Cappuccino Thoughts 6: On the Legacy of Knitting
Manifested at Vogue Knitting Live. There's also: a bag failure and a bedside table read
I started knitting when I was a senior in high school. I had recently been accepted to college, leaving me with a lot of time to fill and not a lot to do. So my mom signed me up for knitting classes at the same store where she learned when she was pregnant with me.
I quickly fell in love with the craft. I started working at our neighborhood store (they paid me in yarn!) and in between helping customers, the older ladies working in the store answered all my knitting questions. It’s been a passion of mine ever since.
I love being part of a lineage of knitters. To me, it’s more than just a hobby—it’s a heritage. Most people learn how to knit from an older female relative and most fiber craftsmen are women. Knitting holds huge historical significance—textile archaeologist (hello dream job) Elizabeth Wayland Barber calls string “the unseen weapon that allowed the human race to conquer the earth.”
There are countless fiber arts references in literature, from Athena turning Arachne into a spider because of her superior weaving skills, to Madame Defarge knitting the names of her victims in A Tale of Two Cities, to Anna Makarovna’s secret socks in War and Peace. I almost wish I had a second chance at writing a college thesis so I could write it about knitting.
All this to say that this weekend I went to my first ever live knitting event with Vogue Knitting (which used to be a physical publication by Condé Nast). There were classes, lectures, and a huge marketplace. I went to a class to learn how to design my own sweater (something I’ve never attempted before) and a lecture by my favorite knitting pattern maker.
As soon as I walked in, I was struck by how beautiful it was to see a room full of women happily chatting and knitting, who knew what words like “brioche” and “seed” meant in this context. To see a room full of people who just get it, without explanation. During the talks, many in the room knitted away as they listened to the speaker. I used to try to knit in my lectures in college, but I found that it distracted the people around me, so I stopped. Just the simple act of not having to explain to anyone that I was fully paying attention to this lecture while I knit was so wonderful.
At a lecture with the pattern designer Denise Bayron, a very cool activist knitting designer, many people showed up in Denise’s patterns. It was so moving to see women in all sizes and shapes wearing the same design in so many variations. Something else I love about knitting is that you can customize it exactly to your size. In a fashion world that is increasingly moving away from tailoring and customization and moving towards an ill-fitting average, it’s a joy to see.
And speaking of joy: knitting is often derided because it’s women’s work. It’s seen as the domain of mostly little old ladies. Therefore it was so moving to see rooms full of people who take this craft seriously and who love it unabashedly. One woman spoke about the pure joy knitting one of Denise’s sweaters had brought her. She started to cry and the designer gave her a big hug, prompting the whole room to cry.
This week, I’ll be teaching several of my friends to knit and I’m planning to host my first “stitch and bitch” too. The legacy of knitting lives on.
Whatever your niche passion is, I hope you have the chance to walk into a room full of people who just get it, too.
Oh, and by the way. You will find me here when I become a little old lady.
Lessons learned: updates on the bag project
Recap: I am refurbishing vintage designer bags and putting my own twist on them in an effort to learn about manufacturing and the New York supply chain.
Recap: I am refurbishing vintage designer bags and putting my own twist on them in an effort to learn about manufacturing and the New York supply chain.
Last week, I came to you on a high, with my first finished bag in hand. This week I must unfortunately report that the second bag came back looking…terrible. The tailor I used (I will not be naming names at this time. You’ll have to wait for the memoir.) did a super shoddy job hand-sewing the lining in and it makes the bag look super cheap and unattractive. When I first saw it, I thought it looked off and not that great, but that maybe it was salvageable. However, when I showed it to a friend at lunch (update: I now basically live at the Thai restaurant Soothr, it’s my favorite neighborhood spot) her look of pure concern and her concise “oh…” told me I had messed up in a big way.
Here is the lesson I am taking from it: trust your gut. Ah, a simple one, yet life constantly reminds us of its importance. When I first showed the tailor the project, she seemed deeply unsure and kept wavering on whether or not she could do it. I said I thought it would be better in that case if I took it somewhere else, but she ultimately decided she would do the project. I should have followed my intuition and tried to find someone else.
So, we try again. I got more stock (read: bags from eBay Japan) and am aiming to have ten finished to bring to a boutique and try to sell them there.
Finally, What’s on the bedside table
Continuing in the knitting theme, this week I read Unraveling, What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World’s Ugliest Sweater by Peggy Orenstein.
The title pretty much explains what it’s about. The author set about making a sweater literally from scratch, starting with shearing the sheep. I was recently chatting with some friends and the question came up, what would you do if you had a month completely free? One person said they’d be surfing in South America, another would be skiing every mountain in sight. I very sincerely replied that I would like to go to a farm and spin and dye wool. Well maybe if that farm were in the South of France. And it was perhaps just a weekend. And the rest of the 28 days were in Paris….
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