Total crap

I was browsing around a JoAnn store in Florida recently in order to get some basic supply or another. I don't usually go for JoAnn stores but go for the locally-owned shops that I'd rather support. So I'm looking around in the knitting section and I notice a couple knitting gadgets. One is a little elaborate thingie with a handle that cranks and produces an I-cord. It's like the knitting knobby only the mechanical crank turns a set of four hooks and it does the knitting. The other is a set of four rings with pegs on them that go from about four inches in diameter to about twelve inches in diameter. They are pretty much big knitting knobbies or knitting Nancies as some might call them. I had them in my hands, and then I put them back. I was flying home and didn't need more junk in my luggage.

When I got back up here in upstate New York I was lured back by curiosity and a love of gadgets. Together they totalled about $30. I set up the little crank thingie by threading the yarn through, turned the crank, and it broke off in my hands. So then I got out one of the rings and threaded it. After about six or seven rounds, I realized that not only was it really heavy and very awkward, but if I wanted to put it on a table so that I didn't have to hold it in my hands, once the tube started getting longer, I wouldn't be able to put it on a table, I'd have to hold it. So much for the gadgets. I took them back the next day.

Karen Allen and machine knitting

For years I assumed that machine knitting was just yukky, and there was nothing anyone could do about it. A few issues ago, Vogue Knitting International in vol 22 Winter 2004/2005 featured movie star Karen Allen because she's a knitter. I thought the article was weird because of the way they made her pose for photos, but I also thought the knitting was *eh*. It was all machine knitting.

So last weekend I'm strolling around Great Barrington, Mass., because it's one of those towns that I like to visit. There's a shop right there on little old Railroad Street with Karen Allen's name on it. Karen Allen's knitting was in the windows. Karen Allen was inside. So well heck yeah, in I went. I have to admit I was wrong wrong wrong. The photos in the Vogue Knitting issue simplly did no justice at all to the work. Karen Allen has mongo talent. Her machine knitting is definitely fine craft. Yummy, scrumptious. I wanted everything in the shop in the worst way. She has used fabulously soft, suitable yarns for the machine. She has created designs that show off the sophistication possible with a machine in the right hands. Her color choices are lovely, and she's not hung up on one thing but is obviously exploring colors and textures like crazy. She also teaches, so if you want to learn machine knitting from the best, Lorre Bob sez get yourself to Great Barrington and sign up.