Wednesday Wonders #14: The Knitting Students

I wish I had exciting knitting content for you (all projects are moving along), but at least I have a Wednesday Wonder to share. I’ve just been talking to coworkers (soon to be former coworkers, as my last day at this job is tomorrow) about how much I love to teach knitting, so I will declare this week’s Wednesday Wonders to be all my past and present knitting students! The photo (which I may have shared before) is of my student Nancy A. (hi Nancy) and her red scarf with hearts on it, one of the first projects we worked on together. She represents many other students, though I must admit, she's the most loyal--we have a great time together.

But, all the students have been "wonder"-ful in their own ways. There are so many reasons to love knitting students! Here are just a few:

1. Teaching someone a lifelong skill makes me feel good. I enjoy passing along a tradition and giving someone a way to stave off boredom for the rest of their lives.
   
   
2. You always learn something about knitting when you teach it. By having to pay careful attention to how I so things, I have learned a lot about knitting. Seeing how people make mistakes also is really educational. You can figure out what they were thinking, and then learn to anticipate those errors in others later. And mindfully performing knitting tasks teaches me how to do a better job—not to mention all the pattern reading and dissecting practice I’ve gotten!
   
   
3. When teaching knitting you learn lots of other stuff. A benefit of teaching people something they are required to sit there and practice for a while is that you get to chat with them and get to know them. Nearly everyone I have taught has shared something interesting with me, given me an insight into human nature, or simply been a pleasant conversational companion. I get so much non-knitting knowledge from my conversations with all the interesting people I run into, from the youngest child to the oldest senior citizen!
   
   
4. By teaching others I get to vicariously work with lots more yarn than I could if I only was working with my own projects, and I also get to learn about patterns I never would have otherwise given a try. I’m very happy with the shrug I made because I was teaching someone else how to do it, and the scarves I’ve done along with students! I’ve found out not all pattern writers are created equal, that’s for sure!
   
   
5. And the BEST part is that some of my students have become my friends! It’s been a wonderful way to meet some very kind, compassionate and interesting people. I don’t know what I’d do without them in my life. I am so glad I have this skill to share!

To all my former students: thank you for what you brought me when you took your classes. I hope I’ve given back even a portion of what I’ve received! And thanks to Pat at Bluebonnet Yarn Shoppe for letting me teach there the past few years!

Wednesday Wonders #12: Mary Susan Canova

Today’s Wednesday Wonder is someone I have met, but I don’t remember doing so. It’s my maternal great-aunt Mary Susan Canova (1884-1961). As is my family tradition, she went by her middle name. She was often referred to as “Crazy Aunt Sue.” (Before you ask, no, I was not named after her. I was named after my father’s sisters, Bettye Sue and Doris Ann—see the middle name thing goes on both sides. Suna is my nickname.) She is the central character in the portrait you see (the girls on either end are my mischievous grandmother and her twin sister, and the adults are my great grandparents).

Anyway, Aunt Susan is an interesting story, or at least from what I have gathered. My mother’s family was one of those who never really talked about the elephants in the room or the skeletons in the closets. Until I was well into my mid-twenties, I honestly thought this was an extremely boring and average north Florida family with roots that went back to the Spanish colonists, and an artistic bent. It took forever to ferret out all the fun and fascinating details of their hidden underbelly! I won’t out the Canova clan in a public blog, but I think it’s safe to say that the family history of mental illness was one thing that was well hidden, for the most part. And of course, that’s understandable—there certainly was a stigma against it back then. Thankfully, a certain amount of eccentricity was tolerated, so my “off-beat” great uncles and the feuding twins of which my grandmother was one were all accepted members of society. The extended family was full of talents: there were ceramicists, painters, pianists and of course, crafts people.

And Aunt Susan was the queen of crafts in the little group. This was a very good thing, because she got the worst end of the mental health issues. From the whispers of my grandmother, sister, and mother, I gathered that she had some “issues,” including a bad case of kleptomania. Because of this, I guess she was sort of confined to her home most of her life. Luckily, Aunt Sue made her craft skills into a career. I am told that this woman churned out dozens of crocheted bedspreads, hundreds of tatted doilies, and many embroidered and lace-enhanced handkerchiefs. She would sell a bedspread for some ridiculously small amount, but it was enough to pay her expenses and make “a living” through her long life. I know it had to be hard on her—whatever her problems were, they seem to have prevented her from marrying, living an independent life, or fully participating in society. I am so glad she was talented in her fingers. She obviously was intelligent (she followed all those complex instructions!) and loved beautiful things. At least I know her life was surrounded by beauty, in homes filled with art and music, and the amazingly beautiful setting of a small town on the St. John’s River.

As soon as I can, I will upload photos of a couple of her items that got passed on to me. My mother knew how much I loved to crochet and tat as a young person, so she gave me a few samples of Aunt Susan’s work. I even copied the motif from the filet crochet table cloth she made, and used it as a decoration in my teen bedroom. These pieces of tatting, crochet and embroidery mean a lot to me. They remind me that I am indeed a part of a family tradition, and they also remind me that doing my craft activities help me stay stable and sane (though, thankfully, I don’t have any crippling mental health issues to deal with!). Even though I never had the chance to talk to her or get to know her, she influenced me in my desire to make my work the best quality I can, and to stick with long and complicated projects.

Wednesday Wonders #11: NOBODY

I’m going to vent and share some opinions now. Your mileage may vary, and you are free to disagree with me. Polite and respectful comments will be shared! And you, my readers, always seem to be polite and respectful. Thanks. (By the way, the free clip art image you see is supposedly an angry knitter, though she just looks mildly perturbed to me.)

Sorry friends, but I don’t feel like anyone is a Wednesday Wonder today. In fact, I’m pretty much unhappy with the World of Internet Knitting right now. I am very disappointed at a lot of stuff going on in knitting’s largest online community as well as outside of it right now. I’ll just summarize what the official post on the site said, which is that some people had behaved badly on the site, and when their forum was shut down, they went to a private site and used it to somehow “disrupt normal site activity.” (Going to a private site is FINE—using it to plan attacks on others…questionable—and I oughta know—I’ve done it myself in non-knitting contexts, and gone through a lot of self-examination on account of it.)

My newer readers won’t know this, but at one time I helped design and then was the “super moderator” of a large online community. I have dealt with my share of disruptive activities, rudeness, and unhelpfulness. I know how hard it is to write community guidelines, how hard it is to set procedures for giving warnings and for finally banning people, and in general how difficult it is to moderate disputes. I also know there are certain types of folks out there who actually enjoy raising a ruckus, poking at people, and generally causing a wee bit of trouble. I have a LOT of sympathy for the nice young people who run the site. I have been in their shoes, and I have faced the wrath of people who hate any perceived authority and run here and there crying “woe is me, I’ve been treated unfairly,” and blabbing one skewed point of view on a topic, while you have to zip your mouth and take the high road and not engage them in dialog (also known in my old circles as “airing your dirty laundry.”

I have no doubt that some people one one side of an issue went out and joined groups on another side, just to pick on them or take offense if something wasn’t worded perfectly. I have no doubt that this also took place going the other direction. Neither behavior was constructive, nor would either tactic in any way convince members of one camp that they ought to convert to the other side (really, would YOU change your mind if someone got in your face and called you names? Of course not). And besides that, none of this helped people share their love of knitting or crochet, share patterns and yarn ideas, or help each other with craft issues. No, it just divided people into camps. They’re dividers, not uniters! (I am so witty, nay?) None of these folks are Wednesday Wonders.

But that’s really not what made me sad. This sort of thing happens in online communities all the time. Why I am sad is that some rather harsh consequences were meted out that had some really awful repercussions. Users were banned from the online community. Now, that is a reasonable consequence if warnings are not heeded and behavior persists. Most people apologize and back off when confronted with their mis-use of a community. Some don’t. Then they get banned.

But, not only were the people engaged in the behavior banned, anyone who was ever a member of some group was also banned. I guess that’s the only way to make sure everyone who did offensive things gets removed, but it also means people who were members of a group but never participated were also caught. I actually don’t have a problem with that—people could write in and explain, and I am sure a reasonable administrator could check records, see they’d never said anything, and let them back on. The worst, though, is that any IP address ever used to log on with one of the offenders’ logins was also banned. I personally know at least three people who suddenly found themselves banned from the site having never had a warning or anything (because they weren’t members of the problem group). Their crime? They let a knitting friend log on while visiting their home. Guilt by association!

But you know what? I have no clue what groups many of my knitting friends are members of. They could be racists, sexists, homophobes, godless heathens (oops, that’s me), radical fundamentalists, believers in alien abduction, pro-choice, polygamists…heck, how would I know any of this if all we’ve talked about is wool vs. acrylic? I don’t know the beliefs of all my blog readers, either. They just want to read knitting stuff and an occasional bit of a Suna rant. I sure would not want to be banned by Blogger because someone they didn’t like commented or something!

So, I am not happy that these folks who just happened to know someone with ill-behaved associates got thrown off without warning. I am also unhappy that they didn’t get a chance to download their data. I have 289 items in my stash all nicely categorized on the knitting community, and records of 195 of my projects carefully dated, notated, photographed and labeled. I would be mighty, mighty upset to no longer have access to that data (you can download an Excel spreadsheet of your stash, but there’s no way to save your project info). I’d be upset enough to whine and complain to all my friends…which is exactly what is happening, and making matters worse. This is leading to people on my email lists getting up in arms and saying they’ll leave the community in support of their friends, or un-list designs of theirs that they have shared. What a mess that could turn out to be! I love checking out my friends’ projects, seeing what their favorite patterns are, etc. And I won’t be able to do that if they leave in a huff.

Darn, darn darn.

I figure I’m relatively safe. I have only posted to forums 281 times, nearly all on the topic of something I knitted. I removed myself from the “godless heathen” forum, because I know sometimes testiness occurs there. But gee, I hate feeling unsafe and paranoid in my pleasant online community. And I hate the idea of losing contact with friends there.

Because I try to “assume good intent,” I will hope that people inadvertently caught in the cross-fire will be reinstated. And I will hope that maybe, just maybe, people will have the maturity and grace to stop sniping at and saying unkind things to people whose views differ from theirs (OK, it’s just a HOPE). Maybe knitters will learn to let people who share common views discuss them in peace amongst themselves. Maybe administrators will learn from this and be less heavy handed in the future, even if that’s hard to do given technological constraints. And maybe, instead of trolling in other people’s groups to try to irritate others, knitters will go knit something.

If we all just stuck to our knitting, we’d have a chance of being Wednesday Wonders.

I wish you all peace, love for your fellow human beings, and good knitting. And crocheting. And tatting and quilting. You get it.

Wednesday Wonders #10: Yvonne P!

This week I have chosen to focus on another far-flung friend, whom I have really admired since I’ve known her, and whose writings I really enjoy. Yvonne P is a knitter in the Netherlands (yes, I have now actually featured TWO knitters in the same country outside my own…but I am now out of people who live there to feature). We “met” in 2007 either on Ravelry (online knitting community, for those of you who know me in some non-knitting capacity) or on a sock email list (Yvonne will probably tell me which it was!), when we were both knitting the same pair of socks, a pattern called Forget-Me-Not (and if you follow this Ravelry link, you will see both my pair and hers!). We chatted back and forth about the pattern, then started following each other’s blogs.

It turned out we were both similar in age and both getting married around the same time, so we had lots to talk about. I enjoyed looking at Yvonne’s Flickr pages and checking out her new house as it was being built, etc. After a year or so of reading about someone’s life, looking at their photos, and seeing all their projects, you get to feel like you actually know them! We both comment regularly on each other’s blogs, too, which is a great way to keep in contact.

What makes Yvonne a wonder is her generosity, in many respects. She generously shares her knowledge and ideas with so many people—she’s active on Dutch (and English) knitting lists and does all kinds of exchanges and swaps, too. I am impressed that she blogs in English rather than any of her other languages, so that we in the English-speaking world can also enjoy it. She persists in doing this even though most of her comments are in Dutch. It’s very educational for me, the former linguist, to figure out what some of the words are. I’m very good with the=het, sokkenwol=sock yarn and such. Yvonne has always encouraged me when my projects go wrong, and I appreciate that so much!

I had her on my list of potential Wednesday Wonders all along, but decided that this was her week, so I can share with you the contents of the fun package I received in the mail from her yesterday—a belated wedding gift! This beautiful sock yarn is special in more than one way (as she explained in her sweet note, on the back of the card in the picture). Not only is it hand-dyed in the Netherlands and from the Dutch yarn shop Wolhalla (a pun even I can understand), but it is an appropriately Dutch colorway—Delft Blue, as in the lovely pottery (click the link and you can see lots of examples from a cool shop in the US). The label even has a fabric sample in blue and white, to show you the inspiration for the yarn! Isn’t that neat? That is such a nice remembrance, and such a kind gesture! No wonder she’s a wonder!

The package also came with two tiny metal tags in a black bag (you can see them in the photo). They say “made for you” and you can put them in your knitted items that you give as gifts. Yvonne said to put one in the Rainbow Jacket (which I am wearing today even though I still haven’t blocked it, because we are having one last little cool snap here).

The moment I saw the yarn I thought of my sister, who collects blue-and-white china (as did my mother) and loves those colors. I know she does, because she sent me a blue-and-white bracelet for my birthday! I am sure my sister would love socks made out of this yarn…but, nah. She may have to live with one of my many other yarns in other blue/white combos. I may have to save this special yarn for myself, so I can think of my distant friend, whom I have never met, but is a friend nonetheless.

I LOVE the Internet. Thanks to it, you can find people you have things in common with, no matter where they are. I am so glad to have the chance to meet and get to know people like Yvonne, Dragonfly, etc.! I probably enjoy reading the blogs of everyday folks who just happen to be knitters more than the “famous knitter” blogs. I love getting a little slice of someone else’s life. You see how much we all have in common, and learn some fascinating differences, as well.

Hey, readers! Have you met any fellow knitter on the Internet and formed a friendship? If you have a moment, tell us about it in the comments!

More on Yvonne:

Her blog, Loisirs et Plaisirs
Yvonne on Ravelry (you need to be a member to see this)
Yvonne’s public Flickr pages

Wednesday Wonders #9: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

I grant that this is a pretty obvious choice for a Wednesday Wonder. I have no doubt that nearly every modern knitter thinks she is a wonder. Everyone reads her books. Everyone reads her blog. I have her calendar sitting at my desk, telling me stuff about knitting every day. She's everywhere. So, why did I pick her? It's because this week I have been thinking about how much like me she is, and began to wonder whether every knitter thinks to herself or himself, "Wow, she's so much like me."

In many ways, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is "Everyknitter." Her best talent is not knitting (I think she's right around me in her knitting skills level), but it's her wonderful ability to look at knitting and draw parallels to the rest of life and to see the humor that results in not taking your hobby too seriously. (Plus, she educates Americans on how the Canadian government works.) By using her admirably informal writing style to its best advantage she's attained the goal so many of us secretly have: she's turned enjoying her knitting into a job that pays a living wage! Right there, the fact that she did that makes her a Wednesday Wonder!

I'm sure many knitters see a bit of themselves in Stephanie. I sure do. We have very similar backgrounds and interests outside of knitting--volunteered for the same organization for many years (did you know she is a doula and IBCLC*?), parented in a very similar style, view politics very similarly, are proud to be feminists who chose to stay home when their children were young…to name a few things. She's even sort of a linguist, since she coined the word "kinnear," which means to surreptitiously take a photo of someone, holding the camera low and out of sight--she did that to Greg Kinnear. And we're both writers and knitters, of course. Argh, I wish I were as humorous and as good at self-marketing as her, though (and I wish I could spin like her--dang, her February Lady sweater is incredible)! I also love that, like me, she will take a zillion times to get a shawl started, all for dorky reasons (this happened last week) or agonize over color choices for a project, just like me. It's so me-like that she marvels that anyone would really want to come hear her talk yet really enjoys doing those talks and meeting all those knitters and babies (that is exactly what was my favorite part of my Dysfunctional Nonprofit Organization job!). It just makes me happy, all the way through my soul, to know that someone like me can do what she has done.

Do I think I can do that? Well, no, and wouldn't want to duplicate her success. We don't need more than one Yarn Harlot, really, and she does a fine job of speaking for all of us knitters and making observations for us to enjoy. But, it gives me hope that maybe some day I will come up with an angle that will let me do what I love and make money at it. I am grateful to the Yarn Harlot for inspiring me to THINK about how I could earn income with what I am best at: knitting and teaching. I come close sometimes--I did get to teach knitting some when the LYS was going strong, but with that business dying down, I'll need to come up with another way of really making money from that. Maybe I could do those in-home knitting classes I'd thought about so many times--the one I did was great fun. I know I am not a "knitwear designer" because the people who do really well at that have had the chance to study textiles and the apparel business. I can do socks, but am no Cookie A! But, again, look at Stephanie. She is not a designer, just a skilled knitter. And she's done it. There's hope!

And that's it. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is a Wednesday Wonder because she not only makes knitters happy, but she inspires us to find ways to do more than just sit and knit. At least she has inspired me. And just knowing that a truly GOOD, kind, friendly and thoughtful person had all these nice things happen to her restores my faith in humankind just a wee bit.

More on Stephanie

Bio (see, she is real famous, cause she is on wikipedia)
Blog, as if you don't know it already
All her books and stuff

*International Board Certified Lactation Consultant

Wednesday Wonders #8: Little Old Florida Ladies

It’s Wednesday again, wow. This week I’m not feeling too perky, so this will be just a short sharing of some memories from a long time ago.

During the years I was in college and grad school, my mother was really sick. When I came home to visit, it gave her a lot of pleasure to sit in the family room with me and my boyfriend and watch television while she crocheted and I knitted. I’d eventually turned into a budding yarn snob after an unfortunate incident where I knitted two really nice fisherman’s ganseys from yarn purchased at my mother’s favorite store, only to have them turn into horrible stiff nightmares full of pilling, like only 100% acrylic can.

So, I went and found the local yarn shop of the day, which was a store that sold needlepoint, embroidery and knitting supplies in a little strip mall in Plantation, Florida (and I think it has since burned down). There I found a sweet group of retirees from New York and Canada who were having a wonderful time doing “condo knitting” and marvelous creations using fuzzy yarns. I guess this was the precursor to the fun furs of the early 2000s. These things do go in waves, I think.

They were my first real introduction to yarn that had natural fiber in it. They loved cotton blend novelty yarns and encouraged me to get those. That’s probably because it’s hot in South Florida. But at least they talked to me cheerfully during some hard times at home. And they encouraged me to try new things. I was really grateful to these ladies for encouraging me to continue on the path towards yarn snobbery!

The photo for today is a sweater I made from a pattern I got there. It’s an improbable mix of a cotton/acrylic blend novelty yarn, a 100% acrylic highlighting yarn in navy, and stripes of 100% angora. That yarn sure felt good. And it was so much fun making the big squares upon which the pattern was based. I ad libbed the rather spectacularly unsuccessful extra stripe up near the shoulder. First, it was ugly. And second, it put angora near my face and neck. That sweater tickled me, itched me, bugged me and made me hot. If I wore it in cool weather, I was cold. Oh well, it was yet another of Suna’s learning experiences. I’m rather full up on those today, so I will stop here and send you off on your own knitting adventures.

No links today—I can’t even remember what the name of the shop was!

Wednesday Wonders #7: Jody Hennings AKA KillerPeach

In honor of her recent birthday, I thought I should honor my erstwhile knitting companion, Jody Hennings, this week. Long-time readers will have been hearing about her for years, but we can always learn more, can't we? So, what's so special about dear Jody?

I met Jody pretty soon after my local yarn shop opened up. She was young, funny and a pretty good knitter. I enjoyed hanging out with her. Then she disappeared for quite a few months. When she came back, she was a GREAT knitter. You see, Jody's mind works differently from some of ours. Where people like Suna have lots of hobbies and dabble in some other things, Jody's mind is compelled to learn everything about whatever takes hold of her interest. She could never be someone who knitted simple patterns to pass the time. No way. She was driven to master the most complex construction methods (whoa, can she do short row shaping on a sweater), the most technical uses of knitting stitches (things she did with cables make yesterday's sweater look like a kindergarten project), and the most artistic possible projects (that woman, she can make lace sing).

The nicest thing about Jody's intense drive for learning is that she has an equally intense drive to share what she learned with her friends. When we all three lived in the same town, Jody would regale Cheri and me with technical details on yarn composition, dye, needles, construction of garments…you name it. It was like our own little University of Knitting. She used to share a lot of this stuff on her blog, and I hope she gets back to it some time, because everyone enjoyed the writings of KillerPeach!

Another wonderful thing about Jody is her generosity. She made me the incredible shawl you see at right as a birthday gift (that counted as a gift for like the next ten years) that I will always treasure. Silk and cashmere, in my favorite colors. Ahh. I wish I had a photo that showed it off better. But that's just the start. How can I ever thank her for buying and then spinning the yarn for my wedding shawl (see below)? She had to mail that yarn from the Netherlands, even!

I've been the beneficiary of a couple of Jody's other intense learning experiences. Though I'd been studying tarot cards and how to use them for many years, her knowledge of it quickly surpassed mine as she immersed herself in that topic a couple of years ago. She found decks I'd never have found for myself, and happily shared all her new ideas and thoughts on tarot.

And we can't forget dyeing. She, Tina and I spent a memorable evening dyeing yarn with KoolAid a long time ago…Tina (Chemical Pink) and I have stuck mostly with KoolAid, but not Jody. She bought wonderful professional dyes and spent long hours perfecting deeply shaded and incredibly nuanced semi-solid yarn. I got enough of one sample to make my Garden Path socks. It's the prettiest brown I ever saw. I hope she is able to actually get that business going, because I'd sure be among the biggest customers.

Then there was spinning (at left is my wedding shawl, of yarn she spun). Once she got serious on that one, she didn't produce lumpy masses of strange colors and textures. No way. She purchased only the loveliest of roving, got her own drum carder, and spun on her incredible new wheel some of the most beautiful yarn I ever saw, with glorious flecks of color or shimmer, but nothing gaudy or overly showy. That lets her knit the yarn up into mind boggling lace and garments. Shoot, I haven't even managed to spin a spindle's worth. I need me a new spinning mentor, that's for sure!


I've mentioned it before, but it was very sad for me when she followed her man to another country last year. It's a great adventure and I am hoping it gives her wonderful memories. But I miss having her around to share whatever new enthusiasm is growing within her. When she is on to a new topic, she's a sight to behold! Get out your notebooks and take notes, Dutch people!

Since I don't get to see her any more unless she has a few minutes during a visit with her family, I'm glad to at least get to look at her work often. Whether it's a shawl on my own stair rail, the lovely things she knit as yarn shop samples, that one pair of socks I have from yarn she dyed, or just the fun photos I have on my computer, she's never far from my mind. I am glad for email, Ravelry, and Facebook, which lets us far-flung friends stay in touch and keep learning from each other! Thank you, Jody, for bringing so much friendship, fun and knowledge to my life. Knit on!

More on Jody

She's KillerPeach on Ravelry
And you might enjoy the archives of Killer Peach, the Blog

Wednesday Wonders #6: Alice Starmore

I think it’s time to talk about one of my more controversial early knitting influences, whom I have never met (nor do I expect to!). Nonetheless, the work of Alice Starmore has had deep and long-lasting influence on my understanding of knitting as an art, as well as a craft. And just looking at her work, reading articles about the creative aspects of her life, and learning about her have enriched my creativity and sense of adventure.

In case you have never heard of her, Starmore was a very influential knitter in the 1980s and early 1990s. This was at a time when people were very interested in ethnic patterns, especially those from the British Isles and Ireland (note: don’t tell an Irish person they are British unless you are looking to enjoy a nice, long history lesson—trust me, someone who was married to an Irishman for 14 years). Starmore, who lives on the Isle of Lewis, a place full of rocks, sheep, and apparently wool mills and printing presses, wrote and photographed numerous large, beautiful books of patterns at this time. She dealt with Aran patterns, Fair Isle techniques and fishermen’s sweaters of various traditions. Just what I wanted as a chilly Floridian stuck in Illinois!

I devoured her books, loving all the history, explanations of techniques and endless charts and motifs that you could use in your own creations. I loved that you didn’t have to just knit the patterns in the photographs—you could figure out your own unique creation once you read all of her helpful hints and instructions. Admittedly, the gorgeous settings for the photos often distracted me. I’ve felt an overwhelming affection for some vague “Celtic Homeland” my entire life, even though my background is only partially from there (I also have felt a kinship with Japan since I was a tiny child, and I am not at all Japanese). Starmore’s books (and all the other wonderful books on ganseys, Arans and such that came out at this time) really soothed my inner Brighid (Celtic goddess of spinning, poetry and the hearth).

I bought graph paper and designed my own Fair Isle sweaters, hoping that my color selections would be as beautiful as hers. Well, they weren’t. And of course they weren’t. In my 20s I did not have much “spare” cash, no local yarn shop, and few mail order resources. I couldn’t get the right yarn! So, I made to with mill ends I bought at a place called the Yarn Barn (there are LOTS of places called the Yarn Barn, I know) in Columbus, Ohio. I bought all these huge cones of rough, scratchy wool, probably from making rugs. But I knit them into some of the warmest sweaters possible. And I wore them in Illinois winters! Now they sit on a shelf, waiting for me to go on an Arctic cruise or something, other than the time I drug them out to photograph them for Ravelry (as seen on this blog post!). I also made a few really nice Arans, one of which went away with its recipient, and I seem to have never received copies of the photos I recently took of the other.

Thank goodness Starmore encouraged creativity and doing your own thing. I had to knit at a much larger gauge than she did, but I felt empowered to create. It got me through some lean times. It’s funny that, now that I can buy the right yarn, the only Celtic thing I’ve made in the last few years is a Faroese-style shawl made from genuine Shetland wool yarn, from the Jamieseon & Smith mill.

Now, I know there’s a downside to Alice Starmore. Knitters are very sad that her books have gone out of print and she will not share the copyright and that there have been other supply issues that had some folks in a tizzy at one time(that’s a gross over generalization of a longer story that you can read one viewpoint on here, as long as you bear in mind that there is more than one side to every story). However, there is good news! Alice Starmore’s Book of Fair Isle Knitting is going to be reprinted in the fall!

This is really good news, considering that her Aran Knitting book’s lowest price on Amazon is $225. Let’s hope more of her great ideas become more widely available soon, so the current generation of knitters who love beautiful colors and textures can learn from this amazingly talented woman. There’s certainly a popular demand. I know I spend a lot of time wishing I’d had more money during the years those books were coming out, so I’d have them all!

Starmore’s been doing more interviews for knitting magazines and sharing more new patterns in the last year or so (you can find out about some of these on her website, linked below). I’m hoping that some of the litigation, complaints and discord is over and that we can look forward to more great ideas and beautiful images from her--I don't know about her, but I hate spending my creative time on “business” stuff--which is no doubt why I don't run a yarn shop or publish patterns! She is now doing “fine arts” (I guess that means things that are not “crafts”) and publishes books and distributes yarn. So, she’s been busy! I am just glad that she had the time, knitting and photography skills, and patience to share so much with the rest of us during what was a bit of a long drought in knitting popularity.


More on Alice Starmore

Alice Starmore website
Virtual Yarns (get her yarn here)
Books on Amazon.com
Bio on Wikipedia (not much there)
The Alice Chronicles: story of why people were upset with her

Wednesday Wonders #5: Wendy D. Johnson

Regular readers of this blog are probably not surprised to see this Wednesday Wonder, because I don’t hide the fact that Wendy Johnson is one of my favorite knitting “personalities.” It’s more than just a case of “I like her sock designs,” though. She’s done a lot of things that have helped me as a knitter and a person, so what the heck, here’s her little tribute.

I first learned about her reading a sock knitting email list a few years ago. It was during the time when my long-term job was going away and I was trying to find something else to do, so I had plenty of time to read Yahoo lists to my heart’s content. I found a lot of the blogs I currently keep up with there, so I am glad I did it, even though now I only get to check in once or twice a week to make sure that, yes, they are still answering the exact same questions over and over again from new knitters who can’t be bothered to read the FAQs (hint: I am impatient with people who don’t read FAQs before posting).

Anyway, a few people mentioned Wendy’s sock patterns as having good techniques in them, so I took a look. I think I was trying to find a reasonable toe-up pattern. When I first read one of her sets of instructions, I felt such relief. Here was someone who actually proofread her work, wrote instructions in language more than one type of learner could understand, and made sense. Her sock patterns weren’t so terse I had to fill steps in from knowledge I already had, but they weren’t so wordy that I couldn’t tell what she was doing at any time. After the first pattern, I kept going and made pretty much every free pattern on her blog. And when she started selling patterns on the Loopy Ewe site, I got some more.

Anyone looking in my Ravelry projects page will see a LOT of socks from her patterns (here is one example), and others that use her patterns as inspirations. I particularly love her toe-up flapped heel. I love it so much that I wrote it on a little card so I can remember how to do it in socks I am making up for myself. It’s always in my sock bag! Wendy thinks like I do, so I understand where she’s going in a pattern and don’t have to think too much once I’ve got it down. And there aren’t too many surprises to mess me up. When I write my own patterns, I try to emulate her style and hit that middle ground. I've really learned a lot about writing knitting patterns by reading hers. Thanks, Wendy!

I always enjoy Wendy’s blog (even though I have admitted in public that the “cat picture a day” technique is not for me, I do see that for her, the Lucy picture a day thing a good publicity technique and something that people will remember to come back for). She shares just enough detail about her life for you to be reassured she’s a regular person, just like you, but she doesn’t bog you down with whining and moaning (unlike me in my personal blog, ha ha). She answers people’s questions with grace and humor, and is invariably positive and enthusiastic, even when she’s sick, hurting or frustrated. It’s a good attitude to emulate. She strikes just the right balance between accessibility and privacy, which has to be harder and harder to do when you are writing books, speaking at conferences, and thus becoming more of a “celebrity.”

I am rambling more than I intended to here. My main point is that Wendy Johnson is a Wednesday Wonder because she has a real knack for explaining sock knitting techniques and has been very generous with sharing her ideas with the greater knitting community. She deserves all the good things she can get—for sure I’ll buy her book when it comes out, and if I had time off, I’d be running to that Sock Knitters Summit she’s working on. If you have never knit any of her socks, I strongly encourage you to give them a try. I’ll give you a link so you can find them!

Links to Wendy Johnson

Wendy Knits Blog: http://wendyknits.net/ (there are some free patterns in there)

Patterns at the Loopy Ewe: http://www.theloopyewe.com/browse/byvendor/wendy-knits/

Wendy Knits: My Never-Ending Adventures in Yarn: http://www.amazon.com/Wendy-Knits-Never-Ending-Adventures-Yarn/dp/0452287324

Socks from the Toe Up (upcoming book): http://www.amazon.com/Socks-Toe-Up-Essential-Techniques/dp/0307449440/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1233778143&sr=1-1

Wednesday Wonders #4: Dawn Ortega

First, yes, I finished something else already. I feel like FO Queen when I do that, but since this was done on size 17 needles, I feel like I cheated. I took this photo of Wrenna in my office using the phone, so I had to lighten it up a lot. But you get the idea. It's a brown short-sleeved cardi, in the shape I like so much (Lee hints that I have perhaps too many items in this shape). The yarn, Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande, is incredibly, practically indescribably soft. I saw a wrap calling for it in the new Vogue Knitting, and wow,that would be one soft (expensive) item. Anyway, I haven't decided for sure what closure to use on this. The pattern calls for leather lacing, and I guess I COULD make something with some of the Berocco Suede yarn I have way too much of. Or I could get another of the wonderful Sculpey/Fimo buttons at the LYS. Or I could keep using a pin. Decisions.

So, before getting to my Wednesday Wonder, let me encourage you to go buy the wonderful French Girl Knits book and make something in it. And let me beg you to get NICE size 17 needles if you are making a project that will take a while. The inexpensive ones I used would NOT uncurl and were a royal pain to deal with. For sure the next item I make from that book will be one of the ones on slightly smaller needles, though I do note that the author is very fond of using larger needles than normal for a particular yarn. I guess she likes "airy" things, and there's nothing wrong with that. Especially here in Texas!

Dawn Is a Wonder

So, who is Dawn Ortega (I'll put her whole name in once I get permission), and why is she a Wednesday Wonder? No, she's not a famous knitting icon, and no, she didn't teach me any particular knitting skill. She's a knitting friend, and by friend, I mean a person who is kind, caring and giving to everyone she encounters. In this photo she's helping Wiebke at our yarn dyeing party.

I've been enjoying watching Dawn's knitting skills grow. She sometimes hesitates to try new things, but once she gets an idea in her head, she keeps going. A case in point is her green sweater. She had never made a sweater, and the really interesting pattern made of garter-stitch strips that she chose didn't quite go up to her size. Plus the only color there was enough of was green, and she's a BLUE person! But she swatched. She tinkered with the pattern. She believed her friends when they said green matched her eyes. She knitted. And she persevered. It came out at a weird length. She figured out a way to make it longer that actually improved on the look of the sweater. She put the sweater on, and it was amazing. It looked so good. Even better was the look on her face when she realized she had DONE it!

This kind of payoff is what keeps me going folks! When a knitter takes it on faith that she can do something she never did before, and it works--that's a wonder. It took a village to help her, but the village was willing. It's the great thing about knitting communities!

What caused me to think about Dawn was something she posted in an email yesterday. These are her own words:

I am on a continuing adventure called Knitting. Everything I thought was hard and scary is really easy and interesting. This is like being a kid at an amusement park. First you ride the baby rides that go in a circle and the you adventure to the kid area where you climb ropes and fall in ball bins eventually we all will end up on the scary roller coaster and find that we love it and have to do it again and again.

Does this describe your knitting adventure? It certainly rings true for me, and I see it going on around me regularly. I love teaching a new technique that lets a knitter step past a previous boundary, or encouraging a friend to give a new yarn a try, or being there when someone struggles through that first sock. And the adventure doesn't end; there's always something new to try.

To be honest, there are so many reasons Dawn is a wonder. Just in knitting reasons alone, I could go on and on. She knits baby afghan squares and items for the poor. She always makes a little mini sock ornament out of yarn leftovers as a souvenier--what a great gift. She brings gifts for all her friends' birthdays, many made by hand. And as a person, she is always there to listen, and never there to judge. So, she may not be famous, but she's treasured by all who know her, and I hear her sweet, small voice in my head when I read her words. A quiet, tenacious and kind human. Of course she's a wonder!

Wednesday Wonders #3: Elizabeth Zimmermann

Yeah, it's Thursday. I was really sick yesterday. But today I bring you a tribute to someone you should all be in awe of, the lovely and talented Elizabeth Zimmermann. I'm inspired to write about her today, because I made a post to the Zimmermania blog, where knitters who love her patterns share what they have made, and talk about her techniques. There are lots of other forums to discuss this famous knitter on, and lots to read about, some of which I'll put in the links section of the post.

OK, raise your hand if you haven't heard of EZ (as she is called). You can put it down now, 'cause I can't see you. Ha, Internets humor. You can read about her in any good history of knitting book, and you'll see her referred to often in discussions of top-down knitting, socks, hats, oh, practically everything! This English woman who moved to the US with her German-born husband and eventually set up a mail-order yarn business in a schoolhouse in Wisconsin is one of the world's biggest influences on modern knitting. And I am eternally grateful.

Rather than give you her history, let me just list a few ways she has influenced my own knitting and designing. You can tell me yours in the comments, if you'd like:

• I feel free to change any written pattern, and am not ashamed if my inspiered modification isn't perfect--I just see if I can do something else with it, or chuck it and start again. I know EZ did a lot of that!
• I am not ashamed that I don't like to sew seams in sweaters. And I know how to make them without seams. Oh my, her ideas, along with Walker's Knitting from the Top Down, saved me from a life of never knitting sweaters! Of course, she helped me learn to make nicer seams, too.
• Her humor has gotten me through many a low moment--I'd keep all her writings just for the shining individuality that comes through.
• She was one of the first to bring knitting to the mass media. I'm sure she'd have loved blogs! Her typed newsletters were amazing, and I wish I'd been old enough to subscribe (or to order her yarn back then, when all I could find was acrylic at the five-and-dime store). And she calmly bravely went on television and showed the whole world how she did so many interesting projects. (You can buy many of these videos today, just check the Amazon link below.)
• She was a smart person who found knitting interesting and worthy of study, not just "women's work" to be dismissed. As a feminist, this impressed me a lot. It helped me take pride in my own work, even when people said I looked "like a little old lady doing that." (Of course, EZ looked exactly like the granny you'd imagine, sitting there knitting on her doily, only EZ was busy doing math many scientists would be impressed by!)
• She was a loving wife and mother who was kind to her children and taught them the value of work well done. That's as important as the knitting stuff in my book.

I know I could do a lot more with this wonderful woman, but this is just how she affected ME, and some of the things I was thinking about while making those Baby Surprise Jackets (of which I gave the second one to Jen last night! Bye bye ladybugs!)

Links

EZ's Books on Amazon
Schoolhouse Press
Bio on Wikipedia
Zimmermania blog

Wednesday Wonders #2: Kathe Brinkmann

Today's Wednesday Wonder is another person who influenced me during the years I lived in Illinois. I met Kathe Brinkmann when a yarn shop opened in Champaign, Illinois, where I was living at the time. This was a huge event in my life--prior to that I was only able to get yarn when I visited the city my parents lived in, or ordered it from a catalog (no online ordering back then!). Kathe owned the store, which was so exciting and full of wonderful things. I remember buying a lot of yarn by Pengoin, a company that doesn't seem to exist any more. That's probably not the only one.

I went to the shop often enough to strike up conversations with her, but mostly on superficial topics. Having access to modern, professional instructions and yarn that was not from a discount store made a huge difference in my knitting output. I remember making a beautiful, purple cardigan for Tuba Boy with owls on it. We talked a long time about whether to put eyes on the owls or not.

Around this same time, I had a baby and "retired" from my career in technical writing for a while. I started making websites when that field had just started (really, my first site had no images, those were too exotic). A former coworker encouraged me to go to meetings of a group of Women Entrepreneurs, to make some connections and learn about doing freelance work. Lo and behold, there was my lawyer and friend from the University PC User Group and the yarn shop owner! (The lawyer will be a Wednesday Wonder on the other blog, as she was another mentor of mine.)

I really enjoyed getting to know Kathe more through this group, and we talked a lot about the business. The early 90s were not great times for yarn shops. People wanted her to teach them to knit, help with their patterns and all sorts of advice, but did not want to buy exotic imported yarn when there was acrylic at K-Mart. The shop became a labor of love and not a vehicle for profit. And eventually she had to close it. It was a real lesson in business for me--you need to do more than set up the shop--you have to find a way to sell stuff. Kathe ended up with a huge attic full of yarn. I ended up with a lot, myself. I still have some, even--some lovely Rowan natural cotton that I still haven't decided what to do with. (Since that time she has continued to other fiber adventures, but that's beyond the scope of this blog entry.)

Kathe remained a friend, however, and we still talked about knitting--she taught me a lot of skills, told me about the larger world of yarn, fibers and designers, and was a patient listener to my problems.

Kathe meant a lot to me outside of knitting, too. At some field trip in the Women Entrepreneurs group I mentioned an interest in women's spirituality. That's all it took for her to invite me to another group she was in, a UU women's group. So, she was the one who (though the lawyer had tried to do this for years)finally got me into a Unitarian Universalist church (coincidentally, the building where we met was directly across from the building where I had knitted with Georgia all through the 80s). That group formed the basis for my closest group of friends the rest of my time in that town (I mourned that women's group for years, and it's one reason I joined the one at the UU church in northwest Austin later). We kept in touch via holiday cards for years, until my life fell apart and I stopped sending them. Yeah, another person to try to find again. Why isn't she on Facebook? Oh, I am a nut. I just searched under "Kathleen" and there she was. I love social networking. Another friend found!

So, this entrepreneur was really important to my development as a knitter and a potential businesswoman--she showed me that it is a LOT of work to run a yarn shop, and even so you are not guaranteed success. I am much more resistant to Lee's suggestions of, "let's open a yarn and coffee shop" having witnessed her experience. And she was only the second "real" knitter I ever knew who could show me new techniques, give me ideas and move me forward in my skills. We all should celebrate people like this--they are our teachers even if they don't know it at the time.


I don't have any links, but if I find some, I will let you know! I am impressed enough that I found a photo!

Wednesday Wonders #1: Georgia Morgan

Today I am starting something new in this blog (and my personal blog, as well--just ask and I'll send you that link). I'm calling it Wednesday Wonders, and I will be honoring someone in my knitting/crafting life who has inspired wonder in me in some way. I have a fairly long list of candidates, so if I keep at it, this feature should last a while. I hope to cover people I've known, family, friends, colleagues and such, plus bloggers, authors, historical figures and the like, as well. There's a lot of inspiration out there. I have written a few posts before about my knitting ancestors and forebears in the past, but I am hoping to be able to go into detail about them in this format.

I'll give a bit of background about each Wednesday Wonder, how I know about them, etc., and then list at least Five Fabulous Factoids about each. If I can, I'll post a photo and add links. (There is no photo yet on this one due to Internet issues--there'll be one later.)

Wednesday Wonder #1

Today I am going to tell you why Georgia Morgan is a Wednesday Wonder. I'd been thinking about her this week, because she recently joined Facebook (I was her first "friend" there) and she launched her Etsy store (linked below), where I was delighted to see charming breastfeeding rings (you can flip the stone to remind yourself which side the baby is supposed to use next) among the offerings. It got me to reflecting on how some people really influence our lives, and I realized that she influenced mine a lot.

Who is this woman, you ask? A simple answer is that she was one of my teachers in grad school, in the linguistics department at the University of Illinois. But wait, there's more. She was someone who did so many of the things I wanted to do in life, only (at least in my mind) so much better. She was really smart (duh) and didn't dawdle over her PhD like I did. She was interested in the exact same stuff I was (pragmatics), had a biting wit (oh, if I could only be as sarcastic, punny and articulate as Georgia or her husband), had really smart children whom she treated as fellow human beings rather than objects, was proud to be a feminist, and most important: she knitted all the time! Georgia's encouragement led me to not fear pulling out the work in progress during lectures on phonology or the dreaded Sanskrit. Her willingness to try new techniques helped me not fear designing my own complex Aran sweaters armed only with needles, gauge, and a Barbara J. Walker book. And seeing her place an intellectual and artistic value to the crafts my poorly educated family valued as mere time-passing objects helped me value my own projects as worthy of respect, not just "women's work." It's fairly obvious, isn't it? I would have taken a lot longer to become the knitter I am today if I hadn't known her (and probably wouldn't have become the person I am today without her patience, prodding, understanding and forgiveness). (I won't go into how much the Fridays drinking beer and all the discussions at the Chinese restaurant shaped my political and social beliefs, but I am grateful for that, too.)

I spent most of the 80s following Georgia around, knitting and writing long sentences with many footnotes. I did a lot of growing, learning, improving and screwing up during those years. I am only sorry that I just couldn't keep going in academia (for reasons really having nothing to do with academia and having lots to do with being a dork at personal relationships--I think I am better at that, too). For many years I have wished I could have continued to do crafts together, but I was so ashamed of not becoming a professor that I cut all my ties to my former department once I went off to be an editor/techie person. Luckily, we have sort of kept in touch all this time, despite my poor correspondence skills, and now I can enjoy her ideas and humor every day again thanks to the joys of social networking.

I still love words and am fascinated in how people use them. And I still knit all the time, even in public. So, this is one Wednesday Wonder with a huge impact on me (mostly positive!).

Thanks, Georgia, for helping shape me, for better or worse, and for all you did for all the students you worked with through the years! Enjoy your art, kids, grandkids and friends!

Five Fabulous Factoids:

• Georgia's knitting was creative and organic--it was obvious she was an artist as well as a craftsperson, because she had no fears about taking off in new directions instead of following instructions to the letter.
• Georgia is the first person I met who breastfed her children. She was who I modeled my parenting style after, and led me to toddle off to that wonderfully frustrating decade plus of supporting new mothers.
• Georgia was in the room at the moment I discovered that Barbara J. Walker the feminist and Barbara J. Walker the knitting goddess were the SAME person.
• Georgia wrote the most sarcastic, yet accurate, comments on writing that I ever saw (but not in red ink; that would be too harsh). It's a wonder I ever became a writer. It's NO wonder I became a good editor--I wanted to limit those comments!
• Georgia took care of me when my mom died. I won't forget that.
• Georgia and I knit a lot of leg warmers in the 80s. But hey, it was COLD. We also knit beautiful sweaters for men who better have appreciated them (I sure would like that green Aran pullover I made for the Crazy Cajun BACK).

I know, that was six facts.

Links:

Etsy Jewelry Page: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6717056
Jewelry: http://www.bead-designs.com/
Past: http://www.linguistics.uiuc.edu/g-green/