Thursday, November 29, 2012


Safely back – and we had a good time, saw to a few little things that needed seeing to, enjoyed good weather. The horrors of darkness and Christmas press hard, this morning.

Have you heard of Loes Veemstra? I found her on Zite. A Dutchwoman who has been knitting sweaters since 1955, hundreds of them by now, and stowing them away unused. Now for some reason they have emerged into the light. The link is to a video – not YouTube, however – showing a street party with the sweaters in use and Veemstra on a throne amidst them.

Lots of intarsia. No evidence of moths. Bizarre.

The video plays only shakily on my tired old computer. While I was waiting I pondered on the fact that “knitting” seems to be “breiwerk” in Dutch (“breide” for the verb). It’s “tricot” of course in French, “maglia” in Italian, “strikke” in German, “binde” in Norwegian. Is it odd, or not, that none of those words appears to be related to any other?

I have spent so long struggling with Veemstra and my computer that I had better leave it there. I will try to get up the hill to hear Kaffe this evening, if I am spared. I will try to write a proper post tomorrow.

7 comments:

  1. Perhaps the sweaters were knitted in acrylic?

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  2. hm, that's odd. why would anyone knit so much and then put it all away without wearing or even giving it away? and imagine the size of the wardrobe:) but at least it seems to have made plenty of people happy for a short time now:)

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  3. Maybe she's a relative; that's the part of the Netherlands our family comes from.

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  4. Hello Jean
    I looked around but didnt find any more information in Dutch than you have here. If anything turns up I will let you know.

    Dawn

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  5. I love the video - the whole street participating, cat looking on. and then all those hand-knitted sweaters, so colour coordinated too!

    by the way the verb for 'to knit' is 'breien' in Dutch (breide is the past tense - breien, breide, gebreid). but yes, these words are all different in the different languages. The Dutch word for sweater, trui, does exist in a similar form in Swedish tröja.

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  6. Glad the trip was a success. Hope you've had the chance to check out Persephone Books. LOVE them. The husband knows he can never go wrong giving me a book(s) from their catalog.

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  7. Thanks for the link to the video. It was wonderful! Weird about all those sweaters just put away, kudos to the team that made the video.

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