The Human Warmth of Knitting
Knitting
is an activity that is done in community – it’s about connections and
relationships. This became very clear to me when I asked you Miss Marples, “How
long have you been knitting?” Absolutely
no-one said, “I learned to knit by myself and only knit for myself.”
Instead
these origin stories often talked about who taught us how to knit, and the most
common teachers were our moms. A lot of us, like Elena and Judi, were taught by
our mothers when we were very young. Andrea, on the other hand, said, “my
grandmother taught me because ‘ladies need to know how to knit when they get married’.
I was 13 at the time!” However old we were, teaching someone how to knit
involves sitting close together, hands touching, coaxing stiff fingers and yarn
through those initially very awkward new movements.
There was wonderful warmth,
as well, in the stories of your first knitting project -- we knit for those we want to take care of.
Lynn says, “My first knitting attempt was for my firstborn - he is 41 years old
now. It was a yellow sweater which he never wore as it was newborn size and was
too small for him.” Similarly, Susan tells us, “I knit for my babies, for my
mother, for my first grandchild. Now I'm on my third grandchild!” If only we
could cushion people from the troubles of the world by wrapping them in
knitting!
The act of knitting
weaves yarn around and through itself to create something stronger, larger and
more purposeful than the yarn is all by itself. Our knitted projects make
visible the community and the human connections that are as much a part of knitting as the fibers themselves.What have we been up to?
https://www.etsy.com/listing/125555828/the-lexi-blanket-a-fun-unique-baby
https://www.etsy.com/listing/121908270/infant-hand-knit-orange-pumpkin-hat-with
Come Meet a Couple of Our Members!
You can find Jennifer's work at https://www.etsy.com/shop/Jesterbrook
Janet's work shows up at https://www.etsy.com/shop/MargoMadeit
Our Mystery Shop of the Month!
As a new addition to our team blog and in the spirit of Miss Marple, we thought we'd propose a mystery. We'll give you a series of clues that will point toward one Miss Marple Knitting Club shop. When you figure it out, comment here and we'll let you know if you've gotten it right! We plan to expand this into bigger and better mysteries in future editions :-)Ok, here we go......
Clue 1) Years ago, the Beatles sang, "We all live in a _______ __________." The name of our mystery shop could fit into those two spaces, but the color is different from the original.
Clue 2) In the shop owner's profile photo, she has an octopus on her head!
Clue 3) This person shows up on the first page of the list of Miss Marple's Knitting Club members.
Clue 4) If you search "Medusa Scarf" on Etsy, this shop will show up on the first page of results.
Good luck searching!
