworm
The series, of course, was Golden Girls — forgot to say that.
crazyknitter06
Jamie Lee Curtis knitting in the beginning scene of Christmas with the Kranks,
Christine Harrison
Reading your article reminded me of a lovely photograph in the biography of Merle Oberon by Charles Higham (she was Cathy in Wuthering Heights, opposite Laurence Olivier). It shows her knitting, with Vivien Leigh and Olivier looking on. I can’t quite make out Leigh’s reaction – is it interest or envy?! – and I’m not sure what she is knitting, but she seems quite adept at it. If you check out photos of actresses on film sets during the 1930s and 40s, it is quite common to see them knitting something, just like the pic of Bette Davis you included above.
Luanne Redmond
lutie
Luanne Redmond
Sorry, somehow I omitted my actual post.
I am a compulsive knitter and have found that dishcloths are the best for movies because they are small and usually have repetitive patterns . . . also dark colors are no good! I like fantasy and action movies and they tend to be pretty dark so the pattern stitch is impossible to see. I learned this the hard way, doing a dark-green dishcloth with a stitch pattern motif, during Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers!
When I saw the Star Trek movie made in 2009, the one with Chris Pine, Scotty’s hat jumped out at me. Sure enough, on the internet I found a talented young woman had figured it out and posted two versions. I made two of these hats, the more complex, four-panel version (closest to the one in the movie, I think). My daughters report they are extremely warm. I made them a little shorter as the one Scotty wears is extremely long, almost like an old-fashioned stocking cap but with a blunt end. It’s a very interesting pattern, a fun project, knit in two directions, using worsted weight yarn.
deb mazar
Olivia de Havilland as Melanie Wilkes crocheting in Gone With the Wind.
Karen Hine
An infinitely long blanket is crocheted (I think) in the movie Water for Chocolate.
Suzanne
I recently watched an old movie called On Borrowed Time. In that, when Mr. Brink (Death) comes to collect the grandmother she is sitting up in bed, knitting a large mitten on double-pointed needles. She points out to Mr. Brink that she is “near the end”, and he says he knows.
Norma
There is a shawl/throw Kiera Knightly wears in “Looking for a Friend for the End of the World” that I would love to make. Any ideas?
Chris
Hey, what about the definitive needlework? The scarf of Doctor Who #4!
Denise Cat
My husband wanted that scarf so badly, that he poured over VHS tapes to write the exact pattern for me. Although when finished it was 15 FEET long – it’s all about the getting the exact colors. Mustard yellow was hard to find at the time.
Denise Cat
Emma and Mary Margaret wear some amazing knitted hats in the first 3 seasons of Once Upon a Time – a new one almost every episode. It must be cold in Storybrooke. Wouldn’t it be amazing to be a prop-knitter??
CrochetToys
I am always crochet infront of TV. But this way I can’t watch movie and forced to watch it again later