Knitting Miscellany

So blogging takes a minute. And with every day so full of things that must be done, who has a minute (or thirty) to write a blog entry? It seems like the answer to that question, increasingly, tends to be those with a financial interest in being heard or promoting their brand or selling their stuff. I could be imagining it, but that’s how it feels.

Stalwart Jean Miles continues to be her dependable, entertaining, always knitting, blog self. And thank goodness for that. I check in daily, and I’m up to 2007 in the archives. I notice as I read through the archives, though, that she regularly refers to blogs that, if they are available at all, stopped being updated a year ago, four years ago, six years ago . . . sometimes even longer ago than that. Like hers, these blogs chronicle the lives and projects of knitters. No more, no less. They’re wonderful. And I want more of that. I love Kate Davies and Mason-Dixon Knitting and Knitty and so many other business-of-knitting type sites, but I especially enjoy the blogs that connect me with real knitters—not people selling books or patterns or lessons or yarn as they offer their thoughts and advice—just knitters knitting and living their lives.

When I started this blog, I kind of thought that was what I was doing. But then a new day would come around and I wouldn’t have a new technique or any breaking knitting news to share, and I’d wimp out. Instead of posting to say that, yeah, work was insane, and the grocery store was crowded, and I started the arm on my charity sweater, I’d not post. That happened even though I promised I wouldn’t let it. Well . . . for what it’s worth,  I’m promising anew. I don’t blame you if that very thing makes you suspicious (protesting too much, and all of that), but there it is. There won’t be a post every day, and there might not always be pictures, but there will be something.

Onward.

Knitting and Reading

So . . . since the last time we talked, I’ve discovered that Betsan Corkhill (who started Stitchlinks) has published a book! Her story and what she’s done with her personal discovery that knitting has been repeatedly used to transform people’s lives are beyond fascinating. If you are interested in how the brain works and develops and how knitting can help your brain, this book is a great read. It’s also interesting from a cultural perspective to hear about how, in order to get her foot in the door with neuroscientists and other medical professionals, Corkhill had to begin referring to knitting as “a bilateral, rhythmic, psychosocial intervention”! I wonder how many opportunities we miss because of the things we think we know.

In the knitting and reading realm, I can also recommend Ann Hood’s The Knitting Circle. I’m kind of surprised I read this one, actually. I tend to avoid books about loss and sadness. I think I’m afraid they might lead to some kind of emotional point of no return. Or something. Anyway, If this book hadn’t been about knitting, I’m sure I wouldn’t have read it. But it was, and I did, and it was good. It’s simple, and the story is forced in some ways, but it does something important in telling how the central characters move through grief, how they knit, and how they help each other.

Knitting Projects