WILD - Why I Love Durham - December 2009

Not exactly a knitting column, this, but rather an ongoing photo essay about my town, Durham, North Carolina.

This column is about chimneys. Chimneys, for the most part, are a tool of the past, with little purpose these days beyond lending us an atavistic sense of comfort.

We have some great ones in my neighborhood.

Some chimneys tell us about the history of Durham's defunct industry--tobacco.



These old tobacco curing warehouses are now restaurants and boutiques. ("Brightleaf" is a breed of tobacco.)



Here are two houses on the corner of my street. First, a Spanish Mission Colonial style with a to-die-for green tile roof.



And second, a grand old lady of Durham, an early-20th-century bungalow. I love the half-moon window on the third floor.



Our house is the goofy step-child of the neighborhood, which suits us fine, since we get really great stuff at yard sales.

Children Knitting, Part II

I posted pictures earlier of children knitting, circa 1966:

Here we have children knitting, circa 2009:

 

My nieces, Kennedey (left) and McKenna (right), wanted to learn to knit this Christmas. Of course, this moment of knitting peace lasted for the approximately 10 minutes (before presents were handed out).Sorry for the blurry photo—Kennedey, especially, moves at warp speed.

Here’s Kennedey’s first attempt:

Knitting Travels: Philadelphia

I was in Philadelphia earlier this week for the MLA conference—a huge gathering of scholars who specialize in literature, rhetoric, and modern languages. If you read our other Knitting Travels posts, you’ll see that Katie and I both love to scout out yarn shops as a way to get to know a new city. (I guess other people use similar tactics—a guy on the panel I chaired mentioned that he looks for anarchist book stores when he travels). I had some extra time on Tuesday morning, so I walked in the blistering wind to two different stores.

First, I found Rosie’s Yarn Cellar, located in a basement on Locust St.

It was great to step out of the wind and into this cozy store, which stocks all kinds of great yarns, such as Alchemy, tons of Manos del Uruguay, the Fibre Company, Road to China, and many more. It was a little hard to figure out how the yarns were organized, but it was fun to browze through them—I almost left with a single skein of Dream in Color Classy (marked down to $12), but talked myself out of it… I have too many single skeins as it is, and would rather save up for enough to make a sweater.

Next, I walked down to South St. to Loop, where I ran into another escapee from the MLA conference (who happens to be from another university in my state).

Loop also carries a fabulous selection of yarns, especially Blue Sky Alpacas, Spud & Chloe, and Imperial Stock Ranch. I bought a book here (many of their hardcover books were on sale), but left without the Jade Sapphire (marked down to $28.99!) that I was petting longingly.

Of course, I’m regretting both of the purchases that I so self-righteously talked myself out of. (You can see the Jade Sapphire in the foreground, above). However, the Loop does have a full online shop. Hmm……..

Husband's Christmas Sweater 2009

I try to knit him a sweater each year.

Okay, this is only sweater #2, because it's only year of marriage #2. But it seems I should be able to maintain this tradition.



This year's sweater is another Gamekeeper [Ravelry], this time in dark green.



This time around, I added some short rows at the back of the neck so the neck lies higher in the back than in the front. It was kind of a duh-moment for me, when I realize that boat-neck tops just don't look so awesome on men.



The raglan shaping still does wonderful things for the husband's shoulders, though.



If you are interested in knitting Gamekeeper for your gentleman, a PDF download of the pattern can be purchased for $6.00.

How Did I Not Know About This??

Petite Purls.

An online free knit mag for babies and kids patterns? And so elegant looking too? I'm in love!

Knitting and Writing

I just came across this article published in Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, which is a case study of the Yarn Harlot’s blog.

In particular, the author examines Stephanie Pearl McPhee’s own language, or what Katie and I would call her rhetoric: her effective use of language for specific purposes. In particular, McPhee uses language (and knitting) to build a community. Here’s a quote:

Yarn Harlot is an accomplished writer who not only has a facility with language but also manages to deploy images on her blog in ways that add to the humour. These features are an important characteristic of the blog and its appeal. It should not be read as a judgement on those blogs that are ‘less’ accomplished in their writing. But it is one of the reasons why this blog has become popular over many other blogs written on similar material. The writer of this blog is creative and a communicator who writes in ways that move people – to laugh and to participate. That these qualities have attracted enough people to create a critical mass means that this particular community is different (but not better or worse) from some of the smaller audiences of other knitting blogs.

This analysis seems to hold true, in part. But I know that the blogs I like best combine interesting writing with other elements, such as good photography, or projects that I might like to knit myself, such as top-down sweaters.

We’d like to know what you think. What are your favorite knitting blogs? Do you favor blogs for the quality of the writing, or for other factors?

Citation: Sal Humphreys, “Grassroots creativity and community in new media environments: Yarn Harlot and the 4000 knitting Olympians,” Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies 22.3 (2008): 419-433.

Note: You may need an institutional subscription to access the article!

Computer Nerd in Knits

My nephew, Nicholas, installing Linux on his new laptop.