Bengali in Platforms starts knitting

22:35 / 09.08.03

BiP, sweets, I just read about this poor woman falling from her trapeze and now I'm coming over like your barbelith Mum - can't you find a more sensible hobby? Please?

22:50 / 09.08.03

You see I thought you were going to report that BiP actually had started to knit and now I'm quite disappointed because I want to learn. Plus I think knitting is beautifully kitsch. I knitted once at Woodcraft Folk (known at home as Communist Guides) but haven't since and that was over ten years ago.

22:59 / 09.08.03

darling, that's very sweet of you (you sure you're not bengali yourself, dear?)

but I'm perfickly safe, as im' a novice, i don't work that high, and never without crashmats... swinging, which is what i think she was doing, i've only done once or twice, and *always* with a harness...

I've fallen off several times, and aside from some bruises, am fine...

.
.
.

who am I again?

Anna, I *have* been knitting recently actually, after years ofnot...partly 'cause of some friends who are involved in Cast off I agree about the kitsch factor.. want to become a brighton pub landmark..."the knitting woman in the corner..."

Mourne Kransky

23:06 / 09.08.03

My granny tried to teach me to knit but I wasn't much use. I remember lots of men knitting when I worked in male surgical and medical wards as a young nurse. Ukrainians, Poles and sailors were particularly keen on it. Seemed to have no sexist concerns about it and could run up a natty little bed jacket in no time.

I suspect the wild child in BiP needs the thrill of the trapeze though. There's no edge to knitting really, not even knitting up the ravel'd sleeve of care, unless you have a big order in for balaclavas from some impatient bank robbers.

Ganesh

00:59 / 10.08.03

Oh, I dunno. You could have someone's eye out with one of them thar needles...

09:53 / 10.08.03

Or perhaps, knitting should be taken to the edge like they done with ironing?

No offense, Adj, but when I saw this thread, I though BIP had had an accident and i damn near had a heart attack!

Our Lady of The Two Towers

10:18 / 10.08.03

Opps, sorry Bill, didn't mean to worry anyone.

I'm still too hot.

Whisky Priestess

10:53 / 10.08.03

I am an out and proud knitter, when I get the time, although my skill level is laughably low. I can only do one stitch, and I can;t knit anything more challenging than squares, so I'm making a patchwork blanket. I have been making this blanket for about ten years and some of the squares in it were knitted (badly) by an eleven-year-old me. I quite like that.

10:57 / 10.08.03

(Pssst, BiP, just don't tell Ariadne about your penchant for having the toaster on the side of the bath so you can have pop-tarts while you bathe, or how you like to play russian roulette with only one empty chamber in the gun)

11:00 / 10.08.03

Russian roulette?

Give chance a piece, that's what I always say.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

11:00 / 10.08.03

Yeah, I love knitting. I didn't learn how until I was 13 but then I started to knit loads-- not jumpers or anything, more like toys for my (then) baby brother. My best peice of knitting was a wooly elephant.

I also got into that thing where you knit with wire. Must start doing that again, for my stall.

11:03 / 10.08.03

Whisky, Mordant, you are freaking me right out... you're being postmodernly ironic, ya?

14:47 / 10.08.03

I love how this has turned into a thread about knitting... i'm really getting into it again, used to do it on long boring tube journeys....

and WP, i can do *two* different stitches, check my madskillz...that's really cool with the blanket tho', *love* the idea of making stuff that's got bits of your 11-y-o self in it...

but will hopefully be getting some tips from a knitting maestro friend of mine... still have a personalised humpty (ie dark-skinned/glasses/dressed in Leeds U colours!) she made me for my 18th birthday, a whole load of us have still got 'em.

15:17 / 10.08.03

i cannot, will not, believe that you three knit.

my world has shattered into a million pieces.

15:19 / 10.08.03

the sound of a universe expanding?

Mourne Kransky

15:20 / 10.08.03

Proof, Bill:

Whisky Priestess clicking away (with accompanying knitting song)

Saint Keggers

04:44 / 11.08.03

There's an old joke that went something like "my mom just bought some steel wool...she's knitting me a suit of armour"...I loved that idea when I was a kid.

Knitting rocks...I've still got the afghan my neighbour knitted me when I was but a wee child oh so many years ago...

I once knitted a six by 24 yellow rectangle when I was sick from elementry school and decided to learn to knit. Thats the extent of my brief flirtation with needle usage.

08:24 / 11.08.03

gadzooks, it is Whisky. Um, am i correct in thinking that poster espouses knitting for Blighty? If so, someone is going to have to explain... how, precisely, did we plan to deploy knitting against Fritz?

08:37 / 11.08.03

Socks, Mr Posters, and warm, itchy vests for the lads in the trenches. With fresh socks on their feet, the troops were ready for anything.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

08:45 / 11.08.03

ah, i see, thank you. And it does make sense. I for one would have felt like a bally cad going over the top with foot odour.

09:43 / 11.08.03

Kegboy There's an old joke that went something like "my mom just bought some steel wool...she's knitting me a suit of armour"...I loved that idea when I was a kid.

Well, I've got the necessary wool but I'm still looking for the necessary pattern so I can get my Mum to make me a lesbian. Honestly, you can't find anything at craft shops these days...

Mono

10:32 / 11.08.03

i frickin love knitting. my friend emily and sarah i used to go to bars and all therr sit in a smiky corner and knit till we were too drunk to keep it together. i can do *two* stitches and make wicked scarves. maybe i'll try a hat this winter...

10:39 / 11.08.03

I once knitted a tea cosy, just for the kitsch value you understand. And, ahem, a golly for my Mum. Hey, I was young, and I liked marmalade.

I, too, can do two stitches - but I've forgotten how to cast on, which is a wee bit of a handicap.

I prefer sewing, actually, sitting and sewing by hand. In fact, this might just inspire me to go out and buy some funky fabric. Hurray for BiP and her knitting!

Kit-Cat Club

10:45 / 11.08.03

I rather like mending. In fact, I am sure that one of the requisite skills for the True Chalet School Girl is to be able to darn socks, but I think that might be taking it a bit too far. But mending is up there with polishing silver on the list of satisying household tasks (you do need to listen to Radio 4 to get the maximum enjoyment, of course).

I used to do that French knitting thing with the cotton-reel with four tacks nailed into it and the crochet hook... you ended up with a long squirmy tub of wool, and the only thing you could do with it was to wind it up and sew it into a mat (made a charming gift for aunty at Christmas, a-la Blue Peter). I bet if I took it up again I could make scarves and flog them for vastly inflated prices at Spitalfields market...

10:48 / 11.08.03

Ooh, yes, I used to do that French knitting thing for hours, ending up with pointless long tails of wool. I don't remember ever doing anything with them, not even making mats.

Sewing and radio 4 - you're so right. And then every time you look at what you sewed, you remember what you were listening to at the time.

10:51 / 11.08.03

Oh this is soooo unfair. My mother can't do any of this and my granny went and got some brain detriorating illness and now I can't knit, sew, darn etc. So who's going to teach little me and become my honorary wise old woman??! Anyone?

Kit-Cat Club

10:57 / 11.08.03

I also used to use my mother's old weaving loom (not one of the big fellows, a little hand one) to make scarves etc. The only interesting thing you could really do was tartan though, and after I'd been through a couple from the Observer's Book of Tartans (or similar) I got a bit fed up. Also it was hard to get the tension right - if you don't get it equal across the frame, the fabric buckles and doesn't come out properly and you have to take it all off and start again, very tedious. I've still got one of the scarves I made somewhere (it's a bit short now) - Gordon tartan, I think it is.

10:57 / 11.08.03

Err... not ready to be a wise old lady just yet, and my knitting skills aren't exactly up to teaching standard. Especially with my inability to cast on. You should definitely learn to sew, though - I imagine you'd make some fabulous stuff. It's pretty easy, really. Go to Cornwall and see my Mum!

11:00 / 11.08.03

anna for god sake please don't let them suck you in. You are currently an island of peace and civility in a tempest of sickening revelations about Barbiegrrls from which I may never recover...

11:00 / 11.08.03

Wow, weaving, how cool. Don't know about tartan, mind you.

Does macrame count? I had a terrible macrame experience, got all excited and made my parents buy me all the stuff, then got bored - but they made me finish it, one tedious knot at a time.

I got my revenge by presenting them with the resulting plant holder and making them put it up in the living room.

11:03 / 11.08.03

Bill, just think of us as les tricoteuses, calmly knitting our way through the revolution. Or, indeed, just place an order for some socks.

11:12 / 11.08.03

gawd, so many memories, so many *terrible* parental gifts...

French knitting is spectacularly pointless, isn't it? like Ari, I never even got to the 'mat' stage, just ended up with a load of rather unpleasant woolly tubes, always made me think of squid....nice.

Weaving, tho'...that sounds v.cool.

think i might bring my knitting to the Picnic of the Flowers, Anna, can have a go at teaching you the two whole stitches I know....

al fresco bsrbe-knitting circle! yes!

11:14 / 11.08.03

Yay! Soon I will maybe be able to do one, very bad, stitch!