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One of my favorite pastimes is what I call Knit-Spotting, which means collecting knitting-related stories that appear in the media. We've come a long way from the television commercial that had women at a quilting bee using knitting needles to quilt the Northern bathroom tissue! Here are some recent Knit-Spotting media features...
Knit-Spotting at the movies: La Vie En Rose
This wonderful movie tells the story of French chanteuse Edith Piaf, detailing her troubled childhood, her rise to fame and her early death at 47.
She gained renown in the 1940s as one of the most famous singers of her era, and La Vie en Rose, or The Life in Pink, was her signature love song. Piaf was born in Paris' Belleville neighborhood in December 1915. She was neglected by her mother, a cafe and street singer, and her father, a traveling acrobat, arranged for young Edith to live with his mother, who worked in a Normandy brothel.
At the age of 7, her father made her be a part of his act. At 15, Piaf struck out with her half-sister, Simone, singing in the streets of Paris for money. Despite her troubles, string of love affairs and scandalous life, Piaf continued her successful singing and acting career until her death in 1959. However, her music lives on.
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Chanteuse Edith Piaf is knitting while having her hair styled.
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At the peak of her success while at her first dinner date with the man that becomes the love of her life, he asks what she does besides sing. Edith answers, that she knits for whomever will wear her sweaters. In her later convalescent years, she is shown knitting on a California beach while being interviewed by a young magazine reporter.
I would have never guessed that Edith Piaf was a knitter!
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Knit-Spotting on the radio: Car Talk puzzler
While driving about on Saturday errands, I often listen to the NPR radio show "Car Talk" Click & Clack with Tom & Ray Tappet. They ended a recent show with the answer to a puzzler called: To Knit or Knot to Knit? A listener wrote in that his wife had taken up knitting in order to keep from snacking.
She was knitting a scarf that was currently 3 feet long, and she was wondering how much further she could knit before starting to drop stitches for the diagonal finish. The husband was able to solve her knitting dilemma by first weighing the scarf and then weighing the remaining yarn on their kitchen diet scale.
Who would have thought that the guys that are usually telling people how to fix their cars would include hints for knitting?
Here is a link to the transcript for this show.
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Knit-Spotting in a Canadian newspaper: From sheep to sweater in just over six hours
In the Northumberland Today newspaper it was reported that seven Canadian women knit and spun their way to a world title. They beat out 16 international teams by creating a handmade sweater, from raw wool to finished sweater, in just over six hours. They had three spinners preparing the wool while four knitters worked at sixty stitches per minute. The knitters had the wool onto their needles within seconds of it coming off the spinning wheel. The team, called the Toronto Spiders, won the 13th World Back to Back Spinning/Knitting Championship and set a new Canadian record.
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Knit-Spotting in an Indiana newspaper: Speedway director eases stress by knitting
The Indianapolis Star Talk of Our Town reporter, Susan Guyett, featured Nancy George during race week. Nancy is part of the Hulman-George family (owners of the The Indianapolis Motor Speedway for over 60 years) and a member of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's board of directors. However, she is also the owner of the soon-to-expand Knit Stop. She recommends knitting to the racing community in order to lower anxiety levels. Learn more about her yarn shop at www.knit-stop.com
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Amiina Knits Together on
Their New Album, Kurr.
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Knit-Spotting in the music industry: Knitting album cover
Amiina is a talented all-female band who have been experimenting with music together since meeting at Reykjavik's College of Music in the 1990s.
The cover of their new album Kurr features a fabulous shot of the four of them knitting the same blanket which rolls onto the floor and out of the picture. It has a nice feeling of camaraderie. The group reportedly plays unusual instruments like kalimbas (an African instrument also called a "thumb piano"), bells and xylophones. I wonder if they do a lot of knitting in Iceland?
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Knit-Spotting on a television sitcom: "The Office"
I recently watched two episodes of the NBC sitcom "The Office". In the first, one of the employees, Phyllis, was sitting with her feet up on her desk knitting. In the second, Pam was complimented on the sweater she was wearing. She replied that her mother knit it for her. It seems that knitting has infiltrated this fictional office.
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Knit-Spotting on a television commercial: Pain reliever for knitters
A television commercial caught my eye when the spokesperson's hands were shown up-close knitting. She was describing how Aleve has allowed her to keep knitting by easing the arthritic pains in her hands. The makers of pain relievers have wisely noticed that a lot of women, including those who are past a certain age, enjoy using their hands for knitting and other needlework.
Please join me in Knit-Spotting by sending me items of interest that I may be able to share with everyone in upcoming issues of this newsletter. Use this link to write to me.
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