Maternal Pride

I'm indulging in a moment of maternal boasting. Kelsey learned to knit a couple of years ago and knit some lovely scarves. Last January she began her FIRST patterned project and this is the result! She learned an amazing amount in this project including some pretty fancy increasing and decreasing. She felted the finished knitting project and stuffed it. She has completed her second animal project and is starting on a third. She has been dubbed this generation's Knitting Goddess. (She comes from a long line of maternal knitters.)

Last night I was having a conversation with my friend and fellow knitter Kelly about patterns. I've been reading 2 books that seem to straddle the void between strict row by row patterns and my friend Pam's wild pattern-less textile/painting type of knitting. Elizabeth Zimmermann's books "Knitting Without Tears" and "Knitting Around" are classics. I especially like the latter as her history is interwoven in between her instructions on patterns. She was born in England and trained as an artist in Germany. Her beautiful sketches are sprinkled throughout the book. Her unsentimental writing and clear patterns are an example of how her life and art are interwoven. I can imagine that she was as straightforward in person as her patterns are to knit. She died in 1999 and has left a huge knitting/creativity legacy. I wish I could have met her in person.