September 23, 2005
rabbit, rabbit
Have you seen the giant knitted bunny that's been erected on a mountain near Piemonte, Italy? It's stuffed with hay, and the artist plans to leave it in place for 20 years. What about rain and mold, not to mention spontaneous combustion?
Here's the press release:
Rabbit
The things one finds wandering in a landscape: familiar things and utterly unknown, like a flower one has never seen before, or, as Columbus discovered, an inexplicable continent; and then, behind a hill, as if knitted by giant grandmothers, lies this vast rabbit, to make you feel as small as a daisy.
The toilet-paper-pink creature lies on its back: a rabbit-mountain like Gulliver in Lilliput. Happy you feel as you climb up along its ears, almost falling into its cavernous mouth, to the belly-summit and look out over the pink woolen landscape of the rabbit's body, a country dropped from the sky; ears and limbs sneaking into the distance; from its side flowing heart, liver and intestines.
Happily in love you step down the decaying corpse, through the wound, now small like a maggot, over woolen kidney and bowel. Happy you leave like the larva that gets its wings from an innocent carcass at the roadside.
Such is the happiness which made this rabbit.
I love the rabbit; the rabbit loves me.
Posted by Karen at 12:56 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 22, 2005
knitting on NPR
American Public Media's "Weekend Edition" did a story this past weekend about the sweater curse. Listen (RealAudio required) at weekendamerica.publicradio.org. (Scroll down to "The Cursed Sweater" at the end of the first hour.)
Never heard of the sweater curse? Read all about it at knitty.com.
Posted by Karen at 04:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 16, 2005
The Shop on Blossom Street, a novel about knitting
It's been too hot to knit or crochet, so I've been doing a lot of reading this summer. (Come autumn, I hope to start listening to audiobooks while I knit.) This weekend, I read The Shop on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber.
(Note from Debbie Macomber's website: After The Shop on Blossom Street went to press, we discovered an error in the knitting pattern included in the book. The pattern reads, "Rep Rows 13-36 until piece measures approximately 42 inches and you have worked Row 16 or 32." It should say, "Rep Rows 13-36 until piece measures approximately 42 inches and you have worked Row 36.")
The Shop on Blossom Street is a "relationship novel" (to quote the publisher, Mira Books) about a 30-year-old virgin/two-time brain cancer survivor, Lydia, who opens a yarn shop on Blossom Street in Seattle, Washington, called A Good Yarn (also the name of the book's sequel). She teaches a beginners' baby blanket class to three women: Jacqueline, a haughty, celibate fiftysomething society matron; Carol, an infertile woman in her thirties; and Alix, a surly twentysomething drug offender with black & purple hair. Each chapter focuses on a different woman; Lydia's chapters are first-person & begin with a knitting-related epigraph:
The yarn forms the stitches, the knitting forges the friendships, the craft links the generations. (Karen Alfke, "Unpattern" designer)
If you can knit, purl, and follow instructions, you can make anything. (Linda Johnson, Linda's Knit 'n' Stitch, Silverdale Washington)
We are all knitted together. Knitting keeps me connected to all the women who have made my life so rich. (Ann Norling, designer)
Knitting -- my Amazing Grace. (Nancie M. Wiseman, editor, Cast On magazine)
With a little practice and patience, our hands learn to knit, then our minds are free to enjoy the process. (Bev Galeskas, Fiber Trends)
Handknitting is a soothing and comforting means of creative expression that can result in a warm, useful and lovingly knitted garment...what a bonus. (Meg Swanson, Schoolhouse Press)
In the hands of a knitter, yarn becomes the medium that binds the heart and soul. (Robin Villiers-Furze, The Needleworks Company of Port Orchard, Washington)
People who say they don't have enough patience to knit are precisely those who could most improve their lives by learning how! (Sally Melville, author)
If you can count the number of projects you have going, you need to begin another, so you have a varied range of complexity from the very simple 'mindless' ones to those that demand undivided attention. (Laura Early, knitter)
Knitting goes with us, it calms us. (Morgan Hicks, Sweaters by Design)
In knitting, as in everything else, you learn as much from your mistakes as you do from your successes. (Pam Allen, editor, Interweave Press)
Whether I am knitting for myself or someone else, my passion for knitting enables me to express my creativity and produces feeling of accomplishment. (Rita E. Greenfeder, editor, Knit 'n Style magazine)
Knitting is a haven, a safe place where one can touch history, dance with art, and create a peaceful life. (Nancy Bush, author of Knitting on the Road and Folk Socks)
To learn to knit, you need a beginner's hands and a beginner's mind. Knitting is a hobby. Breathe, relax, and have fun. (Donna Druchunas, SheepToShawl.com)
Here's my favorite passage from the book. Lydia is explaining to Brad, the hunky UPS guy, why her ideal day would include knitting:
"One of the things I love most about being a knitter is the community of other knitters. Any time I run into another person (usually a woman, but not always) who knits, it's like finding a long-lost friend. The two of us instantly connect. It doesn't matter that only seconds earlier we were strangers, because we immediately share a common bond. I've talked to other knitters in doctors' offices, in line at the grocery store -- anywhere at all. We've exchanged horror stories of misprinted patterns and uncompleted projects. And we all love to brag about fabulous yarn buys and, of course, discuss our current efforts.
I want to help people discover the same sense of satisfaction and pride that I feel when I finish a project for someone I love."
Posted by Karen at 12:49 PM | Comments (1)
August 11, 2005
knitting in the new Harry Potter
I'm Karen, and I'm the one who brought up the following passage from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince at our meeting last night:
Dumbledore reentered the room [from the bathroom] and Slughorn jumped as through he had forgotten he was in the house.
"Oh, there you are, Albus," he said. "You've been a very long time. Upset stomach?"
"No, I was merely reading the Muggle magazines," said Dumbledore. "I do love knitting patterns."
Here are some links to Harry Potter-inspired patterns:
Knitting
Harry Potter bookscarf
Hogwarts scarves
Wool-Ease Wizard Scarf
Weasley Sweaters LJ community
HP Knitting LJ community
HP Knit Yahoo group
Crochet
Golden Snitch afghan square (popups)
Wool-Ease Wizard Scarf
Posted by Karen at 10:55 AM | Comments (6)