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Dateline: Saturday, Nine June 2007.
World
Wide
Knit
In
Public
Day
(also Christer's moving day).
Three nuns, three girls, three guys and a partridge in a pear tree moving this penguin to her new digs. Moving prayers please, this is a tough one. Tsanks.
Knit for Peace: March 21, 2007
Someone proposed that today be a day to dedicate ones knitting for peace. Always happy to knit for peace. Always happy to knit. Always happy to work for peace. Here is Randy's Peaceful manifesto:
Knitting is a peaceful activity. Sheep are archetypically placid. When they cross a road that you are driving down,there is nothing to do but wait. It never crosses your mind to honk the horn or try to drive around-where I live the sheep graze in fields so rocky that you’d pierce your muffler if you tried-you just turn off your engine and admire the ungainly woolly lumps brushing past your front bumper. Knitting starts with the sheep.
I like natural yarns that are full of lanolin. That way I can feel the life of this animal that needn’t give its life to yield up this wonderful product that I use to knit. I fondle the yarn and start to rack my brains and my library for inspiration. My knitted things have no borders. I use a Swedish wool to knit mittens using a twisted Eastern stitch. The mittens turn out not to be warm enough so I knit mitten liners out of Chilean alpaca. The hat on my head is of Japanese yarn knitted from a Norwegian pattern. I knit my hat in the round from the top down and once I passed the awkward double point stage and worked onto a circular needle I slipped into the meditative state that arises when I knit stocking stitch in the round. My mind wanders, first to my work day and then to the private part of my day, my family, my friends, the wild thyme that the sheep graze on in the rocky fields up the road. I become part of a world bigger than that enclosed by the ends of the sofa where I sit knitting. My mind wanders through the world that has led to the knitting in my hands and because I am knitting, engaged in this quiet,peaceful activity that starts with the placid sheep, my mind wanders through a peaceful world.
Knitters radiate peace. When I see a stranger moving a pre-natal sock around and around a ring of double points he is engaged in creating warmth for someone he cares about,an expression of peace. When I see a friend with a lap full of grey alpaca lovingly being worked in moss stitch for her new baby, her quiet handiwork sings peace.
I would like to channel this peacefulness. On March 21 every stitch that I knit will be dedicated to peace. I would like to invite everyone who knits to join me on that day. Will it stop people from hurting and threatening and frightening each other, the antithesis of peace? Who knows. When I knit on March 21 I will be saying with each stitch that peace is possible, that human intelligence and compassion can triumph over fear and greed, that terror and war can give way to discussion and peace.
Knit on Randy. Peace out, everyone.
The knitting olympics are over! (Coincidentally, the olympics are too.)
When I began the olympics I signed up to knit my first pair of socks. After I cast on and began knitting them, I knew I had underestimated my own abilities as I was going to finish them in record time and have all this olympic time left over. So, I challenged myself to do my first sweater too. And I did.
Both projects are finished - I've even worn the socks out in public as well as around the house a lot. The sweater is for my sister's daughter whose first birthday is next month. I'm pretty sure having a new baby (she's adopted, remember) is pretty time-consuming, so am taking the risk in posting the picture here.
And here they are... my Olympic projects... (gold medal to follow.) Ta Da:
I used Ann Norling's pattern: Adult Basic: Socks, (Pattern #12), using the slouch variation with Moda Dea's Sassy Stripes yarn.
Comfy!
Sweater pattern: Haiku from Knitty with Cascade wool yarn... I modified the pattern to do a two color version and it's in size 1-2.
Front
Back
The Knitting Olympics Athletes Pledge
I, a knitter of able hands and quick wits, to hereby swear that over the course of these Olympics I will uphold the highest standard of knitterly excellence.
I will be deft of hand and sure of pattern, I will overcome troubles of yarn overs and misplaced decreases. I will use the gifts of intelligence and persistence (as well as caffeine and chocolate) and I will execute my art to the highest form, carrying with me the hope for excellence known to every knitter.
I strive to win. To do my best, and to approach the needles with my own best effort in mind, without comparing myself to my fellow knitters, for they have challenges unique to them.
While I engage in this pursuit of excellence and my own personal, individual best, I also swear that I will continue to engage with my family in conversation, care for my pets, speak kindly with those who would ask me to do something other than knit, and above all, above every stitch thrown or picked, above every cable, every heel stitch, every change of colour, I swear this:
That I will remember that this is not the real Olympics, that I'm supposed to be having fun and that my happiness and self-worth ride not on my success....
but on my trying.
Let the games begin!
It's official! I've cast on 48 stitches for the first of two socks - my first pair. I may post pictures as they develop. I may not. I'm using Ann Norling's Adult Basic Socks pattern and Moda Dea "Sassy Stripes" yarn on size 3 double point needles. (and even though the sight of these needles cause my mother to shudder, "You're knitting with four needles?", I continue to knit in her presence.) -As if I could stop-. (ever.)
Checke out the other 4000 knitters who are participating in the Knitting Olympics. That's quite a few more than the 2500 (or so) athletes competing in the "real" olympics.
When a good idea comes along, good people jump on board. What is the next good idea?
Hoping to make my country and my team proud, I've joined the Knitting Olympics. (You can read about the genesis of the games here -and if you are a knitter and haven't discovered the harlot yet, oh boy, are you in for fun.)
Each player chooses a project that tests their stamina, challenges their skill and generally makes them a little weak in the head knees to imagine competing completing in 16 days.
As a member of the USA team, I am likely to be comitted to knitting my first pair of socks. Go team!
My rigorous *ahem* training began in December when I started making these for women I know who've had mastectomies. It's an odd, odd task explaining what I'm knitting to others. These are, however, much more comfortable than regular prosthetics and way better than what my Mom had been wearing for over 20 years since her mastectomy. Additional bonus: I now have double pointed needle fever experience.
My Olymipic Entry? Later, after much more thesis writing, I'll show the yarn and the pattern (assuming I can ever decide on a sock pattern!) Feel free to leave suggestions.
And you? Are you up for a challenge?
I'm off to the beach again with a group of some new and some not new knitters for our fifth knitting retreat. Years ago I started these knitting retreats to facilitate the passing on of knitting to others (the gift that keeps local yarn shops in booming business). It was at a knitting retreat that Eunice invented our favorite "happy hat" pattern
Also it has been a time for me to connect with others in my own peer group and share my Mom with others. Mom has been to all the previous four retreats and between us, and the ongoing sharing of the craft from those we've touched, more than 30 people have been enabled, um, er, encouraged to take up the addictive needles.
It's such a blessing to gather with others for a casual weekend of food, folks, and sometimes even fun fur. If you're interested here is the prayer brochure we will be using. I'll hold you all in prayer as well.
I regularly get asked if I can take my knitting needles on airtrips.... and I've said "you bet" since very shortly after 9-11-01. The Pilot Smith is catching on....
The global knitting community irritatedly waves its needles at the pilot.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Patrick Smith
June 17, 2005 | What if I told you that a shockingly high number of Ask the Pilot's readers are, of all things, knitters and crocheters? I knew this column had its share of devotees -- frequent fliers, aerophiles, sentimental fans of forgotten '80s alt rock -- but I wouldn't have expected much attention from the yarn-and-needle set. They're out there, apparently, based on the volume of letters I received in response to a gaffe in last week's column. Before the mistake was fixed, the original June 10 Ask the Pilot -- another trenchant diatribe on matters of airport security -- erroneously maintained that knitting needles were still prohibited on airliners. Well, no shortage of annoyed hobbyists were on to me, pointing out that the rules have been revised. TSA has buckled to the knitting lobby and now allows onboard stitchery with no restriction.
Read more here
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