Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Onwards, with the Therapy Scarf. Knitting isn’t entirely comfortable yet, and this scarf is also boring. But that couldn’t be a genuine emotion, since I would hardly have reached this age and knit this many things, without bursting through the boredom barrier many times. So I must assume that discomfort and boredom are two sides of the same coin, this time.

I can think of no knitting to illustrate today, so here are some Greek pussy cats, from a town called Milies, on Pelion. There used to be centaurs on Pelion – Achilles’ tutor Chiron came from there. But they are now extinct, alas.

thessaloniki 014

Comments

Donna, your note yesterday really struck a chord with me. That was my situation exactly, for my first 50 years as a knitter, roughly speaking. There were a few books (Mary Thomas, Odham’s Encyclopedia of Knitting) and there was the VKB. And suddenly, there was the world.

When I first got online (see yesterday) I joined a newsgroup I had read about in Vogue Knitting: rec.craft.textiles. Nothing happened. After some time – weeks – I figured out somehow or other that it needed to be rec.craft.textiles.yarn, and the door opened an inch or two. After a while, someone responded to one of my posts by suggesting that I join the Knitlist. I can’t, at the moment, remember her name. An Italian name, and she lives in New Jersey. All blessings upon her.

Those were exciting times, ten years ago. I was, for the first time in my life, in touch with people who were as obsessed with knitting as I was. I discovered Patternworks! And Knitter’s! I made flesh-and-blood friends who remain among the dearest. My knitting improved, too, mainly because I fully grasped, at last, that it’s really rather a good idea to rip it out if it’s not right.

Eileen, it was good to hear from another Ridged Raglan fan. Maybe I should dig that pattern out and have another go at it.

Miscellaneous

I had let Woolgathering expire, inadvertently. I put that right yesterday.

No sign yet of “Victorian Lace Today”, or of those VKB’s.

4 comments:

  1. Really love that picture. Beautiful lighting, composition and contrast.

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  2. It really is amazing what the internet had done for my knitting. I would have little access to knitting books or wool without it. I live in a rural area without yarn shops, and I know very few knitters. The online knitting world is my 'knitting world'.

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  3. Anonymous8:16 PM

    I couldn't agree more about knitting and the online community. it' the enthusiasm and the creativity of people across the world. uuntil recently I've found this only in transatlantic blogs but The ones I love arelike yours in that they are a window into a complete world.
    Anne

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  4. r.c.t.y.! I wrote the FAQ's for it lo those long years ago! (I think it was '96 or '97) I was on the KnitList briefly too - but left because the List Nazis were too mean for my tastes.

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