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| Knitter's Almanac (1974) |
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Knitting Workshop (1981) |
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Knitting Around (1989) |
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In Her Own Words...
Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn’t hurt the untroubled spirit either....
When I say properly practiced, I mean executed in a relaxed manner, without anxiety, strain, or tension, but with confidence, inventiveness, pleasure, and ultimate pride.
It is true that a synthetic sweater can be washed and dried in machines, but to me this rather reduces it to the level of a sweatshirt. Washing a real sweater is akin to bathing a baby, and brings the same satisfaction of producing a clean, pretty, sweet-smelling creature - very rewarding.
Tight knitters lead a hard and
anxious life.
Really, all you need to become a good knitter are wool, needles, hands, and slightly below-average intelligence. Of course, superior intelligence, such as yours and mine, is an advantage.
Who is willing to take a little innocent child and teach it to purl first?
[On the rule to always pick up the new color from under the old] It is possibly a relic of the great Argyll era. . . .But Norwegian color pattern knitting and the making of Scottish Argylls have a watery waste between them as deep and wide as the North Sea or German Ocean. They are completely different techniques and should not be confused.
[And later] I can sincerely enjoin you not to follow this practice; not at least until you are a confident and opinionated knitter in your own right.
- From Knitting Without Tears
[At the end of January] So! I have Arans off my chest. The rest of the designs in this book will now seem childishly simple, and will, I hope, have the appeal of a child - a nice child, not too pretty, not too prissy, but with good genes and reasonable upbringing.
[Almost a year later]I reconnoitered in my wool-room yesterday; it is full of possibilities for the New Year. . . .By this time next year some of these will have been achieved, and some scorned and abandoned. Some as yet undreamed-of whims will have taken shape. I’m ready for them, my mind is open, my wool-room full of wool, my needles poised, my brain spinning like a Catherine-wheel. . . .My word, what good fortune. I can only hope the same for you.
- From Knitter’s Almanac
[February brings baby things and a ‘festive picnic’ and ‘car-cat-nap’ at a ski jump in Wisconsin. It must have been Elizabeth who convinced me that I could read and knit at the same time. Now one at a time seems sufficient, thank you.]
It is better not to make mittens in a hurry. . . .Let’s make them in May; let’s take time over them; let’s venture into new approaches and designs; let’s enjoy them. . . .Stash them away as they are finished, and when the time comes, next winter, you can deal them out with a liberal hand. . . .If you have the kindness and foresight to present them in sets of threes, the loss of the first ones will not be irremediable.
July is travel-month. . . .When you set out on the annual family trip naturally you have to take your knitting; something has to keep you sane in the face of the possibly quite ferocious situations you will be up against in the next two weeks. . . . A round shawl, in fine wool, on a circular needle, is my invariable companion when space is limited, waiting-around probable, and events uncertain.
[September is Nether Garments!]
[And in October] Nothing can be gained by concealing from you the fact that the raglan-shaping of the model was not worked by this method.
Before you now stretches a period of calm and placid knitting. . . .You. . .will work straight to that famous spot, ‘Desired Length of Body’.
Now, I would not for a moment suggest that this is the easiest of sweaters, but I would put to you that its difficulties are more apparent than actual if you keep tight hold upon yourself at a few crucial points. . . .all you have to know is how to knit (but hardly how to purl), how to decrease, how to increase, how to weave, and how to keep as cool in the presence of markers as a Mississippi river pilot.
[In November, rejecting a makeshift way of reinforcing a sock] Besides, I refuse to countenance a new design which is not practicable for an encouraging to my buddy, the average knitter, and I wouldn’t dream of fussing her with such a chore.
Plans for this chapter have been scrapped in favor of describing the project on which I am currently and most actively engaged. I can think of little else.
[In December, the excitement of a last-minute sweater in bulky wool is contagious. Momentum increases as decreases ‘lap over’ body stitches. Time to check the stitch numbers. ] If you have many more or less than this something must have gone awry - better check - but don’t break your heart over 3 or 4 stitches.
[After a session of shoveling]. . .I feel a nap coming on. I shall take my knitting and a horizontal position, and let the gentle suggestion of the latter take precedence over the former.
I reconnoitered in my wool-room yesterday; it is full of possibilities for the New Year. . . .By this time next year some of these will have been achieved, and some scorned and abandoned. Some as yet undreamed-of whims will have taken shape. I’m ready for them, my mind is open, my wool-room full of wool, my needles poised, my brain spinning like a Catherine-wheel. . . .My word, what good fortune. I can only hope the same for you.
- From Knitter's Almanac
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| Elizabeth’s books have all remained in print continuously since publication. They are available at local book and yarn shops and through Schoolhouse Press at Stitches Market.com a. Copyright 2000 XRX Inc. All Rights Reserve. |
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If you haven’t read Elizabeth Zimmermann’s books, or re-read them recently, you are in for a major treat.
After reading Knitting Without Tears as many of us do - straight through, unable to slow down, pick up needles, and knit along, Knitter’s Almanac may be just what you need. ‘ Here then is a knitter’s almanac; ‘ Elizabeth writes, ‘a monthly record of the changing year in the light of my amiable craft.’ Even with a project (or more) per month, things happen at a leisurely pace. A Big Project month is followed by a Small Project month. Tips and techniques are discussed when they apply. Pithy Directions for a certain size at a certain gauge await us at the end of each month. But, before we get there, we know how the piece works and can go on to do it - in whatever yarn, gauge, stitch, and size we want.
The ideas, the books, and the videos kept coming. Technique-packed, Knitting Workshop is set up as a series of lessons. If you knit through them, ‘. . . you’ll be well on your way to being a Master Knitter.’ Here you’ll find many of Elizabeth’s classics: the Surprise Jacket, the Ribwarmer, the Heart Hat.
Knitting Around alternates technique and design with Digressions, Elizabeth’s not-to-be-missed reflections on her life, from childhood in England to the schoolhouse in Wisconsin.
Elizabeth called herself The Opinionated Knitter, and in so doing, reminded us that not only is there nothing wrong with opinions, even strongly-held ones, but that they are the most valuable guide you can have - if they are based on experience and evaluation. And in her writings, Elizabeth shared hers so vividly that thousands of reader-knitters have been enfranchised to form their own opinions and hold them in high regard.
My desert island book list will likely begin and end with a Z. Until then, I will dip into this well - deep and often.
- - Elaine Rowley
XRX Books Editor
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