I’m working on an idea over here and I’d like your help.
(For anyone who suspected that it was only a matter of time until I roped you all into helping me write a book…today is your day.)
If you could have a knitterly dinner at your house, and any knitter, dead or alive would come…which three would you invite? Why?
Elizabeth Zimmermann? Mme DeFarge? Debbie Bliss?
I’m looking to come up with the three most famous or influential knitters of all time – according to knitters.
PS. Shelly has made a very big mistake. She has asked me to ask you to send her your leftover sock yarn. Since I am a horrible, terrible person with a fair bit of leftover sock yarn and a vivid imagination, I am suddenly possessed of a very funny image of Shelly getting “some” sock yarn, I’ll ask you this..
Who wants to try and bury her house?
I have so many leftovers it’s sickening, I’m up for burying her.
1. I don’t think that I could pick just three knitters.
2. I would love to help bury her house.
So easy for me…
Alice and Jade Starmore
Meg Swanson
Shirley Paden
🙂
Elizabeth Zimmerman because I think she would be a great laugh at a dinner party.
Debbie Stoller because she was one of the main reasons I really learned to knit.
Of course, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee because I read your blog every day and between the three of you, I would probably snort water at the dinner table :oP
There’s no way I can pick just three knitters, I have way too many running through my head right now, just can’t narrow it down.
I’d love to help bury her in yarn, but I just bought my first ball of sock yarn, so I don’t actually have any to spare T_T
Oh, and the why?
Because of what they do – timeless, classy designs with attention to detail and a very healthy respect for the art of knitting.
Oooh, I could tell my husband I’m de-stashing by “donating” leftover sock yarn. Not that he’d believe it, but I could pretend.
As for my 3 (since you asked):
– The First Knitter (blessed be She)
– Elizabeth Zimmerman (for making it ok for us to knit like we want)
– Barbara Walker (for giving us the tools to create what strikes our fancy)
Your question was so not a plea for a shameless plug, I know, but I’d prolly say *you* Stephanie, would be one of the three! I’d also have to nominate a local legend, Gunilla Leavitt. I’ll have to mull around on the third.
Oh, Leah… those were the three I was leaning towards before I decided I couldn’t choose!
Elizabeth Zimmermann
My Mom
Anna Zilborg
Um, can the knitters be fictional? I nominate Holly Golightly and Miss Marple.
Elsbeth Lavold. no question. she inspired me to make my first sweater… and it wasn’t even one of hers! (although it was beautified by some cable work a lot like hers).
my first (and second) knitting books were by her.
1. I’d have you, Monkee of Fruitcake Knits, and Franklin over. (And probably Amy Singer too, but you said 3!)
2. I’d love to send her left overs, but I do toe up till the last bit to avoid left overs.
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman…I haven’t read any of her stuff yet but I understand she is one of the goddesses of knitting
2. Cat Bordi (I hope I spelled that close to right) because I love her sense of wonder, discovery and endless possibilities
3. You because you make me laugh every day, you are warm and down to earth and if you have a person who represents the past (EZ) you have to also have the person who best represents today and the future.
One and only knitter for me – Madame Défarge. I mean subversive political shenanigans via the medium of knitting? Doesn’t get any cooler than that. I’d love to ask her to bring her stitch dictionary along – which stitches did she knit to signify “traitor” – why those particular ones? I don’t like garter, but I wouldn’t condemn a man to death with it. Were there various combinations with other meanings? And did any of her jumpers look nice after all that encoding?
Now there’s a thought for a whole other book – a “true” knitting dictionary…
She had better warn the local postal service!!
My 3 picks would be:
Alice Starmore
Nancy Bush
Elizabeth Zimmerman
and you as the MC of course!
Elizabeth Zimmerman and Meg Swansen (would love to see the mother and daughter knitting genius’ together)
Alice Starmore
Kaffe Fassett
Susan T beat me to it! I would invite:
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Cat Bordhi (I have taken a class from her and she is a riot, and somewhat mad I think to have figured out that moebius cast on, among her other ingenious knitterly accomplishments)
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
I would pick your brains about self book publishing because I have an idea for a new pattern book, but other than that I would just get you all drunk and serve you really good food. Your company would outweigh your knitting skills for me.
Well, now, wait a sec — you want the three most influential/greatest knitters, but I want the three knitters who would be the most fun to have dinner with. So I pick:
– you, of course
– Linda Diak of Grafton Fibers
– my friend Roxie of Sanna’s Bag
– all the knitbloggers I visit regularly
– everyone from both of my local knitting groups
Oh, wait, that’s more than three, isn’t it (even if those last two overlap)? But I’d want to eat, drink and knit with every single one of you. It would be great fun to meet EZ, Barbara Walker, and the First Knitter as well.
3 knitters…
1. You. This is not a suck up. I saw you speak a couple months ago and I still double over with laughter at some of things you said. You make me feel ok about my obsession. Better than OK, you make me feel proud to be a knitter.
2. My irish ancestor(s) that knit socks and cabled sweaters for their family on the west coast of Ireland. Sometimes when I knit I feel their spirit. I would love to know everything about them and their knitting.
3. Nancy Bush because we both love socks. Plus she’s been to so many cool places that I would love to hear more about.
This is really difficult!!
1. I’d pick you, just to see how many times you said arse before and after the wine. Plus I think you’re beyond funny, and just an absolutely wonderful person.
2. Sally Melville. “The Knit Stitch” was the first knitting book I owned. I saw it at a yarn store and went berzerk. I had wandered into the yarn store for scarf yarn…you know, because that was all I could make. I’ve now graduated from scarves to hats, sweaters, bags, moebius stuff, and socks.
3. Cat Bordhi. What makes that woman tick? How on earth did she come up with that moebius stuff? The fact that I’m addicted to the moebius technique is evident in my house, where there are bowls and baskets and always yarn to make just one more.
Re yarn request: .Put this under the category of “be careful of what you ask for”…bury the babe.
re knitters: I don’t know if Mary Queen of Scots knitted, but she did do fabulous needlework. I’d vote for her. Get her out of the tower for a knight or so (which is really what got her there in the first place…). I’m sure she’d appreciate it!
Liberty, equality, sorority (oops! wrong revolution; but right sentiment!)
Note to self: Excessive Exclamation Points Syndrome (EEPS) is catching! And soooo much fun!
Oh, and I would totally bury a house in sock yarn. (My husband would claim I am working on ours.)
1. Elizabeth Zimmermann, for her undieing encouragement and warm, grandmotherly personality.
2. You, for your wit and down to earth style.
3. Brenda Dayne, for using her podcast to spread the word about knitting and encouraging so many others to join her.
For me, there’s plenty of patterns and designs out there (not that the people that create those are very important an influential too). But it’s the knitter’s who encourage community that I would enjoy meeting the most.
Great question.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..besides YOU………I’d pick Kaffe Fassett and Elizabeth Zimmerman…
I used the same criteria as do the art critics when they decide which artist is truly “great”…who’s influence has taken the medium a new direction…
Snort! I can see Shelly, innocently expecting a ball here, and ball there… I’m up for some burying, but thena gain, if she shares the pattern, I could make a blanket myself…
yeah, right after I make everything else I have planned.
3 knitters, hmmm…
ok, the obvious choices are you and EZ, for the laughs and knowledge, so we’ll just say that you two are already at the table.
Fiona Ellis, because I’ve had dinner with her, and would like to do it again and talk about her book
Lorraine Smith of Spinners Quarterly – a wonderful speaker with some great stories
Alice Starmore – to ask her why she thinks she’s so much better than the rest of the world. OK, great patterns, but really, lighten up Alice!
I’d ask Mary Thomas, Barbara Walker, and Debby New for giving us basics, beyond basics, and beyond beyond basics. If I knew a name, I’d ask one of the Shetland lace knitters to thank her!
If I send her my sock yarn, does that mean I don’t have to finish that second sock I feel awfully guilty about not finishing but yet haven’t made any progress towards finishing?
1. Eunny – I swear she is an absolue marvel to behold. I never cease to be dumbfounded by her talent. I would never let her leave, most likely. I have never been an “avid” fan of anyone or anything….Eunny changed that. I swear if she had one book signing in Antartica; and, it was the only one she had, I’d be there.
2. Alice Starmore – I just can’t get past her wonderful talent with fair isle. I have a lot of questions I’d love to ask her about technique and design.
3. You. You make me laugh, and once or twice wince and nearly cry. You have talent and wit and a way of seeing things that lets me step back and remember why it is I enjoy this as my hobby. That’s priceless.
I’d of course invite you because you are probably the knitter who has the biggest impact on people’s daily life. Next would be Debbie Stroller because I think her Stitch & Bitch book is largely responsible for a resurgence in knitting and making it hip and popular. Lastly maybe Nicky Epstein as her books take knitting in a new direction.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Thank you! I needed that mental image of this poor woman at home and all of a sudden TONS of sock yarn just descends upon her home! Headlines read, Woman and house buried under mound of sock yarn, news at 11! Gary Larson of the Far Side should tackle that one!
Ann in MD
Only three?? Well then, it must be
1) My Grandma Julie who taught me to knit.
2) Elizabeth Zimmerman who taught me to LOVE to knit.
3) The Yarn Harlot taught me that it’s okay to be addicted to knitting and that I really don’t need help if I am.
1) Alice Starmore – insane, fabulous designs and….have you read the “Harris Yarn” thing on her website? I’ll bet she would be interesting after a few glasses of wine.
2) Jo Sharp – great, classic designs and she has an interesting take on the business side of knitting (which might make for very interesting conversation with Ms. Starmore).
3) Do I even need to write it? You, of course.
Another thought: with a Scot, an Aussie and a Canadian, you guys could have a great conversation on the correct pronunciations of words.
I would very much like to meet Maggie Righetti; her book _Knitting in Plain English_ and her sweater design book are my favorites and my first “learning to knit” books.
Besides that, hmm. I think Elizabeth Zimmerman would be pretty entertaining to talk with, and Barbara Walker is the other one most influential to me. Sharon Miller & Kaffe Fassett would be pretty cool too.
1. You, because you crack me up. (not sucking up here, I read your last book and you were sooo talking about all of us!)
2. The women of Fair Isle, Scotland. They know their stuff.
3. Nancy Bush-cuz of socks, my new obsession!
Molly Weasley
Hermione Granger
and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
– you didn’t say they had to be non-fictional people ;o)
I’d pick:
Elizabeth Zimmermann (yes it has 2 n’s!)
Joan Schrouder
Judy Pascale
Three knitters who I would have to dinner…hmmm…
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman because I admire her earthiness and grit (I mean, using a knitting needle to repair a boat motor?)
2. Sally Melville because of her outlook on life, and
3. You, because you inspired me to knit Norwegian mittens for the Knitting Olympics and I think you’d make a darned good dinner partner.
Kaffe Fassett (color)
Norah Gaughan (texture and construction)
Brenda Dayne (because I have a wicked crush on her voice)
Already emailed Shelly to get her physical address. Let’s bury her!
I’s have to go with Maggie Righetti, too. She never fails to get me out of a knitting crisis, and from her writing I surmise that she would be a quite charming dinner companion.
I am a newish knitter with little-to-no historical context, but I think my list would make for a fun party. Voila!
1. Debbie Stoller
2. Vickie Howell
3. Crazy Aunt Purl
I would have two lists: the first would include my mom, my grandmother, and some ancient knitter who could show me techniques we have lost. My second list would have more recent people, like you, Stephanie, Debbie Stoller, and Amy Singer. People who could make me laugh and inspire me to great things.
this probably won’t be helpful to your book, but I would definitely invite you. 🙂
plus if i invited you, there are a couple of ladies from my favorite yarn shop I know I’d have to invite, because otherwise…well, let’s just say I’d be sorry that they have access to limitless pointy sticks. 😉 so that would cover my 3 and maybe more.
as for sock yarn…I’ve got some hanging around. where do we send it?
three knitters:
1. elizabeth zimmerman – i’d also ask her to teach me her method, since no one else can seem to do it.
2. maggie righetti – her books are HILARIOUS and sassy and so full of common sense.
3. nancy bush – do i really have to explain this one?
i’m up for burying a house. i have a TON of sock yarn in ridiculous colors that i should stop hoarding and admit that i’m never going to use. =]
a*
Leigh Radford, Debbie New, and Cat Bordhi. Now, what would we eat?
Assuming there’s no summoning the dead, I’d ask Kathy Zimmerman, Lucy Neatby, and Nicky Epstein.
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Eunny Jang
Wendy Johnson
(you’re hosting the dinner, right? Cause I want to talk to you too)
Tough one, my guests would be:
1. Sharon Miller, Heirloom Knitting is my favourite knitting book, I love the detailed story about shetland lace and the gazillion charted patterns. Started my recent addiction to lace knitting.
2. Nancy Bush, I love her sock patterns and the stories behind. Would give me a chance to thank her for her assistance in finding yarn stores in Estonia 😉
3. Marianne Isager, brilliant designer and the reason I came up with “Knitting SuDoku”
Knitters:
1) Meg Swanson
2) Alice Starmore
3) Debbie New
Some extra sock yarn — no one has any of THAT lying around. Tee hee.
Three knitters:
Debbie Stoller – for her socio-cultural impact
Eunny Jang – I am so inspired by her work
Nancy Bush – Sock obsessed over here
And I agree with WendyI – you have to host this dinner. 🙂
Herding kittens, innit? You tell us what, you tell us why (meaning, you couldn’t very well include yourself, or as hostess of a square table you ARE included) and need three more for your article and still you get drafted.
And I’d like to play fair, but it’s tempting to go with Lucia and pick the best dinner companions, (I am ASSUMING you’re not running out on your own dinner party) which would be Zimmermann, Swanson and Fassett. I esteem Madame Defarge — when you knit in public she’s the one knitter non-knitters know to name, though maybe my face influences them,– but not a cheery dinner companion.
So I’m making my own rules. We’re combining Zimmermann/Swanson, assuming you and seating Kaffe, which means we need a blender. I say Sheila McGregor, author of The Complete Book of Traditional Fair Isle Knitting and of The Complete Book of Traditional Scandinavian Knitting. Between them they pretty well cover the waterfront and she has a lovely, graceful style, as well.
Well this is a quandry, Elizabeth Zimmerman who just amazes me with the first knitting video from PBS in the 60-70’s; the Yarn Harlot because of her wonderful sense of humor and practical mind about not just knitting but also life in general and last I am not sure who I would invite but they need to have a sense of humor, a willingness to share his or her skill and just some good stories to share with wine and good old fashion New Orlean Gumbo. cecilia
Crikey, only three?
1)Elizabeth Zimmermann, for all the reasons previously cited and more.
2) Nancy Bush. Ditto.
3) You, of course. Though if you were there, I’d probably choke on my dinner from laughing so hard. You know the Heimlich maneuver, don’t you?
E. Zimmermann and Meg Swansen… and the Harlot! Most influential AND delightfully under the influence. And I would certainly invite my grandmother, who taught me how to knit… using Barbie doll clothes as the lure. Thank you Grandma Florence.
I have sock yarn! Brave Shelly.
EZ; Maggie Righetti and……ummmm Robin Hanson…oh rats, Priscilla Gibson-Roberts….Barbara Walker…..Queen Victoria?
Boy that 3rd one is a toughie. I assumed that you would be there, since it was your party!
I have a few skeins of sock yarn that would like to go visit someone for a party as well.
1) Elizabeth Zimmerman
2) Cat Bordhi (she who got me on the sock kick)
3) Ann & Kay of Mason/Dixon – you said influential – it seems there isn’t a knitter out there (besides me) who isn’t doing log cabin or the freakin’ ball band dishcloth.
1. Evelyn A. Clark (I love her sock and lace patterns)
2. Barbara Walker
3. Yourself (no sucking up here. It’s true)
I have lots of leftover sock yarn I could send her! She doesn’t know what she’s asking for, lol!
Ok, this is not a well-designed survey! You are asking your biggest fans in the knitting world who are their dream knitter dinner mates? It is natural that nearly everyone mentioned you. Quite a thorny selection problem.
My list:
1. My Grandmother Alice (not only was she an amazingly talented knitter, but I’d do just about anything to have dinner with her one more time and tell her that I knit because of her and that every time I pick up needles I think of her and miss her, and to thank her for the knitting and the memories and the love (isn’t love the same as knitting?))
2. You (you are very influential — Knitting Olympics?)
3. Elizabeth Zimmerman (the mother of knitting)
Runners up:
Melissa Leapman, Debbie Stoller, Amy Singer, Wendy Bernard (Knit and Tonic)’cause they’re cool.
Elizabeth Zimmerman, Barbara Walker, and one of my closest friends (and one of my very few knitting friends), Elisabeth O. All marvelous knitters and marvelous human beings!
I think the three knitters that most influenced me the most are
Alice Starmore
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
My mom
And um I’m sorry Shelly but I’m kinda horrding my sock yarn at the moment – maybe I’ll help to bury you when I’ve given up the idea that I’ll use it. (I’m still very new to socks & only have a little bit anyway so your not missing out on much)
Oh, shit. Trek’s right — Molly Weasley. You’re out. (Oh, all right, you can listen from the kitchen with me while we drink up the cooking sherry.)
Susan Lydon. Her books inspired me to knit.
3 knitters …
1 – EZ; through her books, she has definitely inspired me to relax with my knitting and venture into the new and creative
2 – Stephanie Pearl-McPhee; you inspire me with your knitting – and with three daughters and a husband to manage – and anyone who can write a book that makes me laugh out loud all by myself at the breakfast table is someone that I would love to share a meal with, a very long drawn out multiple course meal complete with wine
3 – Sally Melville; her books have also taught me that I can think for myself rather than follow a pattern blindly – what a concept!
Re: the sock yarn – what fun! I’ll what I can part with in my sock yarn bucket.
I would invite Candi Jensen, Nicky Epstein and Debbie Bliss. All three have been very instrumental in my creative juices running as thick as they do. Their books are not only full of projects fun to make but fun to look at and totally inspirational. I have at least one of each of thier books on my coffee table!
I only got as far as the first sentence…
“I’m working on an idea over here and I’d like your help.”
At this point I was forced, out of a well honed defense mechanism, to click away from your post. If only I had learned this skill BEFORE the knitting olympics.
😉
Bette Davis. Because the knitting would only be the START of a conversation where I could learn more than I would probably like to.
1. My Mom
2. Elizabeth Zimmerman
3. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Here’s a chance to tell you about an extraordinary fictional knitter–the Knitting Lady in a children’s novel by Jill Wolfson. In “What I Call Life” (Henry Holt), the Knitting Lady runs a foster home in Northern California and teachs her impromptu family of hard-knock-life girls how to knit as well as how to thrive.
A fabulous book full of wool, vaudeville, and middle-graders’ adventure–and the author’s desire than foster children learn that they have a precious cultural history.
I’m for fictional submissions on this one! I vote for Miss Marple (Agatha Christie books always make me pick up my sometimes neglected needles), Molly Weasley (for her dedication to her family in the HP books), and Mme. DeFarge (I also want to see her completed works and to learn her secret code).
So for one of my “real” people, I pick you, Stephanie! I think I would also add Ann and Kay of Mason-Dixon Knitting, Cat Bordhi.
I also can’t forget my teachers: the very kind Indian lady on the Amtrak train (she shared needles and yarn with me when I was a bored 11 year-old on a very long trip to Florida for Christmas) and my Aunt Martha (she re-taught me everything I needed to support my life-long obsession).
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman – I love her. She’s the most incredible woman, you can see that just by her books.
2. Alice Starmore – She’d probably get irritated, but I want to pick her brain for how she designs.
3. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee – Because your stash stories make me feel so normal and pleasantly organized, despite the fact that I often wake up to find that I’ve pulled parts of my stash on top of me in the night to keep warm.
1. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
2. You.
3. My friend Larissa, who taught me how to knit.
2 people:
The first person to look at a cotton plant and a couple of sticks and think: “I bet if I sharpened those 2 sticks, and could figure out a way to make string with this white stuff, I could make me some clothes.”
The first person to look at a sheep and a couple of sticks and think: “OOOHH! Look at the sharp, pointy sticks! I bet if I take all this stuff from this sheep and make some string out of it, I could make me some clothes!!!!”
Always wondered who’s bright idea knitting was. (Yes, I have a lot of free time)
1. My Grandmother who inspired me to knit. Knit cabled afghans for every one of her children and grandchildren for their weddings. Then started over. In the heat of Indiana in August, as I remember.
2. Maggie Righetti because of her ability to describe what _not_ to buy in a knitting pattern.
3. any number of unknown women from the 1800s whose industry created the beautiful work that we see in museums and hope chests today.
Eunny Jang – you need to ask? Her blog makes me cry, but in a good way.
Hagrid – y’know, ’cause he’s a giant
Debbie Stoller – taught me to knit
and if I could add a 4th….Norah Gaughan – for the geometry.
1. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee – You have helped me be fearless with my knitting, and reading your exploits makes me want to keep at even when I feel like I’m just not that good.
2. Elizabeth Zimmerman – I haven’t even read a single thing of hers (Sad, I know!) but everyone raves about her. So rather than just read, I’ll just invite her over!
3. My friend Larissa, who taught me how to knit. She deserves to join the dinner, if for no other reason than she got me into this addiction .. I mean obsession … I mean hobby!
and if possible, I’d like all those hot Rowan models to come over and wear everything – so I’d only have to knit the extra small sizes.
I’d have to add Eleanor Roosevelt – she took her knitting everywhere, probably even to UN meetings. That’s gumption.
1. Alice Starmore
2. Nancy Bush
3. EZ & Meg Swansen (in my mind they count together)
Maggie Righetti, Sally Melville, and Barbara Walker are high on my list as well.
Considering you will be the one writing the book, and assuming that you won’t proclaim yourself as one of the most influential knitters of all time, even though you are, I would invite:
Elizabeth Zimmerman for wisdom
Cheryl Oberle for grace
Nancy Bush for inspiration
I would also invite you because even though wisdom, grace, and inspiration are important, I wouldn’t want to live without humor.
well, nice question….
1. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (you are the reason I knit my first socks and I do just love everything about knitting socks, and I would love to spend an evening with you).
2. My first Scottish ancestor that knit (whether male or female, because I believe (in fairies) that kind of ‘stuff’ is passed on genetically, racial memories, or something)
3. Elizabeth Zimmermann, her sensibilities.
55 days.
Katharine Cobey, Debbie New, Elizabeth Zimmerman.
I’d choose:
1. Kate Gilbert (of Clapotis fame) – i’d want to talk to her about knitting in france vs. knitting in the US…in french.
2. Brenda Dayne (of Cast-On Fame) Because she seems like an interesting person to talk to and also seems to have a TON of knowledge.
3. Deb Stoller – i’ve actually knitted with her before and she’s way cool.
4. Elizabeth Zimmerman – just to say i have and because she’s utterly brilliant.
I also am trying to figure out what to do with waste sock yarn, so I’ll get ahold of Shelly once I’m at home and have an idea as to how much yarn I can spare.
My grandmother – so I could force her to explain why it was she refused to teach me how to knit when, as a ten year old, I begged her to teach me. “Ach! No!” was her reply.
Annemor Sundbo – because she’s robust and wild and stuffed with knowledge and fire and creative spirit, and she enjoys a good bottle of wine and a hearty laugh. Annemor could get my dead grandmother to laugh.
Beth Brown-Reinsel – an icon for me, I love her low-key approach to presenting knitting techniques that are life-altering. Every time I’ve taken a class from her I’ve experienced a technique orgasm.
This was so easy!
Hmmm
E.Z. for freeing us to knit how we want.
Nancy Bush for updating all of those sock patterns for modern yarns and tools
Our beloved Harlot for making us realize that even the best knitters are failable and mostly for making us laugh at our obsession.
You
Elizabeth Zimmerman
my grandmother – who was knitting when I wasn’t and died before I started knitting
Just 3? You’re killin’ me.
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman, obviously.
2. Alice Starmore
3. Nancy Bush
1. Debbie Stoller. I love the books.
2. My old art teacher who taught me to knit. Duh. She brought knitting into my life. What more could be asked for.
3. My best friend, Leah. She’s the reason that I got into knitting more than scarves and hats.
4. You? Can I add four?
Okay, I’m guessing asking you is out, since you wouldn’t write in your own book that you are one of the three most influential knitters, even though it would be correct :o).
So:
Elizabeth Zimmerman, obviously.
Hazel Carter, for her lovely lace patterns that tell stories.
Meg Swansen, because she has her mom’s genius but takes it further without resting on her mother’s laurels.
Write a book with you. That’s a dream come true in itself.
Deborah Newton
I have learnt so much from her book that I would like to thank her in person.
The very first person to knit
This would answer so many questions for me. It would also be an opportunity to ask many questions that have pledged me.
You
I am just about to publish my first knitting book. Boy do I have questions for you.
My 3 are: Elizabeth Zimmerman, Debbie Stoller and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee If not for the latter 2, I would not have taught myself to knit and that would be bad. I’d be glad to pitch in some sock yarn!
1) Ralph Waldo Emerson, who used to knit socks for American Civil War soldiers. If we got tired of talking about knitting, well, he’s your man…
2) Laura Ingalls. I want to learn how to do other things, too, and she’d be the go-to girl for pioneer ingenuity.
3) Ann and Kay cuz I miss ’em.
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman (for obvious reasons)
2. Maggie Righetti (anyone who’d name a chapter “Buttonholes are Bastards” is bound to be a sparkling dinner companion)
3. Gromit, of Wallace and. He does great intarsia work and has validated my knitting in the eyes of my children. If Gromit knits, it must be cool!
I’ve never replied to a blog before but I read yours everyday and couldn’t resist the question.
1. Lucy Neatby – our guild has had her teach for us several times and not only is she wonderfully talented, she is also fun to listen to and talk with.
2. You – I have never had the chance to hear you speak and would love to do so.
3. Sally Melville – I got hooked by her stash book and have been a fan every since.
My mom. She could knit and sew for hours, and would often surprise me and my sister after our naps with a new outfit for one of our dolls. That was many many moons ago. 😉
I would sit by her and try my own projects but at that time I didn’t have her patience for it. After her death, my father gave me all of her knitting supplies and now I understand how easy it can be to sit for hours and knit. I have the patience now and sometimes I feel like I have my mom too.
Barbara Walker
Joan McGowan-Michael
June Hemmons Hiatt
Three knitters… hmmm…
Absolutely would have to invite
-Elizabeth Zimmerman, perhaps she might have her young knitting daughter in tow (just for the added bonus – this is fantasy, right?)
-The infamous Yarn Harlot – hey, I read this blog (obsessively) for a good reason! you rock!
-Right now, I’d have to make the third knitter Ms. Lene from Dances with Wool; I stumbled across her blog the other night and spend hours fascinated.
I might have some (unloved) sock yarn to donate, keep us posted.
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman, because, HELLO! She’s Elizabeth ZIMMERMAN!
2. Mary Thomas (of Mary Thomas’ book of Knitting Patterns, and Mary Thomas’ Knitting Book), because her books changed the way I think about designing and made me fearless.
3. Sophia Caulfield (of Encyclopedia of Victorian Needlework) another author who’s work has changed my life as a designer.
My knitters/guests:
Barbara Walker. Love, love, love her stuff.
Mason Dixon Knitting’s Ann & Kay. They make you think out of the box about everyday stuff.
You. For the humor.
And I’m already thinking about what I’ve got in the stash to send Shelly’s way. That girl is going to think twice next time she decides to put out a request through you.
1. Cat Bordhi, for her incredible imagination
2. Alice Starmore, whose artistry with color takes my breath away
3. Margaret Stove, to hear a master talk about designing knitted lace
P.S. Who is going to warn Shelly’s postal carrier that it might be a good idea to take a few weeks’ vacation?
Barbara Walker, Nancy Bush, Debbie Stoller.
You’re hostessing, ri’?
3 knitters….
1. Nancy Bush – because her books are great, and her patterns are clear, and she seems to be genuinely interested in what she’s doing.
2. Kim Hargreaves – because her designs are so beatuiful
3. Barbara Walker – because of her books, such a huge information source!
And I wouldn’t mind putting you in there, also, you are a true inspiration.
Elizabeth Zimmerman because of her common-sense approach to knitting.
Cat Bordhi for coming up with the “moebiass”. What kind of mind thinks of stuff like that?
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee because your books are valuable insights into why we love what we do and why we should feel good about what we do even when things don’t turn out just like we planned.
I’ve been knitting only for a month now, so my opinion doesn’t & shouldn’t carry any weight. That said, a.) Who is Mme. de Farge? (apologies), b.) I’ve seen Elizabeth Zimmerman and Debbie Bliss pattern books, but in terms of “cuteness,” I’d invite Chloe Mellor and c.) Yarn Harlot – – I’d invite YOU to dinner (who am I kidding…wanna move in?) 🙂
My top 3 knitters would be:
Nancy Bush, she’s beyond incredible.
Vickie Howell, the attitude is refreshing.
The Yarn Harlot, for the incredible books, the hilarious daily commentary, and the sensible patterns. (p.s. thanks, btw.)
Yay! i’m so excited that i can help contribute to your next book! i’m in the middle of your bookbookbook#3 and i thoroughly enjoyed your bookbookbook#1 and 2. :o)i would read excerpts out loud to my co-workers and my fellow knitting housemate and my bf. they all got a great kick out of your special yarnie brand of humor!
I’m new to knitting and don’t know a lot of “famous knitters” but i would like the following 3 at my place for a “knitterly” dinner:
1. you
2. mason dixon (ann &kay)–please i want them to count as 1–it’s either both or none. they are so great alone but infintely better together.
3. amy singer of knitty fame! :o)
(and if there could be a couple more…nicky epstein and debbie stoller)
basically my top 3 would be you 3 blogger/bookwriters! you guys are my fave 3 to wake up and read in the morning before a long day of sneaking in bits of knitting between working and eating. i’m new to the knitting world but it’s made so much more fun with you guys leading the way, sprinkling your brand of humor along the way!
hm…now i don’t know if shelly really knows that we are going to BURY her house in sock yarn. i might even buy some sock yarn to aid in the house-burying process. i’m emailing her right now. this is too much fun…
Elizabeth Zimmermann, Cat Bordhi and Debbie New because none of them put limits on knitting.
1. Elizabeth Zimmermann
2. You
3. Miss Jane Marple or Miss Maud Silver
Okay, I’m going to take knitters I’ve met in person out of the running (because really, you and Cate and my roommate would make a heck of a dinner party), just for simplicity. Of “famous” knitters, I’d say Barbara Walker, Debbie Stoller (although partially for non-knitting reasons – I’m an avid reader of Bust), and… eesh. Elizabeth Zimmerman.
1. My mom – She tried to teach me knitting as a child. I ended up using a set of her needles to pry something loose once. Thankfully, they were just cheapy metal ones. She’s a knitter, not a Knitter, but she’s amazing. She still has an unfinished cardigan in the closet from when I was in the 3rd grade. (It was supposed to be mine. Let me assure you that it won’t fit me when it’s finished.)
2. Alice Starmore – Her “Book of Fair Isle Knitting” is so hard to find at a reasonable price but I find her color combinations inspiring. Who better to teach me Fair Isle?
3. Stephanie Pearl McPhee, of course: I find your sense of humor a blessed ray of sunshiney borderline-foul-mouthedness and I love it. (I know you only hold back for the sake of the proper sensibilities of some of your readers.) Your passion is unrivaled in the knitting community. You’ve contributed to more of my stash accrual with your words than I could have ever accomplished alone.
Molly Weasley — if only I could enchant some needles to knit for me…
Ann & Kay, who inspired me to make a list of washcloths for the family before even beginning one.
You, of course. Thanks to you, I’ve almost got my housemates excited about my exponentially multiplying yarn stash. (They don’t even knit — they just know that I’ll end up giving them random handknits for no reason at all.)
And I think I could come up with a bit of yarn to help bury a house …
Well, Stephanie, asking EZ is an obvious no-brainer. But how about we step into a time machine and find that knitter who decided that a lace shawl should slip through a wedding ring and ask her what the heck gave her that idea? Lucy Neatby would be great too – I met her when she came to St. Louis a few years ago – she is a fun person and a great teacher.
EZ
Barbara Walker
Debbie New
and some red wine. Wow.
My dream knitterly dinner would be at your house…I will be cooking[take no offense, but I am a good cook] for Elizabeth Zimmermann, Cat Bordhi and Kim Hargreaves. Alice Starmore can wash the dishes.
diana
Oh heck, you want us to choose?!? Okay, I’m assuming that you and the sock are already there at the table as hostess(es?). Otherwise I’d just be too darn conflicted, so:
Three real people:
Alice Starmore — So I can tell her how much I’ve fallen in love with her patterns, and figure out why she gives so many people heartburn. Elsebeth Lavold — I’ve also fallen in love with her patterns, and I’d want her to help me make a sweater pattern out of something I saw in a movie about the Northmen. A nice woman from Wales who knitted in the early days of fishermans sweaters — to find out the history behind the patterns.
Three more-than-real people:
Miss Marple — Because she’d have wonderful observations about everyone at the table, and I think she’d keep the fur from flying too badly.
Holly Golightly — Oh dear lord, can you see her at the same table as the Harlot? Madam Defarge — I’m with the person above who said she needs to bring her stitch dictionary. Can you see the fun sweaters and socks we could make, spelling out things that no one but other knitters in the ‘club’ would know?
And Shelly? Your postman has my sympathies.
I’ve already had dinner with you, so I don’t need to suck up by putting you on the list, right? You can just assume you’re there. I’ll make sure the menu is vegetarian.
1) Elizabeth Zimmermann
2) Mary Thomas
3) Bishop Rutt
Let’s make it a slumber party!
This is a hard one. First for me would have to be Debbie Bliss, because it was one of her books that helped me with my tension and inspire me to take a knitting class longer than the 3 week one at Lewiscraft. Then Debbie New I think, because her ability to see things in yarn that are so different are remarkable and completely foreign to my ‘stuck in the box with a pattern’ ways.
I’ll have to get back to you on the third.
The first person that influenced my interest in knitting was Suss Cousins. I found her knit kits at a Barnes and Noble about a year and a half ago and decided, as a 20 year old FL girl, that I was talented enough to take on this thing called knitting. Finally in January, now that I’m 22, I started my first project and am several projects down at this point. I love knitting and am inspired every day by you, Stephanie, that I can do something I love and make it worth my wile. So my second knitter has to be you, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. I don’t have a third yet…
Much love,
Jennifer N. Bates
Kaffe Fassett ( my inspiration to knit)
Sasha Kagan ( she seems so unpretentious)
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee ( for the same reasons as Sasha and it’s rare )
Having returned to knitting for 4 precious grandchildren in 3 years…I could not live without the books of
Erika Knight
Debbie Bliss
and
Melanie Falick
For me:
Jo Sharp
Ann Budd and
Pam Allen
1. The Harlot of course
2. Brenda Dayne of Cast On
3. toss up between Ted the Shawl guy or Caroline of the Fiber Cast (she could teach me to spin!)
Hmm– just 3?
Ok:
1. you (yup, you’re famous)
2. Wendy Johnson— have you ever read how she answers questions? how do you explain knitting? I have so many mid-project like things, I just want her in my living room (maybe she’ll finish them!)
3. prob’ly Kay from Mason Dixon KNitting.
I know I picked all knitbloggers, but I think they are all good knitters that I respect and look to for help/inspiration/humor. I think Kim Hargreaves would be fun to have to dinner also, but I would require that she eat a pepperoni pizza and then try to fit into one of those teeny sweaters. 🙂 uh, oh… snarky again.
-Kate
PS… so what time should I expect you for dinner? ha ha ha… I make a great Guiness stew (completely veggie).
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Barbara Walker
Elsepeth Lavold
Buried in sock yarn. What a way to go! Sounds divine.
If this dinner is going to be at my house, I would really rather have a live knitter come than a dead one.
1. Meg Swanson
2. Maggie Righetti
3. Cat Bordhi
For all the reasons already stated and their all around influence on knitting.
People to invite (I’m assuming the Harlot is present as hostess):
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman. She’s brilliant AND funny. If she’s allowed to bring a companion, I’d really like to meet Arnold.
2. Barbara Walker. Amazing knitter, feminist activist.
3. A knitter from the past who made actual fishing ganseys in the old way.
4. Alternate: Priscilla Gibson-Roberts. An astonishing student and teacher of construction and technique.
People not to invite (tacky, but there it is):
1. Alice Starmore. I don’t care how brilliant she is; she’s a party pooper.
2. Anna Zilboorg. Also a party pooper. A person who announces in a workshop she’s teaching that people who attend workshops are mindless knitters with no creative soul.
1. Deb Stoller — if not for this woman, I wouldn’t be knitting right now. I really think she is responsible for so many people “taking back the knit.”
2. Nancy Bush — Who is the whole reason I knit socks.
3. Barbara Walker — Is there anyone who doesn’t own or want to own all of her knitting design books?
So easy!
– Sharon Miller, Wedding Ring Shawl (need I say more?)
– Eunny Jang, stunningly beautiful designs
– Kate Gilbert, designs so clever
Truthfully, I think the most interesting dinner conversation (including information/techniques/perspectives we couldn’t easily find elsewhere) would be with Joe or Jane Schmo knitter from a variety of time periods and cultures. While I would love to have met and dined with EZ, at least we still have her amazing books, right? But for me, I think it would be a real treat to just sit and eat and knit with knitters who aren’t famous, who aren’t considered “special” in any way by us, but who are (or were) just regular people, knitting because it’s a part of their lives. Someone with a good heart and a quick wit from any one of the dozens of knitting traditions, from any time period, would surely add more to the depth of my knowledge and appreciation of the craft than dining with someone who has conveniently published their thoughts and advice for me to get a taste of in solitude, any time I feel in the mood for a good read.
I suppose this isn’t the sort of answer you can tally in your survey, but that’s okay. Sometimes I think the best information and inspiration comes from unexpected places, and I don’t think I could pin down my dinner preferences just by pulling from the very limited pool of knitters who I happen to have heard of.
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Fiona Ellis
THe Yarn Harlot
Alice Starmore – absolute must, classical knitting
Debbie New – knitted art
Teva Durham – another one for knitting beyond classics
I take it that you are the host?
1) Priscilla Gibson-Roberts: A never ending source of thoughtful, fundamental basics — with whys, not just whats.
2) Debbie New: Who always blows my mind with her creativity.
3) the Yarn Harlot: Because she’d keep the conversation rolling with laughter — even when pointing out the poignant realities of being human (and a knitter).
I honestly do not get a rise out of popular knitters. Knit bloggers however… a whole ‘nother story.
So I’ll pick three knit bloggers
You, Wendy from Knit & Tonic, and Cara from January One
I want to talk to the person who looked at a sheep and thought “Socks! Sweaters!” They need to be thanked. Profusely.
Only three? Limiting the list to three is difficult, very difficult…
1) My buddy Mmario, a marvelous lace knitter with a completely off-the-wall sense of humor
2) The Yarn Harlot, of course
3) Nancy Bush, whose patterns have often inspired me
If I could include more, I’d add Franklin, Meg Swanson and Dorothy Siemens.
Somehow, I don’t think I’d like to attract Mme. Defarge’s attention, so leave her out.
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Barbara Walker
Meg Swansen
The Yarn Harlot would be floating among the three, promoting good works and humor, entertaining and educating us all.
I don’t often comment but here you go.
1-Elizabeth Zimmerman- self explanatory methinks
2- Debbie New – her knitting, her mind
3- Nancy Bush and Cat Bordhi from one who is hooked on moebius and socks not neccessarily together.
I am of course assuming that you will be the gracious, giggling hostess who has taught us all to laugh at our obsession!!
Tricia
You – We both have hubbys with 12″ feet. Care to share your hubby sock pattern to get me started knitting socks? (HUG!) And your blog is the best!!!
Barbara Walker – Her mosaic knitting book gave me the courage to try fair isle and intarsia.
And last but not least…
Amy Singer – Fantastic knitter and kindred allergic-to-wool spirit.
Alas, I have no sock yarn to send Sally’s way.
1. E Zimmerman, but only if she promised not to make fun of me because I still knit things flat.
2. My gran; she taught me to knit when I was very small, but she passed away before I could get any good at it.
3. You would be most welcome at my table, since you remind me that knitting is supposed to be fun, and often funny. No matter how recalcitrant my wips are currently behaving. (“knit 7, knit two together, yarn over, knit one, yarn over….sigh”)
Stephanie (Yarn Harlot) – she just mentions things on her blogs and gets people to do things like the Knitters Olympics = influencial
Alice Starmore.
Meg Swansen
Oh, this is so difficult. Well, you would be first on my list, then Nancy Bush, and my sister, who is a better sock knitter than I am, and then my aunt Harriet, who always had her knitting basket beside her chair–help, I can’t stop. There’s one more I’d like to add to the list. I don’t know her name but she lives in the Northwest Territories and apparently she can take an old sweater, unravel it, remember the pattern, and knit the whole thing back together again, by memory. I would really like to meet her!
Ooops, I meant Shelly. I was daydreaming of sock yarn and tiny dpn’s. 🙂
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Stephanie Pearl McPhee
Alice Starmore
I say you include the whole list, maybe even categorized, fictional, inovators, classics…
I’d help bury her but I love the idea so much I think I may have to do it myself.
1. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee – the knitter and blogger whom I encountered first, within a month of learning to knit. You’re funny and creative, and not afraid to admit mistakes.
2. Elizabeth Zimmerman – she’s funny and practical, as well as brilliant
3. Nancy Bush – she taught me the joy of socks
3 knitters
1) My grandfather, who taught me how to knit.
2) Elizabeth Zimmermann, who taught me how to relax while knitting.
3) The Harlot, who brought my stash out of the closet( and out from under the bed, and from the lamp shade, and the tea pot, and the stock pot) and made it ok to be OC about knitting.
The three knitters who have influenced me the most are Barbara Walker (Knitting from the Top), EZ, and the Yarn Harlot. The first two taught me how knitting works, and the third keeps me knitting (and got me started blogging!).
Wow, three knitters who I would like to have dinenr with:
1)Elizabeth Zimmerman. I love her writing
2)Cat Bordhi – the whole mobius thing
3)Sharon Miller – I am fascinated by people who design complicated lace.
So I guess what these three have are the ability to think outsid the box.
I’ll help in to bury Shelley.
1. Alice Starmore. To be able to write patterns with such detail (it’s bad enough to cope with gussets for the first time, without feeling the need to put unique patterns on them!)
1. You Mrs. Yarn Harlot
2. Deb Stoller
3. And Wendy from Knit ‘n Tonic
Gosh that sounds like it would be an awesome amount of fun.
Maggie Righetti–I started knitting after her book, haven’t stopped
Elizabeth Zimmermann, I think she keeps us honest
and after that, I don’t know.
but thinking about it will maybe distract me from the dentist this afternoon.
and yes, bury her. I didn’t want to think up something to do with too-much-to-throw-away sock yarn.
1. Barbara Walker, because I heart her Treasuries of stitch patterns, and because she has written non-knitting books that I find fascinating, too
2. Lucy Neatby, so I can thank her in person for showing me the way to perfect toe grafting is through toe chimneys
3. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, because she makes being a knitter a badge of honor
EZ and Debbie New, for daring do…
How about a spinners or fiber arts trio, too? Add in Deb Menz and Judith MacKenzie McCuin…
Guess I can’t pick 3 of either at this moment.
I have a feeling Alice Starmore would be an odd dinner guest, so I hate to say it, but she’s out (I love your work, though, Alice! Stillwater is genius!). Anyhoo, that leaves me with the Zimmerman(n)s (Elizabeth and Kathy). Kathy Zimmerman is a wonderful designer, and it kills me that she hasn’t put out a book. And Elizabeth is simply wonderful. As for my third choice, I’m going with Franklin Habit, because he’ll be a hoot.
Kaffe Fassett and Nancy Bush, for sure. Then a wild card…
Have you ever seen the gorgeous book “handpainted knits” about women who make their living through the fiber industry. Most of them were famous dyers but not all. I would love to meet women who really did this on their own….used natural dyes, designed or something unique but really they were self-sustaining doing this, it was not just a hobby type thing, but was a true artform..Check out that book if you havent. It is a work of art in itself..Sorry I don’t have specific names…
1. Elizabeth Z.
2. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
3. Meg Swanson
4. Ann and Kay (Ok! I couldn’t just pick three!)
Meg Swanson
Alice Starmore
Debbie Bliss
All have designs that have inspired me.
Elizabeth Zimmermann-her name is all that is required by means of an explanation. She is the epitome of knitting.
Alice Staremore-her designs are gorgeous and I would love to discuss her motivations behind each design.
Solveig Hisdal-have you seen her book? Not the translated version, the original. I want to meet a mind like that.
Elsebeth Lavold-I truly enjoy the history she ties in with ach of her designs. As a huge history buff myself I would very much like to learn from her.
I am fully aware you asked for only 3. I could not throw one of those fine ladies out.
Naturally you are always welcome here. Why you would want to be in Ohio I have no idea, but should you feel compelled, you have a place to stay.
I am filled with shame. I haven’t a clue who Elizabeth Zimmerman is. That’s probably because I’m (1) a quilter; (2) a crocheter and (3) reading your blog because you make me smile and laugh and feel wonderful after reading your magical words.
Despite all that, I can designate three knitters whom I’d like to invite to my house:
Laura, my daughter – because I miss her and she lives about 500 miles away from me. I don’t see her enough.
Beth, my quilting friend who is a nurse, but knitted a sweater for my husband when he graduated from going to night school for too many years, and I was so proud of him I wanted to give him something absolutely wonderful, and Beth made him a gorgeous sweater in about 2 days. AND she took it apart and re-knitted it when it turned out too big the first time!
My Aunt Ruth McCarthy – who died about 15 years ago but I’d still love to invite her. I miss her.
Elizabeth Zimmerman, my grandmother, and you. I picture the after-dinner talk going on for days… I’d make sure my daughters were at the table, too. Bring yours, too. The past ain’t nothin’ without the future.
– Audrey Hepburn — extremely influential, though not in the field of knitting 😉
– Our own Yarn Harlot, who teaches us to love and laugh at ourselves at least as much as our knitting.
– Ann and Kay
Beth Brown-Riensel, because she is the mother of one of my kindest and most loving friends, AND a knitter.
My grandmother Elizabeth Throckmorten, who taught four daughters how to knit, kept house for those four girls and their father, and made my favorite sweater right before she died.
Lucy from Mind’s Eye Yarns, because she and I share similar tastes in books, and because of her incredible shop.
Um. And You, Ms. Harlot, of course. Given that my grandmother probably couldn’t make it, it wouldn’t overload the table.
Nana; because she taught me to love all crafty things, especially knitting (and has given me a large stash to get going).
Elizabeth Zimmermann; because she knows her stuff and she is funny.
Melanie Falick; because I like her patterns and she seems like a great person to sit and knit with!
You would also be most welcome:)
I’ll try to get some yarn together to send her!
only 3 eh?
1) Elizabeth Zimmerman, because she is GOD, and I’d love to know how her mind works.All I have to say is the Surprise Baby Jacket!!
2) Elsebeth Lavold, because I am a huge fan of her work, I loved all the history of “Viking Knits”
3) Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, because I think we were friends in a previous life and I think you are a scream and would keep the party lively. Cheers.
i’d pick:
molly weasley – i think she would be outraged about the sweater shown magically knitting itself in the Chamber of Secrets movie.
S P-McP of course – if not for you, i’d have never come bursting from the(stash overloaded)closet with my knitting lifestyle!
zoe mellor – i have no idea what she’d be like, but i’m still in awe over her crazy intarsia kids’ sweaters. i have to find out if she’s really anal.
Eleanor Roosevelt. Clearly #1 for me.
Barbara Walker.
Whoever knit the first actual hand knit thing.
But, does it count if you were my “date”?
Knitters…hmm…
Debbie Bliss
Cat Bordhi
and You…
Leftover Sock yarn? Heck yeah I’ll help bury a house!
Just tell me how 😉
Easy question:
1. EZ and Meg (a two fer)
2. Kaffe Fassett (for color and design)
3. Sharon Miller (lace, lace)
I fear for Shelly. Your blog has such a devoted ad loyal audience the poor child is going to get more sock yarn than she could use in several really long lifetimes.
Ok, we assume you are there at the head of the table and invite:
Debbie Stoller: Because she taught me to knit with her SNB book.
Meg Swansen: for a million reasons, and she can knit backwards how cool is that?
Crazy Aunt Purl: Who in terms of knitters, is kind of an advanced beginner.. but she’s a hoot and a half and we’d have a rocking good time!
It’s very difficult to choose JUST three, but finally, I decided on:
1) Elizabeth Zimmermann, for her knitting philosophy
2) Montse Stanley, for her technique (and because she was from Barcelona!)
3) You, for your knitting humor.
Runner up: Sally Melville.
It’s been difficult, though.
You realise that’s like asking me to pick three yarns and ditch the rest.
Lucy Neatby, because she absolutely cracks me up, her vision of the contented stitch is brilliant, and she’s a maverick of the highest degree. The pink and purple hair alone…this woman marches to her own, massively talented drummer.
Ted Myatt, because he manages, on a regular basis, to (a) inspire me and (b) simply make my day.
And now I’m going to cheat. The tag-team of Rachel H of the comments, Snow of A Snowball’s Chance in Hell, S. Kate, and Imbrium, and if I explain why, I’ll start to cry, so don’t make me.
Elizabeth Zimmerman
You, of course
Mary. I’ve got a friend who would just love to chat with her about the Archangel Gabriel, and about her son of course. 😉
Interesting. All you said was “any knitter,” and most people make the leap to “designer.” I have dinner–or at least coffee–with knitters all the time! Not nearly as often as I’d like, even.
Designer wise, anyway: Norah Gaughan (cause I only met her for a sec and would like to talk more with her), Joan McGowan-Michael (because anyone who designs gorgeous sexy knitwear is someone I want to have a drink with), and Bonne Marie (because I’ve been around the blogosphere for 4 years and I have yet to meet this woman).
But if we’re talkin’ “just knitters,” here’s my dream table:
1. Katherine Hepburn
2. Meryl Streep
3. Felicity Huffman
1. Me
2. Laurence Fishburne.
Sorry, 3’s a crowd.
Elizabeth Zimmermann, without question!
Sorry, just can’t pick out two more from my long list of faves. EZ is above the rest for her sense of humor, gentle encouragement, and charming prose.
Elizabeth Zimmerman (and Meg can come along too)
Nancy Bush
Charlene Schurch
For me it would be:
1. My grandmother – who had the patience to teach me to knit
2. Montse Stanley
3. Kaffe Fassett – a man would bring a different perspective to knitting, I think
Ok- I’ll play. You are hosting, right? so I dont have to count you in my 3.
1. Kaffe F – he is funny and clever and the reason I started knitting.
2. Hanne Falkenberg – amazing, symetrical knitting that i adore.
3. Evelyn Clark – I admire her designs and wonder how she does it!
1. Alice Starmore
2. Barbara Walker
3. Nancy Bush
Tres Knitters…
Ok, 1) I’d say my grandmother. She taught me to cast on and do the knit stitch and then threw me to the wolves for the rest. It was a fantastic way to learn. (No, I’m not being facetious.)
2) Barbara Walker. Do I even have to give a reason? There’s 4 of them. They are books to bow down to.
3) Probably you. Your book made me feel much less guilty about extent of my stash. It no longer hides in corners of the closet and under the bed but is now proudly stored in it’s clear tubs well within sight of anyone who walks into my house. It even functions as a lovely coffee table. It’s been months since someone looked at the yarn and I automatically apologized and tried to offer up an excuse. That’s all you.
Let me first say that I was crushed today to realize that I have now read EVERY PAGE of your archives. It’s all that gets me through my work day, to live vicariously through your many knitting/cherry-picking/sock-photoing adventures. What am I supposed to do at work now? WORK? Please.
My choice for 3 knitters?
* You, of course. You sound like a laugh riot (Plus your Canadian! I love Canadians! Y’all have milk in bags! And honey spread!)
* Sally Melville, because her knitting instructions are so clear and she seems like a very interesting and insightful person. And she likes to play the drums. Fun with Sticks, Part 2!
* Crazy Aunt Purl. She cracks me up on her blog, and I think the four of us could put away some serious wine and make absolute fools of ourselves. Which is really what knitting is about, no?
Thanks again for letting us peek into your life every day! 🙂
What fun!
Let’s invite some lace knitters, too:
Herbert Niebling
Marianne Kinzell
Gloria Penning
(If it’s a larger party, we could invite Mary Thomas, Barbara Walker, Eugene Bugler, Nancie Wiseman, Margaret Stove, and Sharon Miller.)
You posted a picture once of your family dancing and partying and having a grand celebration. I’m picturing my own party here, toasting each other with our knitting needles and with qiviut for party favors, and I can’t count to three or I wouldn’t ever have to tink or frog again. So here’s my lineup:
You.
Lene.
Ken.
Your girls.
(Do the Tinks knit yet?)
And then…
Afton Koontz.
Leigh Witchell. Just to start naming a whole raft of old Knitlist/KnitTalk friends, but those are the ones I’m sure you know. And for extra flavor, Kaffe Fassett (met him, like him, he’s a warm, gregarious soul) and Barbara Walker (talked to her on the phone once and she was exactly as I’d imagined her being like. We quite hit it off.) We’d have a great time!
Elizabth Zimmerman, Susanne E. Lewis (lace), and YOU of course! Only for dinner! I want all of you to move next door! (I do realize the EZ has passed on; don’t know about Susanne Lewis, but this is all imaginary, so I do want my knitterly dinner guests to be alive)! too many exclamation points…sorry.
After apparently crashing Shelly’s server, I have no doubt we can bury her house.
I would pick:
Sally Melville
Debby Stroller
Debby Bliss
and Nicky Epstein
I know you said 3, but……
Both of my grandmothers, Rosalie and Jeanne; and my husband’s grandmother Lottie. I came to knitting way too late for any of the them to teach me what they knew. I’d love the chance to learn from them.
Ahhhhh, but the three knitters I would invite over to my house are not necessarily the three knitters I would consider the most famous/influential.
For instance, I am desperately interested in speaking to the unknown knitter of an extant pouch dating back to the middle ages. I really want to know what techniques were known to that knitter at that time, what materials they used, what their needles were made of, what they know about the history of knitting…etc.
But for pure influence/fame, I’d think of names like Alice Starmore, Elizabeth Zimmerman, Nancy Bush, etc.
So! Which d’you want?
Okay, I have to admit…I am reading all of these comments and feel totally ashamed! I am reading names of women who have had such an impact on so many Knitters lives and I don’t know who THEY ARE!
So, I started back at the top of the comments page, pulled out a piece of paper and a pencil. I started to write down all the names I came across that I didn’t know. If there were little tid bits of information offered up as to what each woman was or should be famous for I wrote it down too. Now I feel much more informed! I have my very own personal list of Knitters who’s work I should keep a look out for at my LYS.
Have to say, I am a new reader to this blog. It was after I read the first of Stephanie’s books that I just knew I had to start reading it. I look forward to pulling my laptop out of it’s case, turning it on, dialing up to AOL, typing http://www.yarnharlot.com and seeing what wonderful wisdom Stephanie has for us today. Thank you Yarn Harlot for making this 28 year old, mother of three under 4 yrs take some time for herself! (God knows it is REALLY NEEDED)
I’m so far down the list of comments, I doubt that you will ever read this. If I were going to invite three knitters for dinner, mine wouldn’t be famous. I would invite Gloria Roddy who taught me to knit when I was 16 and knew everything…it couldn’t have been easy to teach me, I know, but she persisted and still speaks to me now. I would invite Suzy Bromschwig because she is a fabulous knitter of gorgeous sweaters. And I would invite Mary Sherrer who is a very courageous knitter. She’s in a nursing home, physically impaired, and yet learned to knit despite my inept teaching and made a scarf for her mother. She never lost patience, ripped out mistakes, tinked a lot, and started over more times than I would have. But by God, she came out with a beautiful feathers and fans pattern scarf anyone would be proud of!
I’m still quite a novice knitter, and just learning about names, all thanks to…you (mostly). So you’d be tops on my list. I really like the Elizabeth Zimmerman patterns I’ve seen, though I have yet to try one.
And on an only slightly related note, I would love to have a beer with Madeline Albright. But that’s just me…maybe now with Condoleeza Rice, and just let them have at it. Is my social studies geekiness showing through yet?
And Shelley – good luck – I think you’re about to experience a deluge…
i would choose:
jil eaton, fun baby clothes that made me finally learn to knit
alice starmore
bonne marie burns
Elizabeth Zimmermann would be my first choice as a dinner guest. She demystified so much of knitting and seemed to be unafraid to go her own way. I love that.
you-because you’re funny
Terry Jones(of Monty Python fame)- because I know he knits and he’s even funnier
Martha Sims-my next door neighbor as a child, who had the patience to teach a bored child to knit one summer thirty years ago. Sadly I lost touch with her. I often think of her as I knit
OK, I’ll break it down into needs:
1. Gotta laugh – so Yarn Harlot or Ryan Morrissey
2. Want to improve skills – so EZ or Sally Mellville (she just puts things so that I get it)
3. Want to use knitting to meet someone fabulous – Miss Marple or Eleanor Roosevelt
Phooey! “Trek” got in before me at 12:42. So to repeat, Mrs. Weasley, Hermione Granger and the Harlot. Oh, they have to be real? The Harlot, the young woman who writes “Dogs Steal Yarn” and who sounds pretty interesting although she’s quite busy right now, and then a toss-up between Kate Gilbert and Eunnie Jang. Eunnie claims to be on the quiet side, though, hmmmm. Can we pick more than three? Franklin sounds like fun and since I’m guessing that most of us are on the “blue” side of the political chasm, we have to resurrect Eleanor Roosevelt to give us backbone and hope.
My knitterly dream team would be:
1. Debbie Stoller, for making me realize I could make things other than scarves.
2. You, for making me laugh almost every day, inspiring me to challenge myself, and making me want to knit socks.
Hard to pick a third, but…
3. Cat Bordhi, because the Moebius cast on intrigues me.
Truthfully…
You, because you’re funny, an excellent knitter, slightly (just a bit) obssesed with knitting, and I think I’d like you in real life.
Laura, from Poor Miss Finch, because I know her and she’s a fantastic person, who’s also an excellent knitter.
Cathi, from In the Pink, because again, I like her, she knits really cool things, some of which are her own, and she’s funny too.
And my mom, because I’ve been teaching her how to knit and I’ve probably screwed the whole thing up. You guys could fix that.
The knitter who came up with thrums … there’s gotta be a great story behind that “aha!” moment, and some anecdotes about reactions to thrummed garments.
The first knitter to say “what if our sticks were just pointy, instead of pointy and hooked?” I have read about the transition from the original Egyptian craft using two crochet hooks, but I’d like to get this straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. Did this knitter get in trouble for crafty heresy, or did the innovation spread like wildfire? What fibers were being used, and what were the knitted textiles used for?
A knitter who grew up using only naturally-dyed yarn and then switched to commercially dyed. Did the world suddenly look brighter or harsher? Was it exciting, or a letdown? Are there nonvisual elements of this memory–did the smell or texture of the yarn change? Which fibers transitioned fastest?
I guess I’d be missing a great opportunity to learn from master teachers … but I think talking with these three people (and hearing them interact with each other) would give me a richer sense of the craft, my place in the tradition of knitting, and knitting’s place in the emergence of modernity.
I would have to invite Gromit over. Yes, Gromit of Wallace and Gromit fame.
He’s cute, can make patterns up on the fly and always seems to have his knitting with him.
I hope my dream knitter didn’t have to be real. 🙂
Interesting question. It seems to me that knitting expertise and knowledge don’t reside in just a few people who are world-renouned, but rather is something communal and organic that grows and changes over time. In that spirit, I’d invite Elizabeth Zimmerman (because I love the term “unvention” for its recognition of the breadth and depth of know-how already out there), you (for your steadfast belief in the fact that knitting is easy! it’s been done for generations! even the youngest can do it!), and probaby Amy Singer (for making Knitty and all its wonderful patterns and articles, and the KnittyBoard and all its wonderful support and knowledge, available for free). But in some ways, I fear that limiting the list to three does a great disservice to the contributions each and every knitter makes to the communal know-how.
Three people, huh? Okay. . .the first would have to be you because I stumbled across your blog one day months ago and have been an avid reader ever since. You inspired me to take up knitting again after a 30 year absence. Hey, because of you I’m now knitting socks! The second would be Elizabeth Zimmerman. I’ve read most of her books and her words keep me believing that I can knit whatever I so choose to knit. The third. . .hmmmm. Wendy Johnson would have to be my third pick because I read her blog, as well, and have read her book, Wendy Knits. I’ll never be as fast a knitter as she is, nor will I probably ever be as good as either you or her, but you both keep me inspired.
I’ll help bury her house…..
EZ of course (taught me how to knit without tears…most of the time….)
Whit Larson – I love to listen to her blog
and then – I don’t have a name….but in a book of Aran patterns, I saw a picture of women walking to the docks, knitting as they walked, to meet the ships bringing home their fisherman. I’d love to talk to one of them.
If I wanted to have a lovely dinner party, it would be Elizabeth Zimmerman, you oh great Harlotness, and Debbie New, because I think I’d probably break my ribs laughing and learn so much I’d take notes on the table cloth.
If I wanted something a bit more… shall we say, blood sport, I’d invite Alice Starmore, Kaffee Fassett, and Hanne Falconberg, bill it as a cage match, and put it on pay-per-view. I could knit with silk for the rest of my life, with the proceeds.
Sorry, me again. I only picked one, because I am a bit of a newb and I don’t really know who else to chose. Although the author of Alterknits might be fun. I cannot remember her name though.
1. Michael Pearson (or Gladys Thompson) for history.
2. Alice Starmore for beauty.
3. Elizabeth Zimmerman for common sense.
I would happily volunteer to cook, serve and even clean up…
I’m torn here, I kinda *do* want to meet the first knitter. But, until then:
1. You (shameless plug, btw)
2. Ann Budd, to whom I am greatly indebted
3. Amy Singer, o great knitty-diva
Operation “Bury Shelley” has commenced…so happy to send my old sock stash to someone so deserving…and as for favorite knitters, alive or dead? DON’T invite Mme. DeFarge… I taught that book for several years and that heifer carries a grudge… Hmm…I’ve been watching a lot of TNT lately– I’d love to invite Maxine Grey from “Judging Amy”–and I’m curious to know what she’s always knitting on the show–it’s always on circular needles and it never seems to be finished. Definitely EZ… (Who wouldn’t?)and… well, my character in my books is becoming quite a knitter–and she can blow people up… Cory Kirkpatrick it is…
Amy Finlay of knittinghelp.com – she taught me to knit…
Mary Ann Beattie – I love her toe up socks
And you. Earlier this summer my mother-in-law asked my 12-year old daughter about the highlight of the past year. My daughter replied: I went to a U2 concert and saw Bono and I got to meet a famous knitter (no kidding – that’s what she said). My mother-in-law laughed in her face and said there were no famous knitters. My daughter was slightly offended and amazed at how “clueless” her grandmother is. You should come to dinner!!
3 knitters:
1. My mum
2. Michael Pearson
3. Alice Starmore
I think I would have to invite Priscilla A. Gibson-Roberts, Nancy Bush, and…my paternal grandmother. I’m all about the socks, and these three women whether they will ever know it or not have probably been my biggest sock inspiration.
I can’t participate in burying anyone else house in sock yarn, as I actually love knitting odd socks with bits of leftover yarn almost better than knitting with lovely proper full skeins. I went so far last spring as to cut apart perfectly good yarn so I could knit scrappy socks when my leftovers ran low. 🙂
Omigod… I take it all back… for the love of wool how could I forget RUSSELL CROWE????
1. You, to represent the modern knitter
2. Barbara Walker, to represent the classic and technique
3. the first woman to knit a Shetland shawl, to represent the origin of the craft
In spite of the fact that she failed to turn me into a knitter (though the embroidery and crocheting stuck), I would have to recommend that you invite my mother. Also named Stephanie (Cooper, though), my mother was as great a creative force as she was a teacher. She taught my little friends to knit, embroider and crochet right along with me, freely sharing tools and materials. She continued to teach young women in the neighborhood even after I, the youngest, had left home, and even worked for awhile giving lessons in a fou-fou knitting store in my strange and snobby Southern California hometown, far away from her New England where I now live. She knew how to do everything, experimented all the time, rewrote patterns as she went, and even invented her own patterns. She could do anything while knitting or crocheting, including converse deeply on a wide variety of subjects including art, history and politics, watch a movie with you, counsel you about not being afraid to die, or help you study for a social studies test. She was amazing.
Unfortunately, she suffered from bipolar disorder and it eventually got the better of her. Equally unfortunately, as far as I know, though most of her paintings survive, every afghan she crocheted, every sweater she ever knit me or either sibling, every sweater I ever inherited from older siblings, and every sweater I filched from her own closet has long ago disintegrated, except for the purple turtleneck sack sweater she knit to contain the stuffed pig I received for Chanukah when I was three years old, which pig’s very fabric has also been substantially disintegrating for over twenty years to the point where he would not still be in one piece if she hadn’t taken this measure. She gave me a lot of other things, though, things I can’t show you but which I hope I still have. You can probably guess the kind of thing I mean. It’s the kind of thing you write about striving to give your own daughters.
I would have loved for her to have lived to see this blog and your modern community of knitting artists and enthusiasts. Barring that, if you do ever get the power to raise the dead and have them join you for a knitting-related meal, I request that you invite her. You won’t be sorry. And she’ll be happy, too, if there are yummy little sandwiches and good conversation, and if she can bring her needlework (not that she’ll ask).
My three:
1) Eunny Jang (very much alive and not yet as recognized as she surely is going to be!)
2) Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
3) Meg Swansen (I tend to go with living persons over passed)
1. Alice & Jade Starmore. They so-o count as one!
2. Is there a person called Dale in Norway?
3. Solveig Hisdal, to ask her why her Oleana range is not available to the handknitter.
Sally Melville – have you ever heard her speak about creativity? Great speaker, great thinker and her current series is addicting, er inspiring a new generation of knitters.
Elizabeth Zimmerman – although admittedly I’d don’t know that I had ever heard of her before I saw her obit, she has inspired countless knitters over the years. Her writings are down to earth and simple to understand, but she was definitely a thinking knitter.
Maggie Jackson – although by her own admission, she is a designer who knits, rather than a knitter who designs. I’ve taken classes with her and she thinks way outside the box in a way rarely seen today.
1.You
2. Debbie Stoller – SnB finally made knitting click for me.
3. Grumperina – she’s a “regular” person whose adventerous knitting is inspiring.
and if you want to further rid yourself of sockyarn scraps, visit http://warmfeetwarmhearts.blogspot.com/
Knitters at dinner
1–Annie Peeling,(my Mom’s friend) she could knit a sock without a pattern so fast it was unbelievable and she could talk as fast as she knit
2—My Mother–She learned how to knit from Annie and then taught me when I was 8yrs old
3–Yarn Harlot because she would fit right in with these two and she got me back to knitting and having FUN doing it. Ifluential for me ? I guess SO!!
Sorry Shelly I can’t help as all my left overs go to the lady at the Salvation Army that knits things for their sale.Good luck and I hope you have a good BIG place for all that will come at you .
Elizabeth Zimmerman
My Mom, because she gave me Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitting Without Tear book . . . which is in such sad shape that I have decided that I need a new copy . . . and then explained that EZ’s method was much faster and smoother than the way she and I had previously knit. And,
My Grandma, because she gave me knitting needles, mohair yarn and a pattern on my 8th birthday. The yarn and pattern were for a cable fronted sweater . . . why start with socks when you can do a sweater . . . and she also knit like EZ . . . of course, she was raised in Ireland so that might explain some of it.
You are #1 on the list! But if not you, then:
Kaffe Fasset
Anna Zillboorg
Teva Durham
just so that my head would explode with all of the outside-of-the-line knitting ideas they might generate together 🙂
I’d go with Debbie Stoller because I like her books second to yours. I’ve learned how to knit from Stitch ‘n Bitch.
Yes, one must have an even number of people around the table. And it must be a round table. My invitees would be:
Meg Swansen (who is imbued with her mother’s (Elizabeth Zimmermann)knowledge and has the inate, uncanny ability to fashion fiber in the time warp of Now while comprehending the importance of history and imagination)
Eunny Jang (who at 23 is an amazing fiber person)
Janine Bajus (who is the ‘feral knitter’ and delights in new projects of the intricate and complicated variety)
Wow! Stephanie totally ROCKS! Thanks, Steph!
I just posted another entry on my blog with more specifics about the -uh- burial. I can’t believe the response I’m already getting, and I’m loving it!
My three knitters would be
1)EZ – of course
2)My friend Jean Christensen, who taught me to knit and is an amazing knitter and teacher in her own right
3)Prolly Stephanie, or maybe Barbara Walker or maybe…well the list could be very long, and I better get back to responding to all these wonderful e-mails!
Thanks everybody!
tis easy: Barbara Walker, Elizabeth Zimmerman, and the ever-lovely Yarn Harlot.
Julia Roberts
Megan Mullaly
Molly Weasley
Now, that would be a fun evening!
I think only 1 other person mentioned
TEVA DURHAM
She should be right up there in my book. She has done so much to push the boundaries of the craft.
Other innovators:
Norah Gaughan
Stefanie Japel from Glampyre.com.
The first two are easy: Elizabeth Zimmerman and Barbara Walker. The third? Without thinking too much I have a tie between Nora Gaughan, Sally Melville, and Teva Durham (I apologize for spelling errors–gotta run!).
Wow. Only 3. That’s not much of a dinner party, is it? I shall assume that the Harlot is invited, since this is her party.
Debbie New: the woman knit a boat. A BOAT. Out of lace. And it floats. I’m thinking she probably knows how to party, and could probably even knit up a cask of wine in a pinch.
EZimmerman: because, well, duh. She was funny, and inspired us all to give up our straight needles for circular and knit to our own gauge and not the gauge someone else wrote down in a pattern. Also, she might bring her daughter Meg Swanson along which would mean that I wouldn’t have to use up one of MY invitations. I’d hope she’d bring her husband, too. A brewmeister is always welcome to one of my dinner parties!
Cat Bordhi: got me out of using DPNs forever. Her creative way of thinking about knitting is always interesting.
It seems wrong to leave out everyone else–it’s the sum total of everyone’s creativity, talent, ideas and inspiration that keeps me knitting! I’ll be all of us are just as inspired by whoever it was who first put needles in our hands as we have been by any of the celebrity knitters…
I think most people would say that the most influential knitters are the people in thier lives that tought them to knit. I don’t know too many of the famous knitters honestly. But the people who I would like to meet are
1. Nicki Epstien, because I love her designs and own all her books
2. Debbie Stroller because the original SnB book was the first book I knit from and it saved me from the patterns my grandma had tucked away since the 80’s.
3. Yourself which sounds like sucking up but I got my mother into knitting by showing her your stories, I have my very own yarn boy thanks to your blog and Your books and blog help me stick to knitting by forcing myself to acknowledge my own mistakes and to look at the lighter side of them. Yesterday for example when I finished the picot edging on my sock and decided to try it on, and then realized it made a good headband.
~jinxsa
My choice for dinner would be of course…Ta Dah..
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
The late Louise Rowlands (friend of my grandmothers) I have three of her sweaters still and they are without a doubt gorgeous mohair/angore clouds. Unfortunately, they make me all rashy just looking at them. I never told her though. I still treasure them nearly 40 years later (for one of them)A true gem of a lady.
My Grandmother (still alive at 95 but blind and deaf) She taught me to knit when I was 9 and gave me my first ball of yarn a dpns. I thought I was given two sets of needles LOL. They were I think bone. I LOST THEM!!!!!! Oh, if only I knew then what I know now
Louise and my Granmother (also a Louise) would watch Peyton Place, knit with flying needles, drink vodka high balls and smoke BelAire cigarettes at the same time. I was facinated…
Please, it was before smoking was considered poor manners. 🙂
Dinner party:
you (and i’m not just saying that because this is your blog)
Elizabeth Zimmerman (I think she’d be a hoot and the two of you together would be something to behold)
Miss Marple (she can really mix it up, too)
Well, Elizabeth Zimmermann would have to be the hostess, so she doesn’t count towards my three guests! Who would be—
1)Debbie Stoller
2)Sally Melville
3)You – The Yarn Harlot
1) my grandmother, who loved to knit and who died when I was 14, long before I was a knitter (so much I want to talk to her about!)
2) my best friend who knits (a whole evening together without kids and knitting talk-heaven!
3) the JenLa Knotty Girls. I know that’s four, but I couldn’t break up the set
You are an evil person, Steph. I can just see her in-box right about now.
EZ, yes.
Alice Starmore.
Anna Zilboorg.
I am too young to knitting to know who the most famous or influential knitters of all time would be (but from reading the comments I could make a few good guesses), so I’d have to select my dinner companions from the knitters I’ve encountered who’ve most impressed or influenced me and/or my knitting…
1. Bonnie Marie Burns – probably the first knitting blog I stumbled upon and was wowed by the practicality of her fusion knitting.
2. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee – Knitting Olympics.
3. Eunny Jang – totally awestruck. already a gem in the making, knitting talent and a sense of style way beyond her years.
I’d like to imagine we’d be a fun group. Just don’t wear white. I’ve been known to spray my wine…
3 knitters? Only 3? Okay, but you made me choose!
You, because your Knitting Olympics challenged me to try fair-isle. I learned I’m not that good. Yet!
Alison Hansel of the blue blog, only because I want to know how she manages to knit so much and keep track of B and S.
Wendy Johnson of Wendy Knits, for a few reasons. One, I love everything she’s designed. Add into it she seems very down-to-earth and has a sense of humor. Also, my 2 knitting “consultants” would never forgive me if I didn’t invite Lucy’s mom!
The list goes on though (how could I stop at 3???) — Bonne Marie, Wendy of Knit and Tonic, Kim of Kim’s Knitting World, CosmicPluto . . . .
My mother and grandmother, both gone now. One of my favorite pictures is of both of them knitting together — I’d like to be in the picture with them now.
My dinner party would include:
Sally Melville, who has the best photographs and inspiraton for new knitters.
Nancy Bush – I want to make all the socks in all her books!!!!!
Our dear Harlot – I already have a meal (or two) with you each day as I am reading the archives and comments from 2004 to the present. I only let myself read a little each day to make it last
longer! You are the only one who makes me laugh out loud!!!
1 – Elizabeth Zimmerman – because she did away with the knitting police.
2 – One of the presidents of the original (Dutch?) Knitting Guilds from the Middle Ages – because they WERE the knitting police. For real.
3 – Madame DeFarge – Because she was in cahoots with the REAL police. And (in the movies, at least), she has a diabolically plodding way of knitting, and a sinister look. Sometimes as I knit I pretend I am her, looking darkly around the room and pursing my lips. I have not told my BF about this; I wonder if he notices a change in the room as I attempt to channel Mme. I swear, I would have listed her even if you hadn’t suggested it in your post.
I assume that Mme DeFarge would not be a good guest, but at least you would have a transcript of the conversation. I’d like to hear the arguments between Zimmerman and Pres.
I think ‘who are the most influential’ and ‘who would you invite to dinner’ are two seperate questions. For inspiration I still go with my two above, and either EZ or Eleanor Roosevelt, the latter more for her overall style than her knitting abilities. I’m not sure I’d call her an influential knitter though as that’s not what she’s best known for.
As for who I’d most like to have dinner with, well, there’s no way I can limit it to 3 people. And they’d all be contemporaries. Mostly bloggers.
I would pick:
My grandmothers – both of whom were apparently wonderful knitters – my mom’s mom died before I learned to knit, my dad’s mom, also dead now, was in another hemisphere as we emigrated to SA from the UK when I was 4. I would so love to sit and knit with them. I can remember my mom comparing my knitting to theirs when I was younger. I just wish I’d had the chance to make the comparison myself.
Elizabeth Zimmermann – for all the reasons mentioned by so many people above.
Okay, here goes:
Barbara Walker, not only for her knitting, but her writing.
EZ, because my goodness, the woman was knitting.
S. Pearl-McPhee, because I think you should never take your knitting too seriously. Or your kids. husband. laundry. etc.
Barbara Walker
Barbara Walker
Barbara Walker
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Meg Swanson
and of course you the Yarn Harlot
buried in yarn… that sounds wonderful
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman
2. Barbara Walker
3. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (see you in a few weeks!)
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman
2. Barbara Walker
3. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Well, let’s assume you would be there recording the event for posterity (and a good laugh.)…
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman
2. Kay and Ann (those mason-dixon knitting mavens!)
and,
3. God (who knit us all in our mothers’ wombs – psalm 139)
Ooh, ooh, can I change my answer? Well, actually, can we just throw a really big party instead?
I want to add:
Stephanie Japel
Kate Gilbert
Franklin Habit
Bishop Rutt
Sarah Swett
Teva Durham
Shelda Eggers, Queen of the Ample Knitters list
Now that’s a party!
Does it have to be three?
Because I’d love to have E. Zimmerman and Alice Starmore for their skill and opinionated contentiousness; Barbara Walker in gratitude for introducing me to the world of what is possible to achieve with those little knit and purl stitches and for her wide range of interests which would keep even the non-knitting conversation interesting; and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee for her sense of humor and her lack of proper awe in the face of Sacred Cows (no disrespect meant towards Ms. Z, S or W intended… at least, not *deliberate* disrespect).
I don’t know, but I’d say Debbie Stoller and you, Stephanie…I don’t know about the 3rd person just yet. But Debbie, because she started the SnB phenomenon. And you, because you’re just fab.
And yes, I’d love to help burying Shelly’s house! *ROFL*
Interesting question! I would go with:
– Jean Paul Gaultier. Ok, I don’t know if he actually knits, but I have loved all of his knitwear designs. And he’s gotta be interesting to talk to!
– Delphine Wilson.
– Herbert Niebling.
And I’d really want to invite Marianne Kinzel over too.
Three knitters I’d like to share dinner and drinks with:
Sally Melville — she once personally, charmingly and graciously responded to a query that I had with regard to one of her patterns which I had posted on one of the big e-knitting lists, and, she has written the two best basic and highly entertaining books on knitting, The Knit Stitch, and The Pearl Stitch.
Anna Karenina — any woman, fictional or real, who can knit 2 socks, at the same time, on one pair of dpns, is a pretty bright broad and probably a good dinner conversationalist. (I do hope she’s out of that miasma of depression that all Russian literary figures seem to wallow in).
Eleanor Roosevelt — a great lady, a wonderful humanitarian, whoose sharp wit and sense of humor would be a wonderful addition to any dinner.
With these three, how can I go wrong? (I think I’ll have the dinner catered rather than trust to my own gastronomic skills [or lack thereof]).
Hi Stephanie…I’m a lurker,stalker? I would have to say you would be my first choice! You’re my knitting hero. Then I would want Dave Daniels because I’m secretly in love with him! Can’t marry him…not quite old enough to adopt him! Then I would say Fiona Ellis because I think she would bring some class to the whole thing! Love your blog!
Definitely:
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (my first knitting blog ever, and still my fave!)
Mme. Defarge, before I’d even noticed that you’d included her in your ideas list, I thought of her. I imagine I’d make it into her knitting fairly quickly! 😉
The third is much tougher, either Nancy Bush, or any of the ample knitters
What about Jo March and her sisters? Remember that is “Little Women” they knit all sorts of things for the northern troops during the civil war.
She’s fictional so perhaps it would make more sense to ask her creator, Louisa May Alcott, to attend.
I gotta have four
1. You, duh.
2. Crazy Aunt Purl
3. Elizabeth Zimmerman
4. My Nana
Elizabeth Zimmerman (c’mon, you don’t really need to ask why)
Jade Starmore, because I would love to hear about growing up with Alice as your mother, and to hear about how she learned color, and to have her look around the room and ask her what catches her interest and why
Mymom/myaunt/mygrandmother, because they’re the reason I became a knitter at age 8, they’re the reason I’ve stuck with it for 37 years, they’re the reason I’ve taught dozens of other people to knit (not all have stuck with it, but a good share have) and even though they’re all three gone now (and I still miss them terribly), every time I pick up my knitting needles, we get to mess with the time space continuum a little and get back together.
Since the table is round and The First Knitter and Elizabeth Zimmermann are already seated, I would like to invite the people who influenced my knitting the most or the best:
1. Barbara Walker for the Knitting from the Top Down and the pattern books (I know EZ illustrated the Top Down method a long time ago, but Barbara wrote the book)
2. The Yarn Harlot for making the knitting experience both funny and practical (although you are already there in the kitchen with Rams)
3. The person who knit the stockings for Elizabeth I – the first time I saw a picture of those sox I was overwhelmed with a sense of the wonderful continuity of our art – this person represented all the kntters between me and The First Knitter and I was elated to be a part of that never-ending stream
I would also include my ex-husband, who told me I was too stupid to learn to knit (that’s another reason we aren’t married anymore) and made me determined to prove him wrong – (of course, he would clear the table, wash the dishes and take out the trash…)
Hm. Three? Cat Bordhi, you, and I’m going to claim “Jillian Moreno & Amy Singer” as one because they wrote a book together.
1. My grandmother, who taught me to knit, who handknit me sweaters throughout my childhood, and who handed over almost all her needles to me.
2. Mrs. Weasley, because she is such a great character.
3. You and Wendy of Knit and Tonic, because in addition to finding the time to be moms and to knit amazing things, you both write kick-ass hilarious posts 4-5 times a week. Maybe the magic could wear off on me…
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman, because of her dry sense of humor (which is perfect after I’ve been futzing with the hell, er, I mean “heel” on a sock for hours).
2. Sally Melville
3. Ann(e?) Budd
1. Well, you. Because you make me laugh just as helplessly as, say, Terry Pratchett or Robin Williams. *And* you knit fearlessly, but with about as much creative swearing at times, from the sound of it, as I do. LOL. Plus write hilarious and wonderful books, and share the craziness with the rest of us via this blog – which I then inflict on my friends. 😉 I don’t do the latter with any other knitter, that’s for sure!
2. Shelda E., who started the Ample Knitters list in 1998, and is now retiring it. (Alas, but the poor woman needs a bloody rest.) For creating a place for a couple thousand ample women from all over the world to discuss fitting issues; help each other with upsizing ‘normal’ patterns; and learning they *can* knit something gorgeous for themselves, instead of being stuck with knitting for everyone else they know, and nary a thing for them, because they couldn’t find a pattern that fit. After all that work as a great listmom, I think she could use a good dinner, some laughs, and lots of wine or something.
3. Kaffe Fassett, ’cause his Glorious Knits was one of the first books that got me really into knitting – even though I’ve never made anything from it. Yet. 😉 I get mesmerized just looking at it, and his use of color always gets my brain fizzing.
Since I am sick and probably going to hell anyway I envision Celebrity Knitter Death Match.
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman who got me knitting off the charts.
2. Barbara Walker who provided so many charts to knit off from.
3. You. So we can all laugh about knitting until whatever we’re drinking comes out our noses.
I’d kind of like to invite Kim Hargreaves (inspirational designer) and Robyn Love (inspired knitter) over too. Can we have 5? 🙂
I don’t have any leftover sock yarn yet, but I will before the summer ends…
Ooh, oooh… How about Debbie New her books hurt my head.
Three knitters?
1. Eleanor Roosevelt – For my love of history
2. My Nana O’Keeffe – Because she taught me to knit and she was a hoot. She was always fun at a dinner party.
3. YOU, Stephanie – You just crack me up. I’d love to meet you, in fact, you must come to NY and hang out a while.
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman
2. Kaffe Fassett
3. The Yarn Harlot
I’m in. What’s the address? Sounds like a worthy cause to me, something under the heading of ‘life’s lessons 101’?
OK, I’m a fairly new knitter (December) so I’m going to pick my favorite knitting bloggers, because I would just do anything to have dinner with any one, let alone all three!
YOU are a given, but I’m suspecting you want us to pick three others? (Yours was the first blog of any kind that I read, and is still my fave though.)
1. Wendy Bernard from Knit and Tonic: http://knitandtonic.typepad.com/knitandtonic/
2. Stitchy McYarnpants: http://www.stitchymcyarnpants.com/knit06/
3. Lorette, the Knitting Doctor: http://mousepotato.typepad.com/knittingdoctor/
I just finished a pair of socks and was wondering what to do with the leftovers. Those mitered squares in fingering weight yarn take forever to knit so I’d be happy to donate the extra for someone else to knit!
As far as my dinner guests go:
Alice Starmore
Kaffe Fassett
The Yarn Harlot
1. Me (and my newbie talents)
2. Russell Crowe ( cause I’ve heard he’s a knitter.)
Who needs anything more, really?
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Wendy my daughter-in-law
Bev my sister
Elizabeth Zimmerman: for her anti-Martha approach to knitting.
Alice Starmore: for her fair isle designs.
Herbert Niebling: The master designer of knitted lace.
1. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
2. Maggie Righetti
3. Elizabeth Zimmerman
This was a hard list to make! I could add several others! But you would always be on the list! Hope you’ve dried out since yesterday.
I would invite my maternal grandmother. She died before I started to knit in earnest. Many, many of my needles are her’s and I think of her often. Plus, if she were able to come to dinner and knit, I would also be able to introduce her to my children…our son was a baby and our daughter just a glimmer when she passed. And if she were coming, well…there would be no reason why she could not bring Grandpa also…I miss him terribly and would love the chance to show him what I have done with my life.
It’s too hard to pick just three! If I wanted to be totally overwhelmed and feel completely inferior, I would choose Elizabeth Zimmermann, Nicky Epstein, and Elsebeth Lavold (or perhaps Cat Bordhi.) But if I really wanted to have a fun dinner party with people I could really enjoy hanging out with and learn from I would choose Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (of course – you are very clever and witty, and when you tell the knitting community to do something they do it,) Debbie Stoller (her books make me laugh hysterically and SnB #1 turned me into a knitter again in one evening..,) and Amy Singer (I love Knitty, and she seems like such a cool person.) Then I might try to sneak Ann and Kay in as well. 🙂
Three knitters I’d want to have dinner with, huh? Let’s see:
1. My Grandma. She’s the only other member of the fairly-immediate family that I know of that knit, and I never got to know her because she died when I was 2. I have her needles, and some of her old Workbasket magazines, but I’d really like to meet my Grandma. (My mom taught me the basics of knitting, but she’s really a crocheter. I just wasn’t coordinated enough to handle the hook.)
2. You. Not sucking up, and the fact that you knit is really just a bonus. I just think that you’d be fabulous to talk to about all kinds of things (I may be picking your brain about the doula thing when you come to Eugene, just to let you know), and you’re smart, funny, witty, and remarkably down to earth.
3. I’m with the people who want to talk to the first person who figured out how to make stuff out of two sticks and a string. What were they thinking?!
Lucy Neatby, because she’s so much fun as a person and in her knitting.
Elizabeth Zimmermann – I think I like her stories as much as her knitting philosophy.
Barbara Walker – Where would we all be without her books?
Debbie New – She’s just got to be a hoot at a knitting dinner party.
This was hard to do, limiting it to 3 I mean. But here are my choices.
Elizabeth Zimmerman – She taught me to relax, let go of patterns and to really love the process.
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee – For helping me to recognize that it’s normal to be a little crazy and letting me laugh at myself.
And from fiction, Patricia Wentworth’s Miss Silver – These gentle, old-fashioned mysteries are my literary version of comfort food. Whenever I’m down or feeling ill, I love to curl up and reread one (or several) of the books about this kindly, wise and incredibly clever little Bristish spinster lady who solves mysteries without dropping a stitch.
While all those knitters are really great – I haven’t met any of them. (Though I did meet you in Cambridge this year.) I would have to pick my knitting group even though there are 8 of us in Group as we call ourselves, I think we are the best thing since the Susan Bates “Quik Check”.
EZ, Meg Swansen, and the third… hmm, Alice Starmore, just because it’d be interesting to see what she’s like in person.
P.S. I wish someone influential with thousands of readers would gently point out in a blog entry that Elizabeth’s last name is spelled Zimmermann and not Zimmerman.
Wow, I could not believe how many similar names there were!
I have thought about this and the first one that popped into my head is Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton – her’s are the first books I bought. I love her patterns and how easy she made it for me, a brand new knitter, to create a thing of beauty.
Second, Debbie Bliss for giving me the challenge of creating the beauty she designs!
And, lastly – the Amazing Grumperina – she is truly an inspiration to me. We have been knitting about the same amount of time and while I am no where near as talented as her – she inspires me to try! Thanks Kathy!!
Those would be my choices and I am sticking to it!
Can you imagine the conversation between these three?
Alice Starmore
Elizabeth Zimmermann
Norah Gaughan
Kaffe-his highness would be a hoot at a party;
Elizabeth Zimmermann-genius, brilliant, what’s not to love?
Barbara Walker-a twofer: knitting and mythology
eeek you , you and you!!! 🙂
well maybe Alison Will and Ellen Rodgers.. i adore both of them and NYC just isn’t the same without them… ok and you too of course 🙂 karola
who should be packing but is just too freaked out.. too many things havee been going wrong.. flat tire on sunday, just remember4ed that today is tuesday and i forgot to move the rental car at 1130am this morning.. ugh.. and oops there was a third thing and now i can’t remember it.. but that might be the problem that i’m having forgetting things.. eeek.. ugh.. haha karola
Elizabeth Zimmermann. Of course.
Alice Starmore: I’d love to see her closet full of Fair Isles, and make my own assessment of Fraulein Starmore
In a Wild crazy mental stretch…
Ms. Marple – HEY! She knits and she’s pretty darn snazzy for a fictional character.
I’d always welcome sitting down and chatting with you…I know you are a genuine fabulous person, having met ya. Heck! I’d even put on a pot of coffee for ya!
The secret to a good dinner party is to mix it up, so I’d say EZ, Isaac Mizrahi, and you. The three knitters who inspired me most is a different question, and I’d say EZ, Meg Swanson, and Beth Brown-Reinsel (predictable but true)
My choice would be a bit electic:
1) You, because you are indeed a fabulous knitter who can appreciate good wine and beer
2) Crazy Aunt Purl, aka, Laurie because though she is not the experienced knitter you are, I think she would be a great addition to my knitting dinner because she makes me laugh.
3)Lydia from “The shop on Blossum Street”. Yes, she is ficticious, but I like her and she knits socks.
I take it your automatically coming to dinner Stephanie? If so, how can I narrow it down to just three more folks? Ok, I’ll give it a go – i) Sharon Miller, ii) Meg Swanson and iii) Kim Hargreaves. Wow! I did it. Now, if only Meg would be so gracious as to bring along Alice Starmore; Sharon bring Elizabeth Zimmerman; and Kim bring Barbara Walker, I know my dinner party would be very exciting – LOL!
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Kaffe Fasset
my Amma – Sigrun Johnson – who taught me how to knit when I was five. She spun her own yarn from fleece straight off the sheep (uck – comes with bits of straw and other bits) and knit mitts and socks to supplement her Old Age Pension.
I’m not voting for the Harlot, because as host of the dinner party, she automatically gets an invite.
1. Elizabeth Zimmermann and Meg Swansen
2. Mary Thomas
3. Alice Starmore
1. Elizabeth Zimmermann
2. You of course. I think we’d have a grand time
3. Shelda of http://www.ample-knitters.com
She runs a list and website for plus size knitters, male and female. It’s wonderful for support, ideas, and fun.
I might be able to spare some yarn. Would leftovers from men’s size 18 feet help? 🙂
I would love to meet both of my great-grandmothers….one on each side that I was never able to meet. They were both wonderful knitters. Another is Laurie Perry aka Crazy Aunt Purl. I just adore her; her blog is something that I anxiously await every day. She’s sweet and Southern and hysterically funny. I’d definately ask her to bring her Tater-Tot casserole!! The last one is easy; I would absolutely like to have dinner with you, Stephanie!! I’ve learned so much from your books, including how to knit socks!!! Luckily, my husband has size 7 feet so my socks take a lot less time than yours!!
I agree with whoever said that who I want to invite to dinner and who I think is most influential are two separate questions because you need a healthy sense of humor at my house.
1 – Nancy Bush
2 – Kaffe Fassett (if for no other reason than I think he’d love my turqoise and white bathroom with all the Mexican art in it)
3 – Whoever it is who owns Fleece Artist because I think color and yarn choice are critical to the knitting process and I like their approach to color and their interesting yarns.
Jean Miles, Franklin and you, dear Harlot.
It would be a most enjoyable meal.
Currently famous and influential knitters? That’s my weak spot. Somebody else answer that one, please.
But, if you wanted to throw a fantasy dinner party and invite any three knitters in the human psyche… and I got to cook and you got to pick the wine… we’d have:
Tita, the character from Like Water For Chocolate that knits her heartache into that monumental afgan.
Jim Simpson, the Australian man who was shot down during World War II, made knitting needles out of pot handles, and knit himself a huge blanket out of recycled yarns while a prisoner of war. Check out the article on him in the July-August 2004 issue of Piecework Magazine. Now, he’d be interesting!
Elizabeth Zimmermann, who is a creative, outspoken knitter. She’d be an unabashed admirer of Mr. Simpson’ fortitude and creativity in unventing the pot-handle needles, even while being a great comfort to broken-hearted Tita, urging her to bind off that darned blanket and start something for herself, preferably with a quality wool yarn.
1. Molly Weasley (good thinking ladies — she’s an iconic “stay at home” mom to me)
2. Russell Crowe (we can dream right?)
3. My friend Jo who taught me everything I know (and couldn’t have a knitting dinner without her)!
Amy Singer , Nicky Epstein, and you because your suck a kick to read.
What about Rosie Greer, the football player? He was pretty famous and loved knitting.
Here’s my 3 choices:
Elizabeth Zimmerman (she’s been getting an awful lot of votes, no?)
Eunny Jang (because I totally want to pick her brains about how she designs)
and…YOU!!!!
I can’t wait until your tour gets to California! I am trying to get all my knitting friends to go with me to see you!
As for the leftovers, why bury her when we can all work together to knit her a house cozy in sock yarn!
My choices are,
Wannietta Prescod, the fastest knitter in North America.
Sharon Miller of Heirloom knitting.
Wendy Johnson, I don’t believe I need to explain who she is.
Boy thats a hard list to write. My alternate list would be my mom, aunt and Granny, and my little girls all knitting together, 4 generations of one family. Most of them no longer knit though.
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Meg Swanson
Debbie Bliss
Knitters:
Clara Sedgwick, one of the last of the “terrible knitters of Dent” because their history must be so fascinating
Katherine Cobey, because I love her work
Kaffe Fassett because he is such good company and really does love yarn and fibre.
Just in case we do bury Shelly, I thought I’d mention this idea here. It’s a sock yarn exchange where we can send each other MATCHING sock yarns. I thought it would work well for stuff like Lorna’s Laces, Mountain Colors and Socks that Rock (you know, the pricy stuff). To make it really work though I need a programmer.
https://threefates.wordpress.com/?page_id=48
Kaffe Fassett
Maggie Jackson
Elizabeth Zimmerman
1) Debbie Bliss…so amny patterns of hers grace my childrens wardrobe
2) Zoe Mellor…a little bit of fun for the kids
3) You…very inspiring and I love the mellon hat and now have the confidence to size up or down hats…thanks
Suzie (UK)
Most famous/influential, besides yourself – because I’m going to assume you are not going to be that immodest in your own book –
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Barbara Walker
Nancy Bush
Hard to narrow it down, though, I must say. There are a lot of knitters out there doing great things, especially the new and upcoming designers and bloggers.
three is hard.
dorothy parker, because she carried her knitting everywhere. i feel the same way about knitting in public that i do about breastfeeding in public. if both were more encouraged, the world would be a better place.
kaffe fassett because of his incredible sense of color. i would like to have a room where i could just sit and be surrounded by his sense of color and shape. dinner would be the next best thing.
um, you stephanie, because you make me laugh out loud and i like that in a person. dh says the only time i laugh out loud is when i read your books and when i read dave barry’s books. i wonder if dave knits? or if he wants to learn?
EZ- Knitting Without Tears was the first knitting book I read for more than an idea of how to do something.
Wendy Bernard- her patterns are what caused me to buy more than two balls of the same yarn and start a “large” project that I might wear in public.
Yourself- You got me knitting again, knitting socks, and knitting lace.
This is a tough one…I’d have to say (in no particular order)
– Sally Melville because she’s just a hoot and her lectures are amazing.
– Annie Modesitt for her depth of understanding of what it means to unvent http://www.modeknit.com/blog/index.html
– Eunny Jang – truly awe inspiring http://www.eunnyjang.com/knit/
My knitters would include:
1) Grommet (of Wallace & …. fame)
2) Babs the Chicken (from Chicken Run)
What a great influence on the knitters of the next generation….!
My three knitters would be you, and Ann and Kay. Why? Because from reading your blogs I find you witty, and down to earth and so relateable! 🙂 Someone who could teach you stuff without making you feel less important but still have fun/get the point across. 🙂 Thats why I choose you three!
Geez, only THREE knitters??? I would have to say, You, Debbie Stoller, and Miss Marple! I think that would be the best dinner party EVA!
alice trueman
my aunt jeanne
myrna stahlman
1. Alice Starmore – inspired me so that my second sweater of all time was one of her Fair Isle sweaters.
2. Lucy Neatby – innovative designs and use of color plus pretty witty to top it all of with lots of boat stories.
3. Barbara Walker – great determination to put together so many stitches plus varied interests – I owned A Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets long before I owned any of her stitch treasuries.
You, Norma, and Ryan. I’d die from laughing.
Melanie Falik — my first patterns were Minnowknits pieces for my daughter.
Pam Allen — brilliant, simply brilliant.
You, my dear — fun, fun and more fun.
There could be many others, but this is what popped into my head and I’m sticking with it.
Just three? Okay:
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Debbie New
Barbara Walker
and you get to host the thing (a sneaky way to work in a fourth!). Oh, and I get to be a fly on the wall! – Karen
Elizabeth Zimmermann: her knitting and her stories would entertain everyone.
Meg Swansen: her knitting and the balance between she and her mother. Have you seen the video of them knitting on the same sweater???
Stephanie Pearl McPhee: your knitting, humor and the way you worry about saying arse in public.
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Barbara Walker
Mary Thomas
All oldies but goodies!
My three knitters would be:
1 & 2) Mrs. Weasley and Hermione from the Harry Potter Books (anyone that knits that many sweaters – even using magic – is a goddess & anyone who knits hats to free house elves is awesome!)
3) You, of course (love the books & the blog)
Debbie New, for her intense functional creativity; Alice Starmore, for her colorwork; Shirley Paden, for her exquisite stitch pattern design work.
Could my party please be hosted by Nigella Lawson? I don’t know if she knits, but she cooks as if she might!
Then my guests would be:
Elizabeth Zimmermann
Peri Klass (2 Sweaters for my Father – great book!)
Molly Weasley
and Me, You and my Mom, obviously
*evil laughter* I’ve emailed shelly, just waiting to see where this box will be heading to.
3 kniters…
EZ, she just seemed like someone I would like to talk to.
Mm DeFarge is tempting, but she scares me a bit, so I think I’d rather have Mrs. Weasley or Miss Marple.
I’m having trouble narrowing down the third, so many names come to mind.
At 32, I consider myself a younger knitter. I remember seeing Kaffe Fassett growing up and yearning to knit like her.
Nancy Bush has done more for my modern knitting than anyone else but you and Eunny Jang.
I haven’t used my Elizabeth Zimmerman books, but boy am I glad they are in my library!
Mrs. Hale, who taught me to knit, my mom and grandma who I miss terribly. All those other wonderful knitters (including you) would intimidate me, I think.
We can still bury Shelly, but you might like to see this:
https://threefates.wordpress.com/?page_id=48
and this:
http://groups.google.com/group/NASYE. It’s the home of the North American Sock Yarn Exchange. No members currently.
I don’t have an influential 3, I have an influential 4 –
My mom, who taught me how to knit
Meg Swanson, who taught me how to knit without fear
Debbie Bliss, who told me when I met her that it’s great that I modify patterns to my taste
Yarn Harlot, who taught me that it’s okay to be a knitting geek
Alice Starmore, beautiful knitting adn construction and knowledge to talk about for hours
Annie Modesitt, I love her designs and her personality from what I have read of her writing.
Elizabeth Zimmerman, what a hoot that would be!
and you, and…, and… Those are the top three though.
Tell me where to send the yarn!
Barbara Walker!!
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (I am not sucking up.)
Not sure about the third…..But a spinning knitter would be perfect.
Dinner? I agree with most of the above comments – it would be a great time. But for coffee and note-taking – I want the editor of Vogue Knitting, or someone like that, who can explain the history of yarns and the business of knitting design. How is it that knitting didn’t die out after the orange-and-green-ombre acrylic of the 70’s? (I would have put it out of its misery, for sure.) Who can I thank for the fabulous yarn that we have now? And who can I blame for all the fun fur??? EZ may be incredibly infuential, but she sure didn’t inspire that!
I would ask:
Virginia Woolf….who knit for sanity’s sake ; ) and was brilliant!
Abigail Adams…who had to knit and do so much more.
Elsebeth Lavold…because she designs beautifully (and I’m indebted to her for writing Viking Patterns for Knitting – heralding the first time my son was interested in a sweater!
They sort of represent why I knit…for sanity, filling the family’s needs and creativity!
EZ, Eunny Jang, and Kate Gilbert. Of course that is assuming you are hosting!
I’m in on the sock yarn pile-on, too.
HI
I would have to go for:
Elizabeth Zimmerman, Lily Chin and Debbie New I think that would generate a lively debate at the table.
Also can you tell I like techniques!!!
Of course Stephanie would be there as well as she would be helping to run the event!!
Alice Starmore
Elsebeth Lavold
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Only 3? Wow, this is harder than I thought!
E.Z.
Melanie Falick – impecable taste
Erika Knight – turns the most simplistic designs into timeless classics!
(can I add Alice Starmore & Elsbeth Lavold too?)
My dream knitterly evening? EZ, Cat Bordhi, and you, Stephanie.
And that’s also the team I’d like to have with me for world-saving. Heck, it *IS* the world-saving team.
If I am grateful for ONE thing about the timing of my birth it is for having lucked into the time when I got/get to read all three of you great ladies.
Uh, just three is hard.
1) EZ – cuz ya know, how could you NOT include her?
2) Anne & Kay from Mason Dixon because they’re inventive and funny.
3) Debbie Bliss, so I can ask her why she never designs adult sweaters in sizes actual humans can wear.
4) Alice Starmore, so I can tell her to lighten up and get a grip!
5) You, because you made it really okay to have a knitting addiction (and I do, oh, I do!)
6) me, cuz how else would I enjoy the conversation?
I’d love to have dinner with Jackie Fee, as long as she brought her pit pocket, which had us all laughing hysterically at the Portland Spa. Not sure about the other two…
OK, My three are: Elizabeth Zimmerman, for all her wonderful supportive ideas, Nancy Bush as I am really into knitting socks right now and my mom, who taught me to knit. She died 11 years ago and my knitting has improved so much since then. I would like to show her what I am doing now.
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Cat Bordhi
YOU!
my Mom – cuz she’s not really “with it” anymore.
Obviously, I can’t count.
I say “let’s bury her” wholeheartedly!
my dream knitterly evening would include my grandmother, olive laird (she was an avid knitter, but i wasn’t until after she passed away–i often wish i’d gotten to learn from her); my fifth grade friend, barbara gorman (who taught me to knit in baghdad, iraq, with pencils and thread),and you, the yarnharlot (i’ve been inspired to take my socks on the road–they have enjoyed seeing the US this year a set of knitting needles!).
Three knitters:
Alice Starmore (because she has quite the reputation as a knitter and (not)as a business woman).
A Salish knitting Elder or Robie Liscomb (I saw a great documentary about these women by Liscomb, but don’t remember any names of the women she profiled)
Elizabeth Lavold
I think all three of these women would have interesting things to contribute about the history of Knitting in their geographical region and have done more than generate patterns, but have also explored the historical significance of knitting.
But I’m geeky that way.
My three are:
1. You, dear YH, because your books and blog have brought so much laughter to my DH and me. Also, I just want to watch you knit.
2. Susan Whittig Albert, because her blog sent us to yours, and besides knitting, she writes excellent books. And I want to be there when you meet.
3. Tyne Daly, because she does beautiful knitting and makes it part of the characters she portrays.
And then my Mom, cause she knit mittens, with long cuffs and miles of plain knitting round after round, for herself, and my Dad, 8 children, and our cousins. And knit her last pair at about 87. I think she must have knit at least 150 pair, taught herself and me. Lastly, DH’s Aunt Helen, who knit Mary Maxim sweaters for her adult children and their mates, and lined them and put in zippers. And also because I miss them.
Oh, and I hope Shelly has a big area for her soon to be huge stash.
Jane, Sandy and Maura. We call our times together k4tog. We all worked at the same lys and have stayed friends. Now we’re doing different things, different places, but still love our knitting.
You
Bonne-Marie (ChicKnits)
Louisa Harding (only because I want to talk with her about why in the world she would name a yarn *Shingle*)
Real: You, Lucia, Anne McCaffrey(so we could talk knitting and writing and life with wisdom and hilarity.)
Fictional: Molly Weasley, Sanna of Dertzu, Margaret O’Hoolihan (remember that MASH episode where she started knitting a scarf for a marine and wound up with an afghan for herself?)
My three dinner-party knitters:
1. My dear friend Karen. She taught me how to knit, and I’ll always be in her debt.
2. Bonne Marie Burns.
3. Crazy Aunt Purl, aka Laurie.
hmmmm…. depends on what famous and interesting is to you. Personally I would like to have dinner with the moste “entertaining” knitters. Three who would kick back and have a lovely, fun lovin’ knitfest over a chilled bottle or 2 of chardonnay! So, I’d have to say you (being my favorite knitter that totally entertains me, Wendy (wendy knits) and perhaps Julia Roberts (she is a self proclaimed knit-a-holic who would surely ad some spice to the event!
I’m one of the ones who just doesn’t “get” E.Z. Not to be mean, but I find her a little boring and fuddy duddy.
My dream table:
1. Nicky Epstein (“Knitting on the Edge”)
2.Yarn Harlot
3. Mason Dixon Ladies (Both of them I insist).
The perfect party would also have:
4. Wendy from Wendy Knits
5. Wendy from Knit and Tonic
6. Knitty Founder (name escaping me at moment)
7. Janet Szabo from Big Sky Knitting Designs
My grandmother….She knit 10 pairs of argyl socks, 10 scarves, matching seaters for her husband and son, and a whole slew of other things in one year, all while in a TB ward lying on her back and uanble to move anything past her elbows. If that’s not love, what is.
I’ll skip over you, because it goes without saying that 1) you would be there and 2) you won’t write that. SO:
Elizabeth Zimmerman. What a wag. Love her stuff. Her books have taught me to *explore* kntting. Would love to have some time with her, especially now that I’m trying to learn to spin, too.
Barbara Walker. For further inspiration. 🙂
The First Knitter, whoever he or she may be. But the magic that whisked the genius here would need to teach them modern English.
I’d cheat and say my Great-Grandmother instead, but for all the great crochet and tatting and quilting she did, I can’t recall ever seeing her knit. I miss her desperately sometimes, but I’ll have to content myself with carrying her tatting shuttle around in my knitting kit.
Honorable mention: Barry Klein, because I like the way he approaches design even if I don’t always agree with it, and because he’s a fun and friendly guy, and Ann Budd.
1) My husband’s great grandmother
2) Lauren, my knitting teacher and the owner of the super cool yarn store I go to here in Seattle
3) You
1: You of course – I really enjoy your knowledge as well as your outlook on this lifestyle
2: Beth Brown-Rensel – I love her traditional style of knitting and her gentleness
3: Candice Eisner-Strick – I really admire her style
Plus I have had the pleasure of meeting Beth and Candice and think they are both a blast. I hope to meet you when you are here in Austin at Hill Country Weavers this month.
On the three knitters thing….I am at a loss after you Steph. Maybe Cat Bordhi, and the gals from Mason-Dixon Knitting. But other than that, well……
On the sock yarn…..I have been thinking of knitting teeny socks and tiny sweaters (lots and lots of them!) to decorate a Christmas tree with. I might even make a knitted “paper chain” to use as garland on the tree. Of course, where I would find the time to knit the tiny sweaters and socks among my other projects, well…..I haven’t come up with that answer yet. Maybe Shelly could get some of my sock yarn……
1. You (because you did say if we could pick three at our house, thusly not making yourself hostess)
2) Franklin
3) Crazy Aunt Purl
of course, Dolores would have to come too, and I’d serve spaghetti. And use a vase of chopsticks as a centerpiece.
Elizabeth Zimmermann
Alice Starmore—incredible stuff
Nancy Bush
Evelyn A. Clark– I have some questions for her and I really like her lace patterns;
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee– because you’re hilarious;
and I will think about the third.
My Grandma Jan. She passed away when I was 14. She was a knitter. She made every baby born in our closest hospital a pair of booties and a matching hat. Every baby. She never taught me to knit exactly, but since the day I learned I just felt like I *knew* how to do it all along.
Debbie Stoller. I think she wrote one of the coolest how-to knitting books I’ve ever read. It’s informative, funny, well written. And she’s pretty cool and intelligent, just in general.
Elsebeth Lavold. Her patterns make me Drool. Yes, drool with a capital D. I’ve never tried one, but it’s on the list.
You
Franklin
Ann Budd
1) Elizabeth Zimmermann, the poster “woman” for creative freedom;
2) Meg Swansen, a class act who tells wonderfully entertaining stories;
3) Barbara Walker, to experience that curious, organized mind firsthand.
I’d need to be a fly on the wall, because I can’t imagine being able to mumble anything intelligible in that company.
Laura Ingalls Wilder (I’m rereading the “Little House” books for the millionth time), Katharine Hepburn and Molly Weasley.
Sarah Dallas, because she wrote the single best pattern I have ever followed in 21 years if knitting. Melanie Falick, because her book,KIDS KNITTING has been the most blessed tool in teaching many children and several adults to knit. Emma Jacobsson of Bohus knitting fame, because I’d like to hear her story from her own lips and would love to hear how she went about designing. Naturally, you would be there Stephanie, because I don’t know if any of these ladies has a natural wit and that is a must at a dinner party.
Mark Newport
ummm…to many great knitters to choose from….
My list would include –
Katherine Hepburn
Tasha Tudor
Elizabeth Zimmermann
They are all women who I’ve admired throughout my adult life, for their class, humor and lifestyles as well as knitting.
Please don’t find too much fault when people spell a word or name wrong. I’m sure that most know the correct spelling but what their fingers type and what their mind knows can be two very different things. At least I know this is often true for me. And, no matter how many times I read it through, I never notice the mistake until right after I click to post.
Elizabeth Zimmermann, who always let us know that it was okay to use your common sense to knit, rather than be ruled by the knitting police…
Cat Bordhi, who has the most unique way of looking at things I’ve ever seen, and the ability to make it afterwards
and lastly,
you. Because anybody who can make me laugh so hard coffee comes out my nose and cry just as hard five pages later deserves to be recognized as well. You have let all of us know that it’s okay to knit anywhere, anytime and not be bothered by it. And, you wrote a sock pattern that I’ve memorized, so I don’t have to cart the pattern around.
Elizabeth Zimmermann
Anna Zilboorg
Meg Swanson
Nancy Bush
Okay, I know that’s four but this question is just too hard. The first three because they are excellent technically but not legalistic about it. I love the wealth of knowledge combined with the “relax about this” attitude. Plus they have/had all been around long enough to have that wonderful perspective that comes from being on earth for a while.
Nancy Bush because I love her books, the history she’s helping to preserve, and because she probably has some great stories to tell.
And you, because you make me laugh, and I don’t know where we’d all be without the clowns of the world to keep us sane (“clowns” meant in the best possible sense). The older I get, the more I appreciate the ability of those who make the rest of us laugh!
Three knitters that have inspired ME? Any knitter who’s so impassioned by a couple of pointy sticks and some string that she has to write a book about it, well…that’s inspiring. 🙂 So, the dinner’s being held at YOUR HOUSE, and I’m inviting:
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitting Without Tears was the first knitting book I ever read. Inspiration isn’t the word for how I feel about her.
2 and 3: My grandmothers. One had the vision to buy me knitting needles and yarn LIGHT YEARS before I was ready to sit down and figure it out, and the other told me about the argyle socks she knitted for Grandpa that were different lengths…but he wore them anyway, and showed them to anyone who would look.
3 huh?
Though Mdm DeFarge is the first reason I started knitting (Really? How could you not, knowing you could decide people’s fate by the knit or purl stitch?), she scares me a little as a dinner companion.
For pure fun and love of knitting I would have to choose: Laurie of Crazy Aunt Purl (and she could bring Oma’s cake), Wendy of Knit and Tonic (she could bring the gin), and Norma of Norma Knits 2 (she could bring whatever she damn well feels like).
For a dinner full of technique and wisdom (a different vibe but just as fun), my table would include Janice of Knit Flix (the first knit blog I ever read [sorry Steph]), Wendy of Wendy Knits, and Colleen of Subway Knitter.
Of course, Miss Harlot you would be hostessing both parties (because I find you a perfect blend of both knit types!)
Three knitters.
1) Elizabeth Zimmermann, who freed us from patterns
2) Kaffe Fassett, who freed us to use color
3) Stephanie Pearl-McPhee who freed our sense of humor.
But if you’re excluding yourself, then my third choice would be Deborah Newton. I learned alot about design from her book.
My mom, who didn’t teach me how to knit but quietly surrounded me with it my whole life, the little old German lady who taught her how to knit way before I was born and my grandmother (father’s mom) back when she still could knit.
why? because the whole generational thing would be really neat.
Ms. Stephanie Pearl-McFee (can’t wait to meet you in September in Palo Alto!)
Lee Ann
Franklin
Do I really have to stop at 3? I’m hoping the following will crash the party (I’ll supply lots of wine…)
Rabbitch
Norma
Mamacate
Joe
Agatha Christie, because you know that to write Miss Marple she had to be a knitter herself; Franklin, because I’d love to hear him discuss his travels with Ms Christie; and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, because, although she is certainly the most entertaining knitter I know, I actually just want to find out how drunk she needs to get before she says “arse” in front of Agatha Christie.
The following week I want to invite a few more interesting bloggers: Jean Miles, Crazy Aunt Laurie, Laurie Etherknitter, Lee Ann Balazuc, Dez Crawford, Ted the Knitterguy, the list is apparently endless.
Shelly can’t have any of my leftover sock yarn until I finish that damned Horst Schultz vest and decide if I really ever want to do another…
Let’s do it! House-burying time!
I choose Debbie Bliss. I want to make yarn like that!
1. You
2. Nancy Bush
3. Cat Bordhi
I’ll be pleased to clear your dirty plates.
1) You (you crack me up and are a hero among the knitters in my office…”Did you read the Yarn Harlot today?!?”)
2) Elizabeth Zimmerman (and Meg, if you’ll allow me, since they were funnier together)
3) The Stitch and Bitch author…Stoller, right?
Now that’s if we’re just chatting. For techniques I’d pick others, probably, but they wouldn’t be as much fun! 🙂
Oh and here are my reasons.
Nancy because she takes the old and makes it modern.
Cat because she takes the future and makes it accessible.
And you because you wouldn’t be afraid to ask them all the questions that I would want to ask them!
EZ-for the things she can teach us about life-the story her son told in a memorial write up about her pulling out the knitting when confronted w/ a truck that wouldn’t back off (but did when the driver saw the knitting)…smart? aggressive? Yup.
Debbie New-she knit a boat! Makes me want to knit a kayak.
Lydia Devillier, my great grandmother that I never met. She must’ve taught my grandmother who recently died at 104…imagine all the stories a woman who had 18 kids in french nova scotia could tell.
Cat Bordhi, and maybe for cocktails all the crazy geeky knitters who like to knit odd mathmetical topologies that most of us have no hope of understanding.
And I would be totally entertained by all of the other knitters mentioned by other folks.
So, can we have about 50-100 for dinner?
what to do with all that left over sock yarn… I’m making a blanket with all of mine… it’s coing along quite nicely (and yes, an 8’x5′ full on blanket!)… just a thought
OK I although I realize you’ll probably never get to read this I’ll post it anyway!
It’s YOU of course!! You’re witty, articulate, and soooo knowlegeable— who else could there be??
Grandma Cline
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Kaffe Fasset
(in that order of exposure)
hmm, only three knitters! that’s a tough one, but here it goes:
Teva Durham
Annie Modsett
Leigh Radford
Elisabeth Zimmerman who helped us expand and believe in ourselves.
Barbara Walker who did a mind-boggling amount of work that I could never do and left us a legacy of variety and history.
Mme. Defarge who taught the universe not to take knitters lightly.
(Of course, given my nick I was predisposed …)
barbara walker
elizabeth zimmermann
kaffe fassett
Ok, this time I linked my blog properly. Not much there, but I’m not a weirdo either.
Oookay, lessee…
Debbie Stoller, because I get the feeling we could get sloshed together, and then talk about feminism for hours and hours.
Brenda Dayne, because I think she’d be into it.
Aaaand, oh I don’t know, how about Cookie, because I dig her sock patterns and am working on one right now.
Elizabeth zimmerman- because that woman was smart and funny.
The Yarn Harlot- Because you’re very witty. Smart and witty.
Oh… I can’t think of one more.
My #1 choice would be YOU, Stephanie, because you are the only knitter in the world who makes me laugh out loud almost every day.
My #2 would be Dale (Dale of Norway) HA HA
My #3 would be Debbie Bliss, and I would ask her to bring lots of her cashmere blends along.
P.S.
When are you coming to Arizona?
You, because you’re a laugh riot
Cat Bordhi, because she walks the line between genius & insane
Elizabeth Zimmerman, because OMG top-down sweater! and sleeve:body stitch ratio! genius!
and if I had leftover sock yarn (still working on pair #1, quickly becoming my oldest UFO) I’d send it. Alas, I am not a sock knitter *ducks flying tomatoes*
1) EZ – that’s pretty self explanatory
2) Kaffe Fasset – adore the use of colour
3) My Great Aunty Mary – she was always knitting and I wish I could have been more interested back then.
Elizebeth Zimmerman, Elizabeth Zimmerman, Elizabeth Zimmerman!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Three is not enough so I am limiting myself to people who are not dead, just to make it a bit easier. Three is still not enough.
Ann Shayne, because of her love of the drab.
Kay Gardiner, because I have copied almost every piece of knitting she has publicized on MDK.
And both of them together for their combination of generosity, wit, reliability and extremely literate intelligence.
Nancy Bush because she writes the best patterns for the most important items (socks).
Okay, okay, I am probably a bit late to the party, but here goes.
1) The Yarn Harlot, of course. Given that my husband complains more about my YH addiction than my knitting itself, this is a no-brainer. Although if you are hosting the event, does this count?? 🙂
2) The March girls from “Little Women.” I brow-beat my grams into teaching me to knit after I read this book for the first time. I then promptly set down the needles after completing 12″ of a garter stitch scarf and didn’t pick them up again for another fifteen years.
3) Debbie Stoller, because “Stitch and Bitch” is what made me want to start knitting again – an endeavour which my MIL graciously assisted me. Plus I just think she’d be a hilarious dinner date, mostly because when I read her writing I hear myself and what could be better than that?
4) (since I’m assuming you don’t count) Elanor Lynn, who wrote “Cozy Knits for Cuddly Babies.” It is the best-written pattern book I’ve ever had the pleasure of using – easy and clear – but it is her perspective on mistakes that I love. She views mistakes as design opportunities or as a way to remember the things you were doing when you were knitting it (e.g. a lovely fall afternoon in the park). She seems very relaxed and easy going, and would probably be a gracious and entertaining dinner partner.
Are you going to tally the results? I’m envisioning a pie-chart or some such …
Ok, you have like way over 300 (closer to 400) comments and didn’t read them…I’m so lazy lol. Anyway, it seems to me that Nancy Bush is quite popular – or at least her knitting books are (like Knitting Vintage Socks)…
Who would I invite to a knitterly dinner?
YOU!!!
M. Joan Davis, because she was a friend and i miss her.
Elizabeth Zimmerman, she seems interesting from her books
Sally Melville because she actually writes sweater patterns I can finish.
My 3 choices:
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Meg Swanson
Alice Starmore
Only three? One would have been easier.
OK.
1. Mormor (my Swedish Grandmother who taught me to love and to knit, in that order)
2. Elizabeth Zimmermann – for more than her knitting – that woman knew how to live!
3. You. for pretty much the same reasons as EZ. I’m a pretty good cook. You can bring the cake, cherry. : )
Um…well…you first of all. (this may have been a bad question to ask on YOUR blog if you think about it hehehe) Why? (this is going to sound a little stalker-ish) Cuz I think you and I would get along famously. We’d be realy great friends. (see I told you)
EZ. Why? She’s a goddess, duh!
Annie Modesitt (yes I know I spelled her name wrong…I think…) Why? I love love love her designs first of all. Also, I’d like to see if her ‘holier than thou stuck uppedd-ness, arn’t I a revolutionary, see my genious’ attitude was genuine, and if so, to smack her.
Interesting question… The three I pick aren’t just because of their knitting skills, which surprised me.
Firstly, you, Stephanie, as many of the others have said. You just seem like you would be an awesome dinner companion, as well as possibly convincing my husband that I am not the only one obsessed with wool.
Secondly, I would say Stefanie Japel. Not just for her funky style and innovative design, but because I love watching her career bloom. I am just so happy for someone’s success, when I feel like I’ve watched it happen from the beginning.
And third (is there another knitter named Stephanie?) Eunny Jang. Because I am not a technical person, but I do love beauty, and she somehow seems to meld the two so seamlessly, that each piece she creates is a work of art. I wonder how she does it.
EZ, Meg, and Mrs. Malcolm-the lady who taught me to knit :~)
1. Miss Marple (you did say anyone!)
2. Myrna Stahman
3. My knitting mentor, Miss Mary Poole. She died when I was 17 and I’d give almost anything to see her again!
If Miss Marple doesn’t count because of being fictional, Yarn Harlot would take her place.
I’m just sayin’ – I’ve learned so much from these three (living) ladies (and you’re all listed in my sidebar under “Wisewomen of Knitting”
1. Stephanie (you!)
2. Eunny
3. Wendy
Now…since all of you are alive…when is this dinner?
(((hugs)))
1) Barbara Walker is my #1 top choice – her books are just absolutely inspiring to me, and I like her “voice”. Besides, she also wrote interesting feminist stuff (The “Crone” book, can’t remember the title right now…)
2) EZ is very influential, and incidentally, was friends with Barbara Walker in real life, so they’d get along and provide amusing conversation
3) the third one is tough… BW and EZ together are almost too cliquey, maybe you need better balance.
Oh well.
oh my, what a poser. just three!?
EZ of course
K.Fasset, not because he is a gret knitter, but he is a revolutionary and innovator and a super colourist.
Alice Starmore,
the Yarn Harlot, to help pass the wine.
Deorah Newton,
The Knitting Bishop Rutt.
i could go on and on and on…
EZ, who made me say to myself, of designing my own stuff, “I can do that!”
Montse Stanley, who showed me possibilities with knitting that I didn’t know existed, although her prejudice against knitting in the round was epic (and incomprehensible). She doesn’t even mention stuff like making socks, but she has more ways to cast on and bind off than I will ever need.
The programmer of my knitting design software. Whom I would like to improve the product! Still, it is easier than working by hand on graph paper, and then coloring in every teeny-tiny square.
My three are more current knitters….
Jo Sharp because she is THE nicest lady in yarn and she puts an international spin on things.
Susan Druding from Crystal Palace Yarns because she’s been in the biz for 30+ years (and BOY does she have some stories to tell!).
Debbie Stoeller because she’s put the “it” in knit for the new generation.
I’m all about the multigenerational knitters coming together.
Grenadine Girl
Anna Zilborg–knitting for anarchists is amazing.
Barbara Walker
Debbie Stoller–feminist knitters rock my world.
Elizabeth Zimmerman, cat Bordi and you……
lets bury her house
1. EZ
2. Eleanor Roosevelt
3. PGR
Elizabeth Zimmermann, definitely because I love her attitude. Sally Melville because she has made my knitting life so much easier and has made made me love what I do through her meditations. Cat Bordhi because she too is a teacher and a believer in oneself, plus she has faith in children. There you go, you have my three.
Hugs – Connie
Delurking for the 3 knitters to have dinner with
Elizabeth Zimmermann (she inspired me to pick up the needles)
Joyce Williams
You
Meg Swanson
Oh, well, that’s 4..
Assuming that YH *can’t* be listed, out of fairness (tho’ you’d be there if I had my druthers), I’d invite:
Crazy Aunt Purl
Jennie the Knitting Queen
Debbie Stoller
Given a few more spaces at the table I’d also like to invite:
Wendy of Knit and Tonic
Grumperina
the You Knit What?? girls
Stephanie Japel the Glampyre
A dinner party involves a great deal more wine and merriment than it involves actual knitting (or even discussion of knitting, honesty), so I picked people with whom I would enjoy getting sloshed and talking about a vast number of subjects. I’m not going for influence or the opportunity to pick some famous knitter’s brain, I just want to spend a good evening with some awesome women, enjoying a not-terrible Syrah and laughing about men and shoes and cats and sharing our most embarassing LYS moments.
In no particular order:
1. Nicky Epstein-love her style
2. Ann & Kay-they are so fun and funny
3. Stacey from Sheep In the City -because she has a fun spirit and she loves pink and sometimes green (I love green and sometimes pink)
And then there is you, dear Harlot, who has filled so many computer hours with laughter, are an awesome knitter, and probably have an “in” with everyone mentioned above. Blessings, Julie
1. You (New Year’s Eve knitting party invite still stands)
2. Jo Sharp
3. Elizabeth Zimmerman
Oh and does Cary Grant count? I mean he knitted in that one 1940’s movie and frankly I think that should count. 🙂
Elizabeth Zimmermann-a revolutionary
Kaffe Fassett-color!
Sally Melville-for making it all seem do-able
EZ
Kaffe Fasset
Debbie Stollar
You (seriously)
Kaffe Fassett
Alice Starmore
Kaffe Fassett
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Sally Melville
Miss Marple would make a charming addition, but her knitting is not inspiring.
Deborah Newton (because she inspired me to play with my knitting)
Sally Melville (because she explained mattress stitch so I could do it, after 15 years of trying)
Charlotte Quiggle (because her designs are so perfectly wearable)
In addition–I knit I-cord shoelaces with leftover sock yarn. And then if I still have some left over, I buy more of the same type and make more socks. It never comes out even. I may have to send the leftovers to bury her house so that I can stop this vicious cycle!!
I’d want Sally Melville
Barbara Walker
Alison Hansels
oh and Eunny and Julia Roberts
…and I want you there to make us laugh, write down the good stuff and help serve dessert.
The Yarn Harlot, Teva Durham(I love her stuff!), and Miss Marple
You, Elizabeth Zimmerman and Rona, the woman who taught me to knit.
Nobody will ever read this far down, but here are my choices, assuming you are the hostess and the magic makes them all speak modern English:
1. Mary Thomas. I want to know her sources.
2. the anonymous author of Natura Exenterata, which has the first known knitting pattern in print. I want him to demonstrate what he meant by those terms in the lace knitting section.
3. either the very first knitter, or the first knitter in Europe to use a yarnover.
Elizabeth Zimmerman, because she is my idol
Meg Swanson, because she once lived in my town and she is brilliant and sweet and another of my idols
Perri Klass because she reminds me that it is okay to sometimes not have a clue what I’m doing
And Stephanie Pearl-McPhee…. I don’t care that that makes 4, I’ll just serve dinner and listen in and not sit down, so there will be seats for you all 🙂
1. My friend Judy, because she spreads both calm and fun in a shimmering cloud around her (how DOES she do that?)
2. My friend Suzie because when she laughs, you just feel a laugh bursting right out of you, no matter how you felt a minute before.
3. Lucinda Guy. I don’t know anything about her but I’d like to meet the woman who designing my Knitting Olympics wildflower sweater, I loved knitting it.
Steph, there’s definitely room for you too; and we’ll drink a toast to Elizabeth.
Wow…this would make a good joke, eh? A priest..a rabbi and a minister go into a bar….
anyway…
There are so many great knitters out there —
for entertainment purposes I would say:
(can I have 4 please??)
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (it’s not Purl-McPhee is it??)
Franklin Habit
Rabbitch
and Laurie (Crazy Aunt Purl)
The three of you just make my life worth living.
(and I’ve noticed no one has listed “Dolores”, Franklin’s sheep.
3 Knitters:
Lucy Neatby
Dorothy Parker
and Sally Melville
My three knitters would be:
Hermionie Granger
Anne Blythe
and YOU Stephanie, you always make me laugh : )
Only three?!?!? Debbie Bliss (her “How to Knit” got me going), Alice Starmore (completely divine designs), Elizabeth Zimmerman (kept me going), Barbara Walker (can you truly knit without her treasuries?), Amy Singer (Knitty and “Big Girl Knits”, need I say more?) and Stephanie Pearl-Mcphee (who now keeps me going with laughter and common sense). Ok that’s more than three but I can’t cut the list down any more.
My choices:
Sojourner Truth
Eleanor Roosevelt
Barbara Walker
A conversation with feminism and knitting would be my nirvana…
Elizabeth Zimmermann (no reason needed – she was the quintessential thinking knitter)
You (hey, someone has to keep the level of cussing high, and you would be the cussingest of the thinking knitters – it’s a good thing)
It would be a tossup between a number of knitbloggers I enjoy. Snowball in Hell? Eunny? Savanna Chick? Fuzzy Logic Knits? Jen and/or La? The Knitty Professor? Frarochvia? Dave Daniels? Peeve? K3tog Jeanne? Imbrium? ScoutJ? Someone smart and sassy and wickedly funny.
There would be much wine, too, of course. And probably we would all need to knit simple garter stitch projects…
I’m assuming you would be there … you are on the list whether you want to be or not, but if assume your presence that gives me one more slot.
Fictional: Gromit, Molly Weasley, and Miss Marple. Non-fiction: Debby Stoller (I started knitting again after a 10-year hiatus because of her), Annie Modessitt (Sp?) and Franklin. I’d list Alice Starmore, but she scares me a little.
Oh, excellent question!
Emma Jacobbson – Bohus Knitting Maven
Alice Starmore – I know. But maybe she’d be pleasanter over dinner. 🙂
Jean Miles – http://jeanmiles.blogspot.com
Elizabeth Zimmerman, Cat Bordhi, and you. No doubt. 🙂
3.Elizabeth Zimmerman – Her enthusiasm for knitting in the round inspired me to knit a Fair Isle pullover-for my second ever knitting project. And I did it. (Now if someone had only told me that I should use a different fiber than “The Bay Sayelle Acrylic Knitting Worsted…)
2.Stephanie Pearl-McPhee – Too many reasons to list!
1.Elsie Gloria Bagan Moskal – My mom. I watched her knit every mitten, hat, scarf, and skating sock my siblings and I ever wore for two decades. Fastest knitter I ever saw, or could imagine. Miss her a lot.
NOW I can go back and read everybody else’s posts. Hee hee!
International list:
Kaffe Fassett – never knit any of his patterns, but still love to look at the books, and enjoyed his TV series on design; he made knitting art, crazy cool
Elizabeth Zimmermann – love the chatty down-to-earth tone of all her books and emphasis on shaping
Sarah Dallas – for the Vintage Knits book (with Yesterknits), everything old is new again
All Canadian list:
Sally Melville – like EZ, she can get me excited about going back to garter stitch
Gayle Bunn – she is a good classic designer and has been with Patons, a big part of Canada’s knitting heritage
Mags Kandis – I like her designs, and admire her for getting her Mission Falls yarn out there too
If I have to pick three that were most influential, in chronological order:
1. Montse Stanley. For showing me that there are choices in knitting. And forty freakin’ million ways to bind off. She showed me how much I left to learn.
2. EZ. For showing me that knitting can be a lifestyle.
3. You, Ms. Harlot, for making me shriek with laughter and recognition, for making me a blog reader and blog writer, for connecting me with the world of other knitters.
I would also like to have dinner with the knitter who I’m writing my dissertation about – she died in 1866, but I have a few things I’d like to ask her.
I’m too new in this business to name famous knitters so I would like to invite my great-grandmother and, at the risk of sounding like a stalker, you. 🙂
Annie Modesitt
Sally Melville
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Montse Stanley
Barbara Walker
June Hemmons Hiatt
I don’t have the ability to give up my yarn just yet, but I’d love to see the results.
1. YOU, O harlot! – you make me laugh, you are splendidly addicted to knitting and inspire me to leap in and do the same.
2. Kaffe Fassett – his colourwork and stunning designs hooked me from my first look at VK
3. Victoria Pettigrew of VIP fibers – she has such love for her pets that she spins and knits them and helps others wear their best friends too
Those three leap to mind first, but for sure it hard to keep it to only that number. I would love to meet Veronica (yes, THAT Veronica) and add in my dear friend Sue back at university who, fed up with all my questions, threw me a pair of needles and a book and told me to figure it out for myself so she could finish her uncle’s sweater in peace. That was nearly 20 years ago!
Yay! At last a use for sock leftovers that doesn’t leave ME weaving in a million fiddly ends! Look out Shelly!
That’s Simple:
Alice Starmore, Alice Starmore and Last Alice Starmore. No seriously.
Alice Starmore and her daughter Jade.
Elizabeth Zimmerman and her daughter Meg
June Hemmons Hiat
Just 3? I can’t do it.
Barbara Walker–not only for her knitting expertise but because I get the feeling she would be a fabulous conversationalist.
Richard Rutt (I imagine he would make a fabulous dinner guest.)
Molly Weasley (I would expect her to share the knitting magic with the rest of us so we could all get other stuff done while making our sweaters)
But you’d be there too, right?
1. EZ of course
2. You, duh…
3. My grandmother
Thanks for asking!
How can you read all these?? Just 3?? Molly Weasley, Elizabeth Zimmerman, Cat Bordhi. For all the reasons previously mentioned. I started knitting socks toe-up just because I hated having left over yarn. I saved it ALL and kept asking myself “What am I ever going to do with this?” Now, I know. So, where do I send it?? This is going to be great…
I’m having trouble picking a third knitter (there are so many!), so I’ll only give you two.
Molly Weasley. (from Harry Potter) She has seven children, and somehow manages to knit each of them a sweater every Christmas. (Even with magic, that’s got to be hard.)
A mystery knitter, who showed knitting to our class when I was in first or second grade. She didn’t teach us, but that’s my first knitting-related memory. I actually remember the knitting part (something lavender, roughly square) more that the person, but I’d like to thank her for sparking my interest in knitting, even if I didn’t pick up a pair of needles until about ten years later.
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman, because I think she would be a kick to talk to, and she is so sensible about it all.
2. The Harlot herself, because you aren’t always sensible about it all.
3. Cat Bordi, to hear about what she is thinking up next.
You
Franklin Habit
Brenda Dayne
Let me know when!
1)Elizabeth Zimmermann
2)The Yarn Harlot
and if a fictional character is allowed I vote for 3)Moly Weasly
Shelly asked for sock yarn and is going to get burried… you asked our opinion and now you have to read (and tally?) our responses
Elizabeth Zimmermann (read her books!)
Meg Swanson—she learned from EZ and has added so much
Alice Starmore—in her own class
Kaffe, for sure.
Molly Weasley, yeah, and we could invite Hermione, too!
The person who first knitted a bikini.
Ann and Kay from MDK, you, my Cambridge knitting gangs… It’d have to be quite a party, actually!
Would have to start with Maggie Righetti, who demystified so much of knitting for me. And wrote with such personality…
My dinner guest choices are:
1. My Granny McGregor, because she taught her 3 young granddaughters (me included) how to knit one snowy, winter night long ago in Minnesota. She could knit or sew anything that came to her mind, without a pattern.
2. Elizabeth Zimmermann, because she gave us the Tomtem (my favorite pattern of hers),I loved to listen to her talk in her “long-time friend” way, and she and Granny would have gotten along wonderfully together.
3. Kaffe Fassett, because I love his beautiful designs.
4. (I couldn’t limit it to 3.) Sally Melville, because I want to knit almost every one of her designs, she’s a great teacher, and she gave us the Einstein pattern (I’m knitting my second and third editions simultaneously right now–Edition #1 gets rave reviews every time I wear it).
It would have to be:
Debbie Abrahams (just went to a workshop with her as teacher and she was great fun, also explained things simply)
Kaffe Fassett
Brandon Mably
1. Amy the Knitty Chick!
2. Whoever invented knitting–if they could be translated from whatever old language they spoke. 🙂
3. Oh, come now. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee.
Really hard to choose just three…
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman
2. Alice Starmore
3. Barbara Walker
Alice Starmore
Annie Modesitt
My grandmother, back before her strokes when she was an amazing knitter. I’d give literally anything to go back in time and knit with her as an adult.
1. EZ: she’s fun.
2. Barbara Walker: she’s thorough.
3. Beth Brown-Reinsel: she’s keeping alive traditional construction techniques that would surely be lost.
One more:
Any of those Shetland women who worked like dogs during the depression to knit something the agent would buy. One said, “The more you knit, the more ate.” We have an interesting, beautiful, useful hobby. They were subsistence knitters. We are so blessed.
Kaffe Fassett- because he has continued to inspire me more than anyone else for almost 20 years.
Prudence Mapstone- ok, she’s a (gasp) crocheter, but her work makes my head explode.
Barbara Walker- besides the obvious reasons, anyone who started out making designs for Barbie has to be a genius in my book!
And of course, you’d be there Stephanie, as the host. (What? All this and I have to clean my house too!?)
Hmmmm…so many to chooose and yet so few…
1..Wendy Johnson…she’s just a down-to-earth knitter and person. The very practical person that she is has one of the best toe-up sock patterns I’ve ever seen.
2…Melissa Leapman….because she designs some of best garments that will fit any figure, including mine. I’d probably ask her to design something for me! (I have self-serving motivations here!)
3…you…so I could share with you what it’s going to be like as your girls get older (mine are now nearly 21 and two 17 year olds). I want to see your hair go straight. 😉
We’ll all go stash diving after dinner!! I’d ask each of you to pick one yarn (whatever quantity I have) and suggest what I should make for it…of course, there go my original plans out the window, but, hey, I’m flexible!
Oh, and I’m making you my famous pizza. Teens flock to my house for my pizza! (And you think YOUR house is crazy at times.)
1. Kaffe Fassett. He’s such a hoot.
2. Franklin Habit of the Panopticon (with Dolores)
3. Eleanor Roosevelt
You, Nancy Bush, and Julia Child. Hey, someone has to cook! You, Nancy and I will be too busy knitting and laughing.
What’s the address – Shelly should remember the old adage: Be careful what you wish for…
3 knitters for dinner? Easy.
Maggie Righetti
Barbara Walker
Joan Schrouder
All for their technical genius – I’ve learned so much from them, yet I know there is so much more I want to know!
Franklin Habit – not just as a knitter, but as a fascinating dinner companion
You, Harlot, because you feed my obsession every day
Toni ? from The Fold (Socks That Rock) because I know she could give me the one more reason I need to start spinning…
An above Yarn Harlot blog reader mentions Jim Simpson from a magazine article. It sounds fascinating, if she reads this and still has the magazine, is there anyway I could get a copy of said article emailed to me?
Thanks!
Joan
jfarndt@gmail.com
Elizabeth Zimmermann, natch. Taught me to be Opinionated
Priscilla Gibson Roberts, spinner and knitting historian.
Kristin Nicholas, because she’s the most overflowingly creative people I know.
1. Russell Crowe
2. A Samurai ( I read that they had to knit to supplement their income when noone needed samurai anymore)
3. Ysolda
4th and 5th place are Audrey Hepburn and Lily Tomlin
1. *You*, Steph!
2. Sally Melville
3. Maggie Righetti
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman
2. You
3. Amy Singer
We’d be guaranteed to have a great time.
http://zeneedle.typepad.com/
Margene
and Susan
http://www.ma2ut.blogspot.com/
i read them both every day. the BigName designers are all to the good but Margene is lovely and Susan’s designs are graceful; i’ve learned from her designs.
you’re the third at the table because i love your heart. hug hug
and Molly Weasley; seeing her in the movie carrying her knitting in a verry large bag made the movie for me … lol…
1. I’d want to invite Kaffe Fassett, because whatever he’d be working on would be fabulous and his mere presence inspirational;
2. I’d invite some rural knitter from a faraway place and long-ago time, & learn about her world(and get to try out her wool);
3. and lastly, but not least, I’d invite my mom, who died 18 years ago, but who taught me how to knit when I was eight (with green dpns and lilac coloured acrylic), and whenever I hear the busy sound of clacking needles, I think of her knitting, her ability to change and combine patterns, and the quiet satisfaction that knitting time gave to her busy life.
3 all time great knitters ……… firstly i live with the thought that there are some great knitters i’m just not familiar with yet… but with the knowledge i have i would have to put elizabeth zimmerman at the top (i once read her biography/knitting chronicle and i was just charmed by her. vaguely recall seeing her on PBS as a teen and wish i could have met her while she was still alive) and next would be Debbie Bliss. i often take down her books from my shelf just for the pleasure of ogling her designs. plus i got to attend a workshop/talk given by her at a long ago session of the CSNF. and always live with the faint hope that she will once again return to the annual event (so far she hasn’t).. but i don’t know who i would put 3rd….
Yah, only 4?? Elizabeth Zimmerman, Meg Swansen, Elsebeth Lavold, and Nancy Bush are the ones I tend to admire the most and think would be pleasant company, but everyone’s list above sounded great too. But I would of course also have to have all my cyberfriends, which is not I think what you were getting at….
Maggie Righetti-she has a fabulous understanding of knitting, and a great outlook. You, because you make me laugh out loud while reading your words, and my Grandma Jean, who taught me to knit, and I still miss every single day.
1) Mum who taught me to knit
2) Eleanor Roosevelt because Mum would be happy to talk to her ( not shy as usual)
3) Kaori O’Connor a real genius with two-strands making impressive patterns.
My three knitters:
1. Alice Starmore – I LOVE Fair Isle!
2. You, of course
3. my grandmother (famous only to me, but she’s the one who taught me to knit and I really, really miss her!)
p.s. I think anyone who is “silly” enough to ask for “some” yarn deserves to be buried. I’m in!
HA HA! I would LOVE to see pictures of a house buried in sock yarn!
If I had to pick three knitters they would have to be:
1. My maternal grandmother because she died when I was very young, but apparently was a great knitter.
2. Grommit, from Wallace and Grommit.
3. Debbie Stoller because I have enjoyed her books so much.
HOWEVER, from reading knitting blogs I’ve realized that what I really need to do for a good knitting time is come to Toronto! So, I think maybe a road trip is in order. They are easier, more fun, and less spooky than a seance.
my three knitters:
Dot (who taught me)
Kate (the first person I taught)
Hannah Moore (awesome 18th Century feminist knitter- well, more famous for promoting education but the fact that she knitted EVERY girl who left one of her schools a pair of stockings indicates an obsession with yarn and a generous spirit)
As for the sock yarn… how is she going to hoard that stash? maybe she should ask for a skip to put it in too.
I would choose Elizabeth Zimmerman, whose approach to knitting was so freeing and enlightening. Lucy Neatby because I love her sock designs, attention to detail and she’s a riot. And you dear Harlot, you have opened up a whole new world which has encouraged knitters to come out of hiding and proudly show off their craftiness. Your books have reassured me that I’m only one of a mighty group of crazy, obsessive knitters. Thank you.
Consider the house buried.
My 3 picks would be:
Elizabeth Zimmerman, although I’ve not read anything by her yet, I just think her invention of the pi shawl is genius. And from what I gather her other stuff is pretty smart too 🙂
Monkee of Fruitcakes Knitting as she was the reason why I started knitting lace a year ago (if a 16 yo could do it, so could I LOL) and she’s fun too 🙂
And of course The Yarn Harlot… what would our knitting lives be without your funny books and blog?
cheers Eva
Really now ladies, couldn’t you have a pretty damn good dinner party with any three knowledgable and addicted knitters around? I’ve been sorta knitting (sorta off and on to be true) for 60 years yet have learned more in the last two years since I dropped into this Internet world than in any other year except that first one when I didn’t know what purl meant.
Having said that and assuming that our beloved YH would be the honorary guest, I’d invite
EZ and Meg
Eunny Jang, our next knitting superstar
My grandmother, Bess McIntyre who taught me how to knit and would be so very blown away by what people are doing today
Oh yes, I’ve got bits of leftover sock yarn to go and I always wind them up very neatly.
Nora
For that knitters’ dinner:
Miss Marple from the Agatha Christie books (the films don’t always show her knitting but she ALWAYS did in the books – a ball of fleecy wool on her lap, needles flashing…)
And yes, certainly Madame Defarge. Because I could never work out when ‘the knitting women counted One…’ whether it was a stitch or a row. If a row they’d have to be fast. If a stitch… a bit slow, surely?
Cyril Cullen, the Irish designer who moved successfully from being a civil servant to knitting sweaters – a courageous move in the 1960s. He still works out his own patterns and his daughters play the harp (honestly)so they could provide the dinner music.
There may be a “higher and better” use for leftover sock yarn than to bury a knitter’s house…last month Janet Szabo posted a project of knitting 5″ squares for the Warming Grace project which makes blankets for leukemia patients, especially children. Check her out at bigskyknitting.com. Solves the problem of leftover stash AND you also get to knit it up!That’s where my leftovers will go.
I may be an oddball or just slightly “off”, but I actually wouldn’t choose some famous or “perfect” knitters to come to my house. I would choose friends from my knitting group….ideally, I would be able to choose more than three (since all of my knitting buddies are truly awesome)…but, if I could only choose 3, I would choose Laurin, Jackie and Vicki. These three friends (who are each very different) bring me a combination of comfort, laughter, caring, inspiration and FUN…which are the essential ingredients for the perfect knitting atmosphere…don’t you think?
Norah Gaughan
I am love her design capacity and technical expertise
Kathy Zimmerman
Cable Galore. She truly is a cable queen, she found what she loves to do and does it extremely well. I ALWAYS look forward to seeing her designs.
Kristin Nicholas (formerly of Classic Elite)
While I love Kaffe Fassett he has done some incredibly beautiful things, Kristin has touched a place in my heart as well. I love her boldly colored designs and feel like she is attainable —if that makes any sense.
In order, the three knitters I would most like to have for dinner (and knitting discussions):
1. My Grandmother, Helen Marie*
2. My Great Aunt Grace*
3. Any woman from the 18th century**
*These two women knit like the wind (thanks, Brenda) – and could crank out entire sweaters in a day (for adults!). They passed before I learned to knit, so I’d love to learn a little something (anything!) from them.
**How did these women manage their time to cloth and feed their families??
1. Nicky Epstein (for creative whimsy),
2. Lily Chin (for design technique and tailoring ideas, not to mention humor),
3. and geeeeeee, I’m torn between either Elizabeth Zimmerman or Meg Swansen… can’t I call them a mother/daughter team and morph them together? We often pull a chair into a corner of the table for an extra party. Can I do that with them? 😉
Fun question.
(I was saddened to not be able to include Alice Starmore, but it would be a long flight for her anyway. The others live closer to home.)
Someone’s going to have fun tallying up all these votes… let me add mine to the already overflowing totals for:
Elizabeth Zimmerman. Revolutionized my approach and attitude towards knitting. Calm and down to earth and reassuring in her writing. Gave me the confidence to tackle just about anything.
Alice Starmore. While there’s a lot that can be said about her legal battles, and I’m not sure that I’d ever actually manage to knit an adult-size garment on size 2 needles, there is no underestimating the creativity and beauty of her designs. Plus in de-mythologizing the origins of Aran sweaters, she did us all a favour. Now if only the book were back in print….
And finally: Debbie Stoller. Because she introduced a whole new generation, including me, to the art of knitting, and made it communal. Knitting is no longer something that one just does in the privacy of one’s own home – instead, thanks to Deb’s book, you can see Stitch’n’Bitch groups proudly KIPping in coffee shops everywhere.
Since you said dead or alive I would have to say:
1. My mother, alive and well but living 15000km away, so just a drop in dinner for knitting and laughs would be great. She’s the one that started me 43 years ago…
2. My Great Great Aunt Elise who was so creative with her needles back in the sixties, she looked so old to me, but made exquisite shawls for the hippies, had the craziest sense of color and also taught me how to make hats. I miss her.
3. My mother in law Pam, who when I met her had needles in her hands, an instant common interest, and we spent many a night watching TV and knitting away. She left us 3 years ago.
So, you see, the chance to have one more dinner with the knitters that influence still my life the most directly would be a dream come true.
Valérie
Very interesting question.
1) Elizabeth Zimmerman for a plethora of reasons but mostly because I don’t think she ever lost her fascination with what could be made with a couple of sticks and a ball of string
2) A little old lady in the Shetland Islands who spun and knit those magical, gossamer shawls for 70 years (I don’t know her name but I know she exists or existed – I would love to touch history through her)
3) A woman who lived in the time when there was no choice but for her to spin and knit but who still found joy in it.
1)& 2) My late grandmothers, who together taught me to crochet and knit, and tried to teach me sewing and tatting. I’d like them to see how far I’ve come at all 4.
3) The Harlot, who’s first book (a gift from my knitting mom-in-law) made me realize that the way knitting had suddenly taken over my life, in the short time since I had tried it again since being a child, was actually normal.
barbara walters? she’s a knitter? in addition to being a pioneer for women in broadcast–
oh. barbara walker. nevermind.
Elizabeth Zimmerman – because her asides make me laugh and because I learned sweater basics from her video and books.
Mary Schiffmann – because I started knitting lace after reading the book compiled from her notes and because she sounds like a wonderful person. What can I say about a woman who writes thank-you notes to public figures whose work she admires on Thanksgiving?
Gladys Thompson – because I admire her passion for preserving traditional patterns and because I’d like to meet the woman who climbed onto a fisherman’s boat to examine his sweater properly — back when ladies were ladies and didn’t do that sort of thing.
You – because you’ll be the hostess, and you make me laugh every day. You make my mother (who is in her eighties and getting pretty fragile) laugh every day. What would we do without you?
I’m so thrilled with the way I got four knitters out of three!
————————-
Alice Starmore
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Meg Swansen
About 10 years ago I spend the summer assisting my anthropology professor in Jordan. I was 19, scared, and homesick. Most nights were spent visiting a Bedouin family where within 5 minutes I was handed a glass of tea, a drop spindle, and a pile of wool. I spent every evening that summer learning to spin wool with these women and enjoying their company (even though we didn’t speak the same language). I still have that drop spingle and the spun wool (the start of the stash!). My choice for dinner companions would be these bedouin women who not only introduced me to a hobby I love, but treated me with sincere warmth and kindness.
Elizabeth Zimmermann — godmother to us all
Barbara Walker — whose stitches encourage the budding designer
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee — who has both passion and perspective, a critical combination
I would have to pick Elizabeth Zimmerman, Elsbeth Lavold, and you. My daughter would be a close fourth and would probably sit in on the discussion.
Oops, I left out la Grumperina, adventurous, scientific, obsessive about perfection knitter.
Here are my thoughts (sorry, it’s 5, but three is too limiting):
June Hemmons Hiatt, who wrote the BOOK on knitting, and must know everything there is to know about it, what a resource she is;
Nancy Bush and Charlene Schurch, who both are whizzes at knitting, but who both have done real research into past cultural knitting traditions, Nancy with Estonian knitting, and Charlene with the Komi in Russia (and who are both sock knitters extraordinaire!);
Lucy Neatby for her flair and ability to push the envelope! AND
Sally Melville, because she’s fun, approachable, talented and so knowledgeable about all things to do with fiber. Mary B
I would want Elizabeth Zimmermann, Sally Melville and you. All three of whom have helped me not just know “how to knit”, but really understand what I’m doing (at least a little.)
Unfortunately, I’m only on about my third pair of socks, so my leftovers won’t go far.
You, Cat Bordhi and Queer Joe.
Korean Barbecue (they do veggies) and hot saki.
EZ for the great company, and for initiating the tradition of great writers who knit;
Mary Rowlandson, Puritan woman taken hostage by Indians during King Philip’s War, 1675. She knitted socks during her captivity, traded them with the Indians for food. But how did she do it? What did she use for needles? Yarn?
Mrs.Ramsey in To the Lighthouse, who knits socks for the lighthouse-keeper’s son.
1st, someone named Stephanie Pearl-McPhee who enjoys it so much and does it so well, and is so witty
2nd, my Aunt Judith who designed patterns for knitting books and Broadway stars from the 40s to the 60s and taught me to knit but died before I became passionate about it and could learn much from her
3rd, the French woman whose name I don’t know who has a blog that displays her work which is awesome
I don’t know who I’d invite, but I do have another comment. I just bought At Knit’s End, and I adore it…the only problem is…it isn’t knitting friendly. See, any knitter worth their salt would want to knit and read at the same time. Your next knitting book should be spiral bound so we can joyfully read and knit (and drink coffee) at the same time!!!:-)
Elizabeth Zimmerman (Can Meg Swansen come with her? Their warm, affectionate relationship shines through on their tapes.) Lucy Neatby (my sock goddess.) Sally Melville.
If one of the above has another engagement (and looking at the lists before me, these ladies will be busy into the next Millennium) I’d invite Maggie Riggetti, the Twisted Sisters, Perri Klass.
Eunny Jang – I love her lace
Susanna E. Lewis, – I love her book on lace
Evelyn Clark – I love her lace.
I think I see a theme here.
My Grandmother and my Great Grandmother, both of whom where avid knitters before I learned. I think they’d be scandalized that a guy in my dorm taught me how to knit. Of course, within a month my scarves were infinately better than his, so that might comfort them.
One of the “You Knit What?!?!” Bloggers. Because I’d love to see the look on their faces when they see some of the designs on there.
long time reader first time commenter/or? whatever.
Three knitters for dinner:
Elizabeth Zimmerman-you know why
Kristen Nicholas-she’s cool and oh so colorful and got me back to knitting
My grandma-who taught me in the first place, but if it had to be a notable then I’d have to say YOU, cuz I love to sit/chat/drink/knit with you some day…ever coming to Appleton, WI????:)
Man, some of the comments were tear jerkers.
My Grandma Mercier, who really did reach SABLE status – I ended up with a slew of needles, WIP and yarn (labeled and un).
My aunt Marilyn (dad’s sister), who doesn’t knit as much any more since she was diagnosed with MS, but has been finishing off some of Grandma Mercier’s WIP.
My aunt Suzy (mom’s sister), who tends to do other crafts these days, but recently knit a set of slippers with suspenders for her sister’s dog.
My perspective on the three knitters most influential to the modern knitter?
1. Elizabeth Zimmermann
2. Barbara Walker
3. Alice Starmore
However. The three knitters I’d most like to get around the table with good wine and good food?
1. Debbie Bliss (Good)
2. Norah Gaughan (Fun)
3. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (that is Funny!)
Burying someone in leftover sock yarn sounds like more fun than is healthy. 🙂 Sign me up!
Top three knitters?
Kim Hargreaves
Debbie New
and the woman who designs all that shibori knitted stuff. So cool! (she was featured in IK one month..)
Like some other posters, I’m not very familiar with some of the greats of knitting, eg Elizabeth Zimmermann, Barbara Walker, so although I’m sure the rest of you are correct in your admiration for them, I wouldn’t have them on my personal list. Not yet anyway.
I would definitely invite you, Stephanie. You make me laugh out loud, something so few writers manage – and it’s not just the knitting; you’re funny about everything!
I would also invite Kerrie Allman, of HipKnits, partly because I love her work but also to ask her how she fits in all the stuff she does – she’s planning a sewing website now!
And finally, Ann Shayne & Kay Gardiner – who I’m counting as one 🙂
Having come back to knitting after a long time (and only ever being a novice first time round) their Mason Dixon book is proving to be so inspiring for me, as for many others.
Having said all that, I might just have to bounce one of you to include Russell Crowe……only joking!
Good luck with the house burial. If anyone can make this happen, it has got to be you!
My choices:
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman – because of her great contribution to knitting, and I think she’d be funny and entertaining.
2. Kaffe Fassett – because he changed the look of knitting when it was threatening to get boring and shrivel up and almost die.
3. Maggie Jackson – because she’s so off-the-wall with her designs and her humour… and I love her accent!
I didn’t include you, Stephanie, as I’m assuming that you’re hosting this wonderful dinner. Cherry cake anyone?
The knitters that have provided me with the most inspiration, are (in no particular order):
Elizabeth Zimmermann – because she made knitting appear fun/understandable/facinating.
Biship Rutt – reading his research made me yearn to learn more about knitting from all aspects.
Maggie Righetti – gave me the courage to try techniques and projects that I might not have tried until she demystified the process of knitting.
Eunny Jang – for sharing on her blog her process of designing (from start to finish) with pictures/swatches/knitting/finishing/etc. that gave me the courage to start designing my own.
I know I went over three – but, I’d give up my place at the table and sit quietly in the corner to have these four at the table!!
I’m a rule-breaker – I refuse to stop at just three.
– Annie Modesitt, for being the Heretic and validating my personal method.
– Amy Singer and Jillian Moreno, for the fantabulous cultural phenomenon (and kick-a** patterns) that is Knitty.com.
– Sharon of KnitKnacks (http://sharonstuff.typepad.com/knitknacks/), a very skilled knitter with another great slice-of-life blog (and who e-mails me every time I comment [not a tweak, Steph, I promise!]).
– The three extra-special-est members (by my estimation) of the special group that is the Central Houston Stitch ‘n’ Bitch for sure, and perhaps another four or five really-special ones.
– The owners of Twisted Yarns in Spring, Texas (which should really be one of your stops within the next year! HINT! HINT with a doorframe!) for the best yarn shop in the Houston area.
– And naturally, your lovely self, especially since I’ll be driving *all the way* to Austin (with at least 3 other SnBers) to see you!
uh oh….
Shelly’s server has been buried….
“The page you are looking for is currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings.”
Delurking…
I would invite:
you (I love your books and blog, so fun and truthful),
my Gran (she’s the one who taught me to knit-twice-and I primarily use her needles to knit with-they are the old plastic models)
and Elizabeth Zimmerman (I always drool over her patterns and pieces).
:)K
My three would be
Cat Bordhi
Maggie Righetti
and you (of course)
Audrey Hepburn should be at the table too.
1. Of course the greats Mary, Barbara, Maggie, Alice, and Elizabeth.
2. Kim Hargreaves for her beautiful designs and for making quite a career for herself; Bonne Marie Burns of Chicknits because she was knitting and blogging about it long before it was cool.
3. The ordinary women of knitting history: the knitters of the original Bohus cooperative, the knitters of the Shetland Islands, and those who knitted for Victory during WWII.
Debbie Bliss because her yarn and books are my life.
Debbie Stroller because she can teach anyone to knit and is totally awesome, and of course,
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee because she has loads of fans and still manages to make each one feel like a personal friend and because I’ve never before laughed until I cried while reading a knitting masterpiece (apart from patterns that were literally driving me to laughter and tears simultaneously, but we’re talking comedy not insanity here)!
P.S. You better not exclude yourself from that hypothetical dinner just because it’s your book and you want to be modest. You made the rules.
I’d like to see a fictional characters round table. Mme. DeFarge, Miss Marple and (geekily) Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. They can talk about the many uses for knitting — to liberate elves, to record names of enemies for future use, to serve as a cover while you solve crimes … At any rate, you wouldn’t want to be up to anything with those three around.
I’m about to geek out here, so please forgive me!
1. Virgin Mary (all those pictures of her knitting in the round have to be based on something….!)
2. EZ.
3. Stephanie something or other. Writes a blog. Very funny. Regularly makes me snarf my tea.
Anyone who reads this blog or who does anything crafty (ok, I admit it, I can knit but choose not to, my fibre-fix-o’choice is quilting) SHOULD KNOW BETTER THAN TO ASK for leftovers. She will get sooooooo buried.
And a knitting dinner party – since I’m not the first to break the 3-guest limit (always room for one more, eh, be it dinner guest, yarn or fabric):
– my mother, who has been a Knitter for as long as I can remember
– her mother, who knitted for all of her family and then took leftover yarn from all & sundry to knit mittens & children’s sweaters for her church bazaars (I’m sure a sizeable percentage of Vancouver Island children wore something she’d made)
– my daughter, who inherited part of her grandmother’s and her aunt’s stash, who learned to knit by herself from a book, and who teaches me something every day with her readiness to frog until perfection is reached
– St Elizabeth Zimmerman, for all the wonderful reasons everyone else has given
– her daughter Meg Swanson, ditto
– the Yarn Harlot & her daughters (see a theme developing here?)
– Franklin, partly for his own knitterly skills and wonderful humour, and part cuz we’d all need a really good photo of the evening.
1. YOU!!!
2. Brenda Dayne
You will soon meet my number 3 – Suzanne Middlebrooks, the owner of Hill Country Weavers in Austin, Texas. She is my enabler, supplier, and the reason for my addiction to knitting – and, actually, my addiction to you and Brenda!!
Nancy Bush, Elizabeth Zimmermann, and Meg Swansen. Then I’d have Kate Gilbert, Sivia Harding, and maybe Eunny of Eunny knits drop by for dessert.
I would love to have Grace Ennis, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and………..The Yarn Harlot (but only if you remember “The Sock.)
Elizabeth Zimmermann
Sally Melville
Kaffee Fassett
mmm…
1. Miss Cornelia of Anne’s House of Dreams by L. M. Montgomery–this busybody and knitter extraordinaire is so funny! “Just like a man!”
2. Some gal in Toronto who regularly inspires me and keeps me chuckling. 🙂
3. Well, I don’t like Mme DeFarge much (she’s an unsavory character) but I would want to see her knitting dictionary. Prolly Kate Gilbert or Laura Ingalls Wilder.
Let’s bury her house! Where do we send it to?
Three knitters —-
Miss Marple (Agatha Christie’s detective) – I love the way she used her knitting and persona (gentle, slighty scatterbrained old lady) to lull the criminals into a false sense of security and then BAM – she proves his/her guilt!
Elizabeth Zimmerman – I’ve learned so much from reading her books and admire her for being a Knitter long before most of us caught on.
Debbie Bliss – her baby designs are so darling, I especially like the donkey jacket
Alan Alda (watch M*A*S*H re-runs, the man can knit)
You (to keep the laughs going)
Debbie Stoller (Stitch n Bitch taught me how to knit)
The four of us with some wine on hand? That would be a wild party. 🙂
1) Babara Walker
2) Sally Mellville
3) Nancy Bush
These are the authors of books I refer to most often; however, three is not enough! If I had a big dining table I would invite 4) Many Thomas, 5) Elizabeth Zimmerman, 6) Debbie New, 7) Myrna Stahman, 8) Meg Swansen, 9) Katherine Alexander, 10) Charlene Schurch, 11) Alice Starmore, 12) Susanna Lewis
Working out the seating arrangements would be fun 🙂
I have to put in another vote for Brenda Dayne, her podcast helps me keep perspective about knitting and is always highly entertaining.
My other two picks would be Véronik Avery and Theresa Stenersen.
Well, it is gonna be a very American teaparty! And now for some European/Dutch very influentual knitters:
1. Kaffe Fassett (he let knitting become art)
2. Vibeke Lind (She wrote the best book on Nordic knitting ever)
3. Henriette Beukers (She founded the best ever magazine on needlecraft in the eighties; Handwerken zonder Grenzen (Needlecraft without boundaries) And it still is alive and kicking!
Sasha Kagan – she taught a course I took, and gave me the courage to do stranded knitting in both hands – and I want to have dinner in her garden, the pictures she showed us were yummy!
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee – you make me feel so normal and your funny!
Elizabeth Zimmermann – she was the first one I read telling me it was ok to break all the rules and do what works for me.
sorry for the typo – you’re funny, not your funny
I think of you as the Erma Bombeck of knitting
1. choosing which knitters I’d like to eat dinner with is worthy of a post of my own, since I’m going to have to ponder it. There are so many! So, for a complete answer, I’ll have to ask you to check my blog tomorrow… but among the throngs are 1) Elizabeth Zimmerman, who opened so many possibilities to so many people, and let us know that WE are masters of our knitting, and not the reverse, and who has a lovely wry sense of humor (and yes, I used the present tense on purpose); 2) you, who keep us laughing through all the knitterly nightmares; 3) Barbara Walker, Anna Zilboorg, Jade Starmore, Meg Swansen, Franklin, Maggie Righetti, um… more!
2. Oh yes, I’d LOVE to bury her house!
The knitter who turned the heel on a sock for the first time.
Whoever first thought to carve a pulley groove on the rim of a spindle whorl.
The knitter who in 1649 knitted 80 perfect repeats of double diamond brocade in blue silk, to make the front of an undershirt for King Charles. The inspiration of our knitter’s exquisite diamonds has long outlived the king.
I choose:
1. Mary Thomas – who wrote a brilliant set of books on knitting and embroidery and could tell us about knitting in olde worlde times.
2. Elizabeth Zimmerman for her pith and wit.
3. Brenda Dayne – I think she’d be a good dinner party knitter and she could record the conversation for her podcast and then everyone could enjoy it.
Three people for me would be wished for as follows:
Amy and Jillian of Big Girl Knits fame — because their book literally made me cry. What sweet and much needed relief for all women of all shapes and sizes. For their message that we are really all okay as we are at any given moment. And for their reminder that the old tradition of personalized/fitted clothing might do us a world of good in our postmodern world.
Sally Melville — because she wrote a most lovely, gracious, and supportive ‘review’ of Amy and Jillian’s book. That spoke volumes about her, and marked her as a person I would really like to be around. And because her book was the first one that made me want to let go of my crochet hook for a second and learn to knit as well.
That is three.
And you will be there right? — shall I tell you why you’d need to be there? — because of your third book and its ability to liberate through knowledge! Knowledge is power. And that third book is a powerful liberator. (your first two books are lovely, btw. I am just blown away by the third)
Have over because of inspiration:
1). Alice Starmore- for Aran Knitting alone
2). Barbara Walker- for the 4 books
3). Nancy Bush- the socks are just too cool
Have over for fun:
1). You
2). Cara from January One
3). Crazy Aunt Purl
I started reading about the ‘three knitters’ yesterday but it was this morning that I realized who I would really like to see. It’s more then three knitters, though. It would be my mother, her sisters, my grandmother, her mother and aunts etc. to thank them for instilling in me the belief that knowing how to knit, to quilt, to sew, to can food, to smock, to bake bread, to do all of this ‘woman’s work’ was and is just as meaningful and important as any work.
Three knitters – easy! Grumperina, Cara, and Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. You may’ve heard of her. 🙂
1) Richard Rutt – not just for the amazing amount of knowledge he must have amassed writing his amazing book, but because he strikes be as ever so slightly, and endearingly, strange. For a bishop, he is strangely catty at times, and his story in the introduction about accidentally teaching himself intarsia as a boy whilst failing to knit a fair-isle of his pet hamster… Well, it could make for an interesting evening
2) Mary Thomas – yes, groundbreaking knitting book, wide ranging knowledge, blah blah blah – but ALSO WW1 nurse, suffragist, single mum, and member of the london buddhist society (all before 1950).
3) Stephanie – for her knowledge and wit, and because it could be useful to have someone funny around to change the subject if religious discussion between (1) and (2) became too heated…
If crocheters were also allowed, it’d become trickier, as Su Richardson, member of British postal art group Feministo in the late 1970s, would be a tempting prospect. Like many members of the group she used textile crafts to explore both the positive and negative feelings of young women and feminists towards femininity and housewifery (Guess what I did for my dissertation?)
1. Mom, because she taught me to knit and because she’s one of the smartest, gutsiest, best-read, most entertaining people I know.
2. Barbara Walker, feminist knitter who appreciates the brain, soul, and work of women and men.
3. You, because you’re brilliant and funny as hell and remind me all the time why I love knitting. And I want to watch you make Barbara Walker avoid spitting coffee all over the table.
My three picks would be
1. Russell Crowe (he’d be the dessert)
2. Debbie Macomber
3. a knitter from Turkey who works at Yarn Paradise.com
And Stephanie of course as host/mediator!
I already submitted my three knitters and then realized you might think I wouldn’t want to sit and have dinner with you (since you weren’t on the list). However, what I really meant is you, me, and then the other three!!
Well, The Harlot, of course. Then Barbara Walker. The third person would be someone who doesn’t knit. That way I could be the third best knitter in the room.
Elizabeth Zimmerman – who helped me realize that what I was doing wasn’t WRONG.
Barbara Walker – I have had her over and she is charming.
Kaffe Fassett – Who made me realize that other people like wild color also.
Well, you of course would be first. Then Cat Bordhi, and could Ann and Kay count as one? That would be my perfect list – though I do like the idea of dessert. Instead of Russell Crowe I would invite Johnny Depp. I heard a rumour that he knits too….
1) Nicky Epstein
2) Eunny Jang
3) the elusive ‘First Knitter’
Barbara Walker and Debbie New: both so brilliant, both so well rounded and accomplished in many different areas of life, and both have provided so much inspiration to make my own things in my own way without a pattern.
I’d ask these people to discuss their vision for the next direction in knitting design because they all approach knitting as an artform:
Elspeth Lavold — Amazing interpretation and expression of the spirit of Scandinavian history in knitting design
Kaffee Fassett — Thinking out of the box to combine the design elements of of painting and knitting
Alice Starmore — Command of color theory and design
Moderator: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Dinner: Anything Vegetarian
Johnny Depp, YES! Do you think he might have knit the angora sweater he wore in “Ed Wood”? 😉
You.
Crazy Aunt Purl. (with the cats, too)
Amie Boogie.
ONLY three? Ugh. Lessee…not Zib or Wendy b/c I’ll actually be seeing Zib in a week, and Wendy only lives about 400 miles away from me, so it’s somewhat likely I’ll hang out with her eventually. That makes those two not “fantasy”, but reality.
If I can’t invite them, then it would be:
– Elizabeth Zimmerman
– Barbara Walker
– the Harlot, of course
Now, if I could have a nice, big dinner/knitting party, I would also include:
– Zib
– Wendy (of Knit and Tonic)
– Elizabeth M. (to round out the trio)
– Amy Singer
– Jen & La
– my Tuesday night knitting gang
Yarn Harlot
Sally Melville
Goldie Hawn and her daughter Kate (mother daughter count as one!)
Katharine Cobey taught me how to spin on a Rio Grande wheel in her Torpedo Factory studio about twenty years ago. I love her work. My first choice for a dinner guest.
Elizabeth Zimmerman, definitely.
Pam Allen.
Steph, we could take this further – imagining the conversations between the guests, i.e.
Mme Defarge: ‘It was always so satisfactory to finish ze row just as ze aristocrat’s head fell into ze basket…’
Miss Marple: ‘You know you remind me so much of a woman in our village. She always dropped her stitches too at moments of crisis. It was that which led me to suspect her in the first place…’
Okay. . . .
Elizabeth Zimmerman—because she was brilliant? NO!!. . . .because she settled in and therefore became a Wisconsinite! (I love my state!) Okay–because she was brilliant too.
My friend, Amy–because she taught me to knit and deserves the chance to meet Elizabeth too. Amy is also brilliant.
You–because I harbour this fantasy that we would have a lot to talk about–which is strange since we’ve never met. I also have a sneaking suspicion that it might be the only way to get you to visit Wisconsin (he he he).
I’d feed you all grilled brats boiled in beer (you’d get a boca brats instead), corn on the cob, watermelon, potato salad, and Leinenkugels Berry Weiss(an awesome wheat beer). We’d eat out in the back yard since my kitchen is way too small for so much personality! For dessert we’d go down to the ice cream factory (complete with enormous fiberglass cow in front) and have sundaes.
Okay–I’ve offically gone overboard!
Cheers! Hope to see you in Chicago
Debbie Bliss, because she “taught me to knit”, after a horrible knitting class experience.
Montse Stanley, because her Knitter’s Handbook has changed my knitting life, and I can’t believe anyone knows that many ways to cast on.
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, because you are hilarious and you remind me that it’s okay to be me with my knitting (and anywhere else, for that matter).
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee because I want my family to know there are other people who “not quite right and it’s the yarn’s fault.”
Elizabeth Zimmerman, Mary Thomas and Barbara Walker – I just want to listen to the three of them sit around and discuss stitch patterns.
Bev Galeskas – the person behind Fiber Trends, because I admire her business greatly.
I know that’s more than three, but I’m not very good at rules…..
1. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (of course)
2. Amy Singer
3. Brenda Dayne
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (for making knitting fun)
Elizabeth Zimmermann (for thinking outside the box)
Debbie New (for thinking way outside the box)
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (for making knitting fun)
Elizabeth Zimmermann (for thinking outside the box)
Debbie New (for thinking way outside the box)
1. Felicia from Sweet Georgia. Good lord, I could sit for hours and listen to her talk about color. She is such an inspiration.
2. Mrs. Weasley. I want to BE Mrs. Weasley.
3. My mom’s mom. She died before I was born, and she knit the afghan I eventually claimed as my own when I was little. It smells different than all the other blankets, you know?
The three knitters sitting at the round table eating tangled spaghetti ( has to be black spaghetti of course to make it a challenge are as follows :
Elizabeth Zimmermann for construction and technique,
Kaffe Fassett for colour and design
Amy Singer from Knitty for contemporary element
You of course Stephanie, would create a fantastic menu and some sort of challenge for them to create something probably out of the black spaghetti tangle in front of them. The conversation could be about …now is knitting art or craft? How I wish I could be a fly on the wall but then maybe we could get Brenda Dayne from Cast on to be around as well…… What say?
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman
2. Meg Swansen
3. Alice Starmore
-You!
-My mum
-My grandma
Well, as for two more so that you may actually use the results:
-EZ
-Debbie Stoller
Runner up? Sally Melville.
And, while I know that you despise summer for the teenager factor, we adolescents quite enjoy it. I try not to drive my mum crazy… but fail. : ) The fact that I knit appeases her a bit.
OK – hard.
We’re assuming you’re there, else you’re on the list. So, there’s you. And me. And, because I can’t imagine you’d say no, I’m bringing my wife, because as a knitter she inspires me. I taught her to knit, then she taught me to purl, and we’ve taught each other everything else as we’ve learned it (including why swifts are necessary).
Sooooo…
Barbara Walker- stitch dictionaries until she got bored, and then feminist fairy tales and goddess stuff – my kinda gal.
MamaCate – Because reading her inspires me. She has so much more busyness in her life than I, but she’s always got time to knit, blog, and love.
And Louise from Yarn Forward – my LYS and the online store I like best, who gets me Fleece Artist yarn to match Fiddlesticks patterns. I would have to include her because she’d kill me otherwise, because she dances and claps in joy at knitting, and because she’s just plain helpful at fixing _anything_
You, just because you’d be a stitch. Hah! a stitch!!
Brenda Dayne because i adore her candor and voice.
Melanie Falick, because i’m a lover of gorgeous knitting books.
I’d invited Madame DeFarge because I’d want her to teach me the code she used, and I’d like to learn how to knit like that!
Elizabeth Zimmerman! No contest there – her books gave me the courage to branch out and do my own thing in knitting. Since I first read Knitter’s Almanac I doubt if I’ve worked a pattern the way it’s printed and I usually find some way to work it in the round so I don’t have to sew seams.
1. Madame DeFarge- I 2nd yarnmonkey for the ultimate knitting dictionary idea. I’ve often wondered exactly what her stitches/codes were and what her finished objects look liked. Plus, she could help me knit faster.
2. Hermione Granger- She has such an independent streak in her at such a young age and I think we could start a mass plan to free house elves.
3. Hawkeye Pierce- He could make us laugh if the talk became too bleak.
Geez, only three?
Dead ones:
Elizabeth Zimmerman, of course.
Mme DeFarge
The Lady who wrote “The Workwoman’s Guide” (c. 1838) so I can ask her WTF some of her abbreviations mean. Redacting period patterns is a be-otch.
Live and Kicking ones:
Franklin (and Dolores)
The Yarn Harlot
Meg Swanson
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Oh, I don’t know who the other two should be, but EZ MUST be one of them.
And, Diana/Orris, uh, I may be wrong, but I think Barbara G. Walker of the stitch dictionaries is NOT the same as Barbara G. Walker who critiques patriarchal religion and writes about goddess symbology.
Elizabeth Zimmerman, Nancy Bush and Montse Stanley: my three knitting heroines.
I wonder if they’d get along?
Let’s see . . .
I would have to invite:
1. my sister, Erika, because we are OCD about the craft
2. you, Stephanie, since I frequently call my sister about the latest post or what not; and
3. Melanie Fallick because “Weekend Knits” was the first book that I picked up after “revisiting” knitting that made me want to knit all the time.
Since I invited my sister, I am sure she will invite three people as well so I might be able to convince her to ask Elizabeth Zimmermann, Deb Stoller (or Debbie Bliss), and Wendy Bernard at Knit and Tonic.
Only three??? Like many of the 566(!!)folks before me, I would, of course assume that you would be there to carry the conversation with witty comments while I lurked all quiet and shy-like, just wicking up the wisdom and banter.
1)Elizabeth Zimmerman – my hero
2)Barbara Walker – because my parents gave me one of her stitch dictionaries for Christmas back in 1977 or so, and it has been a source of frequent inspiration ever since
3)Hard to choose here: either Nora Gaughan, Teva Durham, Debbie New or Eunny Jang. I honestly can’t pick. Maybe also Debbie Bliss, because every single baby / children’s sweater I have ever knit has been one of her patterns.
I wanna see that house!
A dinner party? How ’bout a kitchen table party? Cuz every knitter I’ve ever met (or read) seems way to unstuffy to spend time over a formal dinner.
Hmm, three guests. Here goes
1. The person who taught me to knit
(In my case, that’s my mum. She’s right handed. I’m not. She still taught me how.)
2. The Famous Personage
(For me that’s Lucy Neatby. I’m absolutely entranced by ‘Cool Socks Warm Feet’. I’d include you, but I don’t think you were looking for all-out adulation when you posed the question.)
3. The person who let me teach her how to knit
(That would be my daughter. It amazes me what I learn from watching her. I’ve sat her down {at her request}and gotten her started twice now. All I have to do is wait ten or 15 years for it to all come together and she’ll be knitting for herself!)
So, maybe the influential knitters aren’t famous ones after all. Maybe they’re the ones who keep the craft alive and well…
1) EZ, of COURSE
2) Cat Bordhi
3) The Harlot
As I was thinking who I’d choose, I knew EZ was first, of course, and then Cat….and then, “oh, of course, STEPHANIE!” And then I looked at some of the comments…did you expect that????? You’re a popular lady, keeping company with famous people!
In no particular order…
1. Barbara Walker
2. Elizabeth Zimmerman
3. Annie Modisett
… with YOU as host and moderator! (Though of course there would be no work for you. We’d have it catered…)
1) Elizabeth Zimmerman because she was the one who got me restarted and pattern free.
2) Patrica Gibson-Roberts for her love of fiber and her knowledge of the intricacies of the technical aspects of knitting. I took a class with her once and she separated us into subgroups by our knitting method, She identified more than 6 different knitting styes in the 20 people present.
3) Debbie New because her mind turns inside out.
1. Elizabeth Zimmermann, of course . . . for being everyone’s knitting grandmother and friend and inspiration . . . and I would ask her to bring her cats along too.
2. Barbara Walker, whose KNITTING FROM THE TOP DOWN remains one of the most intelligent knitting books ever published, and which was sent to me by interlibrary loan in 1972 when I was spending the winter on a remote little island in the Pacific Northwest, with no elecricity, no nothing, except lots of time to wander the trails, pick wild apples, dawdle along the shore, knit, and read. Her book awakened me to a lifetime of possibility and magic and made me forever faithful to seamless in the round knitting. I am pretty sure that Barbara shares DNA with Einstein.
3. Meg Swanson – who for decades has contributed so very much to the current wealth of technique, design, and fine knitting books, and for her deep and abiding sense of integrity and community which nourishes knitting today.
I would serve all four of you (Stephanie, you’re coming too, of course) a meal which would include fresh goat cheese from my three dairy goats. Yum! And afterward we would go for a walk along the beach and collect promising seaweeds to knit with, perhaps carving knitting needles out of driftwood. And then we’d have some very fine chocolate for dessert, and tea. And knit and talk late into the night.
Elizabeth Zimmermann: She and I corresponded 2ce monthly for several years, ending when I got too busy with work. We talked about knitting, politics, food, gardening, music. I wish we could pick up where we left off.
June Hemmons Hiatt: I’ve never read POK, and I know there are people who hate the book and June for having written it. I do have occasional email exchanged with her, ‘though, and I think that, of all the knitters I know (maybe I don’t know enough of them), she’s the one with the best handle on what’s actually going on in knitted fabric.
Erica Heftmann: fiber geek and dyeing genius. The only handspinner I know who consistently reverse-engineered her handspun yarns to ensure that she got what she wanted, and not what she’d end up with. We corresponded for a while about spinning and fibre, and I wish I could know if she’s even alive now. Even though she is not “a knitter” as EZ and JHH are, her disciplined approach to fibrecraft, and the knowledge base she accumulated because of it, enabled her to do amazing knitted pieces. She wrote a few articles for SpinOff in the ’90’s and they are — IMO — still some of the best things that magazine has ever published.
Debbie Stoller, because if knitting somehow got to be a slow conversation, there’s at least a thousand other things to talk about with her.
Man. I’ll bet this is giving you hives getting listed with the knitting greats. And you totally didn’t ask for it either, but like Rams says I guess, it is like herding kittens.
Cat Bordhi is interesting to me. I loved her YA book. I love her fly by the seat of your pants spirit. I love her reviews of Uncommon Knitting and the anarcist Knitting books.
EZ was so kind and encouraging.
And I love the idea of calling down some unnamed knitter who can shed light on the mysteries of knitting in her time.
Oh, thanks for this post, BTW. I had never heard of Debbie New before and now (after Cat Bordhi’s review of her book) I’m totally jonesing after Uncommon Knitting.
Also, I learned about Anna Zilboorg’s book.
Well, I say thanks and I mean it, but I also add up how much my knitting book desires cost and I am not strictly grateful.
Meg Swanson, Alice Starmore, and Elizabeth Zimmerman. Hands-down. Unless you want my Nana’s name…
1.Elizabeth zimmermann
2. Meg Swansen
3. Hanne Falkenberg
my Aunt Teresa – my inspiration for knitting
my neice Teresa – a 6 year old knitting genius
Melanie Falick – to thank her for “Kids Knitting” and everything that came after
1. Joel Speerstra, who knit an Aran cabled masterpiece for his very first sweater when we were in college and I thought knitting was for grannies.
2. Jessica Peterson, who opened Cottage Industry in the wilds of Minnesota and stubbornly refused to sell me an already-knitted sweater, insisting that knitting really was easy and I could knit a sweater all by myself.
3. You!!! Because Jessica has moved on to other things and I still live in the wilds of Minnesota and need moral support and knitting humor more often than I care to confess.
4. Yeah, Elizabeth Zimmermann. : )
Three influential knitters
My Mother
You (Stephanie)
Cindy Wilmot…..my friend who I taught to knit and has decided to move beyond squares (she has been a joy to mentor).
Sue
I can think of one knitter I would pick … my best friend’s mom, Catherine Ann, who passed away in December 2004. She was constantly knitting – at Little League games, school band concerts, sitting in that corner of her livingroom surrounded by yarn and needles and WIPs. I started knitting earlier this year. I think she’d be proud of me.
Lisa
Easy
My Grandma Florence
Elizabeth Zimmerman
You
I’ll make the lasagne, and provide the wine….
My three picks for the knit dinner:
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman – who apparantly believed
that there was no right way to knit!
2. Kaffe Fassett for his incredible use of color
and design.
3. YOU. You are indeed our “knitting guru”, with
your humor, wit and ability to laugh at and
with us all!
Knit on!
Having looked at all/not/many of the comments, I see a distinction between the “most influential of all time” category, in which case there’s a definite top 5-10 that reappeat (whether or not you would want to really have dinner with them, other that SPM)
So, in the totally personal category:
Kaffe Fassett and Zoe the real knitter
my mom
Carolyn B who got me restarted after almost 10 years of yarn-hiatus
I love all the others mentioned, especially the blog community, but these are my 3(4) choices for my dinner – assuming of course that you (fellow Cdn) are hosting, otherwise we have to increase the list to 4/5!
thanks
shannon
1. Just three you have got to kidding…and I can’t knit to save my life. I am trying.*sob*
2. *rustle-rustle* what her address…*laughs manically*
Eugen Beugler
Kaffe Fassett
Norman Kennedy
The stories!
I would love to talk with:
First-Elizabeth Zimmerman (I’ve loved her since the 70’s)
Second-Our dear little Stephie P-Mc(I’ve loved her for a year or so 🙂
Third-Would be a list too long to write. If you would just send the First or the Second one, (I know it’d be an amazing feat) I’d be happy.
I would love to have a meal with Wendy from Knit and Tonic, as long as we had a rather large supply of wine and California rolls. I think that you, Stephanie, would fit right into that party. Then, if I could change the format of time, I’d love to have another dinner with my Aunt Jennie who inspired me to try all of the fiber arts with confidence. I’ve lately wished that she were still among us to help me out on some of these difficult patterns!
Margaret Stove, Nancy Bush and while we’re wishing Elizabeth Zimmerman.
EZ-because she was a goddess among us:smart, funny(who says knitting books have to be stale?), strong and a mother. And if someone thought she was too into knitting, well, tough shit.
You, for basically the same reasons.
Meg Swansen, because she’s brilliant, and because I would love to see the interplay between her and her mama.
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Cat Bordhi
Mary Thomas
Debbie New
Barbara Walker
Sorry, can’t reduce it to three.
My 3 most influential knitters:
1) EZ – the woman knit while riding a motorcycle! Her practical approach to knitting allowed me to realize that I could be a “thinking knitter” and that I am master of my knitting. Meg Swansen must be included here for the same reasons.
2) Elsebeth Lavold – her designs are just gorgeous and her idea of interpreting ancient Viking art into knitting is absolutely intriguing to me. She’s allowed me to see knitting patterns in the most unlikely places.
3) Stephanie Pearl-McPhee – I must admit that for a long time (too long) I was a Yarn Harlot hold-out. Why would I want to read about another knitter’s knitting? But from the first moment I took a peek at your blog, I was hooked. I bought your books and I check the blog daily. You are a wordsmith of the highest order, your knitting and spinning projects are inspiring, and you introduced me to the world of knitting blogs, a community where I can feel “normal” about my/our fiber obsession. I can’t thank you enough.
Miss Marple
Alice Starmore
Stephanie Pearl McPhee
If everyone listed should come to a party what shear heaven that would be! Just three people can’t do, but you asked for three and here are mine:
1. The Virgin Mary, obvious reasons
2. Elizabeth Zimmermann, her popularity and talent
3. And you Stephanie for your natural charm and wit.
There are just too many people to list who have inspired me over the years!!! Thank you so much for the laughter:D
Stephanie Pearl McPhee
Because you truly are my idol.
And as I am personally buried in yarn, I am more than happy to spread the wealth.
oh. my. god. go see An Inconventient Truth, al gores new film. you will love it. its incredibly powerfull and about global warming. also i sense that you are fishing for compliments 🙂
Tommy
I would invite you! Because you are so smart and funny and I feel like we’d be friends if our paths had crossed. I love your blog, it’s the only blog I read regularly. And you should take it as a compliment that so many other bloggers try to write in your style. But, of course, you’re the best at it! Thank you for so many hours of enjoyment.
Kim Hargreaves because I love her designs. And, my mother. The last time I knit with my mother was in 1987, my senior year in college. She continued until the early 90s when eye problems put an end to her knitting. I took up knitting again 2 years ago, after becoming very ill with a debilitating and chronic illness. It’d been so long I had to reteach myself how to knit, although everything but seaming and button holes came back to me very quickly. My mother died 5 years ago (a year and a half before I became so terribly ill) and I hadn’t realized what a great kniiter she was til I began knitting again (“as an adult”).
I will be extra impressed if you actually read this, since it’s comment six hundred and something.
Thanks again, for making my new debilitated life, a little easier to deal with.
Marilyn
Kaffe Fassett, Alice Starmore, Kim Hargreaves.
My dream dinner party would include
1. Alice Starmore – because she’s brilliant with design and color and loves the history of our craft and her people…and she seems just a little bit wonky. I like wonky.
2. YOU- because you are a free-spirited brilliant knitter with a refreshing touch of whimsy who makes hundreds of us laugh at ourselves every day
3. Bonne Marie Burns of Chicknits.com- This girl is the future of knitting brilliance–She is a techno/art-genious /design/fashion girly /speed knitter /girl-friday wrapped up in a wonderful writer and teacher!
It was so so hard to stop at 3.
-Unn Søiland Dale (it’s her fault that we have so many great norwegian fair isle patterns and she made the eskimo pattern!)
-E. Zimmerman (duh)
-Debbie Stoller
and hopefully Stephanie Pearl McPhee would come over for after dinner coffee & wine
🙂
Elizabeth Zimmermann
Montse Stanley
Nancy Bush
Since you and I are hosting the party, we don’t count. With Elizabeth Zimmermann and my Grandma who knit but I don’t remember her well will be watching over and blessing the party, I would invite(1) my good friend Diane Benjamin, who introduced me to the works of EZ and Meg, (2) Meg, (who could have a knitting party without inviting the most gracious knitter?)and (3)Tyne Daley (what a wonderful knitter and actor and I would just loooove to meet her.)Of course, my mother would be there, too, just because. What is the date again?
Pick 3 knitters….
NO can’t do it. But I can pick 4.
1) Lily Chin because I love her designs
2) Elizabeth Zimmermann – technique, writing and inspiration
3) Meg Swanson – She deserves a place in her own right
4) Kaffe Fassett – for his colour work
Oh… And you as MC of course.
You and I are throwing this shindig right? Because you would have to be there. I keep your little meditation book in my purse and pull it out whenever I need a laugh or inspiration ‘cuz you rock!
So of all the people that I could invite (love to see any of my Nana’s again) I would want Wendy from knitandtonic. She has changed the way I look at knitting forever!
I never would have started designing patterns without her blazing the path before me. She introduced me to top-down thinking and no seams and I am ETERNALLY thankful to her.
And…she just seems like a wonderful person who would be fun to sit and chat and eat with. Guess I’ll have to practice my gin and tonic skills first. 🙂
Ruinwen
🙂
So, like, what time can I expect you and whomever YOU want to bring?
It wouldn’t be Debbie Bliss! I’m still waiting on a yarn order from her placed in APRIL!! At that rate she’d never be done with dinner!
1. Lynne Johnson, an Australian knitting savant (http://www.womenoffibre.com.au ) who does beautiful creative work, values knitting as a way to communicate with different generations, uses knitting as a counselling tool and is a genuinely lovely person.
2. Any one of the new knitters in my SnB because they all help me rediscover the joy of knitting every time I meet them. Just like being with a new baby grow and watching them grow helps you rediscover the joy and wonder of the world as you see it through their eyes and experience, so do the new knitters of my acquaintance show me new possibilities and older joys in the world of fibre.
3. Joan McGowan-Michael because her designs that FIT me completely rock.
There are lots of others, but they’ll do for the first sitting. 🙂
Three more to be seated at the next table:
Kaffe Fasset
Debra Newton
Alice Starmore
Easy. Barbara Walker. Alice Starmore. Elizabeth Zimmerman. It’s too bad that our collective memory is only good for this century. But the women that I have mentioned…good for all time.
Irene
I’m not even going to choose three. I’m just going to pick one, my great grandmother. When I knew her, she was just an old lady in a nursing home (she lived to 100), but she’s left an incredible legacy of lace tablecloths and the obligatory red heart afghans.
Ida Riley Duncan–because through her I finally understood the importance of gauge.
Gladys Thompson–I used the aran and gansey motifs from her book to fashion my wedding sweater.
Elizabeth Zimmerman–I love her style of writing; there is something very liberating about reading her work. And I think she would be fond of good food. No use having someone to dinner if they won’t eat.
Well…
Depending upon whether they can come:
1. The Opinionated Knitter, herself: Elizabeth Zimmermann. (Two Ns at the end!) (Now, this applies to Barbara Walker, too: Why are these two just about the only ones to warn left-hand yarn holders that they might be twisting stitches? I found this out on my own after many twisted purl stitches, and finally read Knitting Without Tears and the many stitch Tresuries, which could have informed me of this before if I had read them earlier! Maybe because they’re left-hand yarn holders, too?
[Barbara Walker says something about the fact that all the samples in one of her stitch treasuries were knitted this way because she prefers it and EZ openly refers to the fact that she taught herself a method similar to that used by the Swiss governess. {Note: I, too, am a self taught left-hand yarn holder, however, my method was derived from crochet and not seeing someone else knit with yarn in left hand. (shall be further referred to as Continental style…)I am not, however, left-handed.]) Reason: I think she’s quite interesting and I would like to thank her for America’s first Aran (See Vogue Knitting International[?] Winter 1998/1999) [I was looking through old VKI’s from the library].
2. Barbara G. Walker (Yes, I do believe she is the same one who wrote all the feminism books…) However, no knitting mosaics that are swastikas or variations of said design at this dinner! Reason: All those lovely stitches. VERY Inspirational Knitter!
3. Oh, and the Yarn Harlot herself must come! Reason: Thank you for all 3 books and blog and Knitting Olympics, though I did not participate because I think I found out too late. Maybe in the next one, if there is one!
If any of the above are not able to attend:
4. Nicky Epstein. Reason: VERY neat books and such.
5. Some Debbie(or is it Debby?) with a very interesting style of knitting. I know it’s not Ms. Stoller of SnB fame, and I think it’s Debbie Bliss, but I’m not sure. Reason: I would like to know how in the world she’s knitting the way she is in a photo I saw in an older VKI.
6. A good knitting friend of mine with the first name of Sherri. She would be up with EZ, Barbara Walker, and The Yarn Harlot, but I would really like to meet them since I haven’t. However, if someone isn’t able to come, or there’s room for more people, she shall be invited! Reason: Taught me to knit socks, helped encourage me to do things like socks, gloves(The first pair of which, alas, are not completed, due to something similar to SSS), and knitted squares of various patterns(Is that good or bad? I don’t know yet…), and helped me learn entrelac recently from a book that slightly confused me.
7. My mom. Only reason she’s not higher up on the list is that I see here every day, and she’d probably be at dinner anyway, without being invited. Reason: Taught me how to knit in the first place (not continental style, though.) and is more of a FO knitter than I am. (I have too many WIPs!)
And if absolutely nessecary to fill out the guest list:
8. Charlene Schurch. Sensational Knitted Socks informed me of the proper way to do a ssk, at last, because, unfortunately, I hadn’t read Barbara Walker before then. Reason: In gratitude for teaching me a better match for k2tog properly at last (Previously I had been mystified because it seems that the directions I looked at did not note that you must slip the stitches knitwise and insert the left needle in the front.) as well as for writing a wonderful sock book. (Although, I do not intend for the different sock patterns to last a life time, especially thinking of Barbara Walker, who managed to write up (and possibly knit?) hundreds, possibly over a thousand patterns in her stich tresuries!)
9,10 & 11. Three women who are not particular knitters, but two of them knit a little and would be nice to have in case of needing another guest: Two certain teachers of mine, and my aunt. Reason: Even if they only knit a little or don’t knit at all, they all have done sewing and that sort of thing (My aunt actually manages a fabric store so she has to know something about cloth and such, and she does.). This could be an interesting topic if we have some knitting greats to discuss with…
12. Another person who is not particuarally noted for knitting, although he might be a knitter: Alden Amos. (At least, I think I got that name right…) I don’t know what I’d say to him, but the least I could do in gratitude for one of his books that I read is invite him to a dinner party(Which is, somewhat unfortunately, imaginary.)(Although, who knows whether he’d feel comfortable around all the knitters/women…) Reason: In gratitude for a wonderful book about spinning which informed me of much. I want to start spinning, but right now all I can do is dream and find information on it.
13. Montse Stanley (In the case of an emergency requiring a guest and no one else was available). Reason: At least the cast-ons and bind-offs were helpful and she has some other interesting techniques. Also for recommending other good book(Such as those by EZ and Barbara Walker). It could be interesting to debate some of her points that I don’t agree with, with her.
Hmmm… *yawns* I don’t know whether anyone will actually read this extremely long comment, but oh well.
As to the other matter: No, I don’t wish to bury her in sock yarn; I think my small amount of sock yarn leftovers and sock yarn leftovers-to-be have happy uses or places in small yarn stash.
And down here, where, alas, no one will probably read it:
For goodness sake: It’s Elizabeth ZimmermaNN! There are two Ns at the end of Zimmermann!
*yawn again* Too many parenthesis, brackets, and other thingamajig grouping symbols ({}).
Influential knitters:
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Barbara Walker
Sally Melville
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Barbara Walker
Mary Thomas – everyone forgets about her, but she was the basis of todays patterns and techniques.
since i nearly had a heartattack when she called my house, Meg Swansen, for colorful conversation – Kaffe , and then the last one is family. my great great aunts died upon release from the concerntration camps, i would love to talk to them about the things they made before the war. my greatgrandmothers on both sides of my mother’s family were knitters amongst other crafts, i would like to talk to them and let them know i still have trivets, lace edge table cloths and runners. if they knew that they would be passed down and last-would they pick better colours????
Elizabeth Zimmermann, Meg Swansen, and Barbara Walker. Boring answers, I know, but thanks for asking. Elizabeth and Barbara to pick the brains of other “writers who happen to be knitters” (I just assume that you would be along to the dinner, and don’t include you in the three, as it is your project), and Meg to find out a bit about what it means to grow up with someone obsessed with those things. You know, for the sake of my poor daughters.
Franklin Habit of course. And Dolores (even tho she doesn’t knit, she’s a hoot).
The famous Yarn Harlot.
Alice Starmore, because she is sooooo intense.
EZ cause she said be free….(plus I want to learn how she knit on the back of a motorcycle)
MARGARET STOVE!!!!!!!!!!! For saying not only can you knit lace but please designit too…
Charlene schurch for making such a great sock book that help you design your own damn socks…
Elizabeth Zimmermann – who set us free, and told us to knit through all crises
Meg Swansen – EZ’s daughter (wow!) and a wonderful designer and writer herself
Kaffe Fassett – more about freedom, just in color
and as kikiluscious said, you’re already there, because it’s your project! And I’d want you there, because you make me laugh, and you have the greatest ideas (witness Knitting Olympics!).
But it was hard to stop at just 3!
three knitters… i assumed you meant famous ones but i read through and others didnt pick famous ones.
1. you
2. my grandmother who taught me to knit and sadly passed away before i was able to knit anything substantial
she also crocheted which sadly the talent to crochet has eluded me but i like knitting better anyway.
3. my great aunt matilda who knit everyone in the family slippers every year for christmas and sadly passed away before i was able to knit anything substantial.
the slippers were looked at with why is she knitting us slippers? but now i know how much time and effort went into these slippers. but she would knit them for everyone and we have about 20 people in the family and i never got to thank her properly.
There are so many designers today that are amazing – all the books, classes – Nicky Epstein, You, Wendy of Wendy Knits, Jean Moss, … the list is never ending. I wonder if there’s a story in that… So wow, big, really big question… in my humble knitting lifetime of the last 20 years – a wee smidge of time compared to most. I would say those that have influenced me and I believe have woven the texture of knitting standards to come are:
Elizabeth Zimmerman – she gave us a whole new meaning and reason for knitting and doing what we do! The construction, the inspiration and Camp.. Need I say more?
Alice Starmore – controversial – you bet. Passionate – without a doubt. Her contribution to knitting it’s history and origins, her fierce passion for quality, amazing use of old in new designs in contemporary manners, color knitting (fair isle)and textured knitting in general – priceless.
Kaffe Fasset – Color, color and color. Inspires us to let loose and explore/experiment with yarn.
These three have inspired more knitters and designers in the last 30 years than any I think.
I just wanted to put in my vote for the great Elizabeth, too.
and Yarn Harlot, of course– both because I LIKE it when wine shoots out of my nose.
I just wanted to put in my vote for the great Elizabeth, too.
and Yarn Harlot, of course– both because I LIKE it when wine shoots out of my nose.
Crazy Aunt Purl (and her knitting friends in LA)
My friend Becky, and
you.
Will wine be served by yarn boys? Will there be roast duck on mashed potatoes drizzled with white truffle oil and steamed fresh green beens? To be followed by something horribly decadent and chocolate?
Well, besides yourself, Rams & Crazy Aunt Purl? Miss Marple from the PBS series & Gromit from “Wallace & Gromit” – do they count?
I saw this and thought of you..
http://cgi.ebay.com/Tiny-Wooden-Mouse-Button_W0QQitemZ8286286525QQihZ020QQcategoryZ11799QQssPageNameZWD1VQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
There are so many it’s hard to pick three, so I won’t
1. My Great-Grandmother Hannah
2. My Grandmother Ruth (her daughter)
3. You of course
4. there are too many to name cause I’d want to be with all of them at dinner, what a knitting cirlcle that would be and so much fun 🙂
Okay…three knitters:
1. My grandmother, Eva…because she taught me how to knit…and because it would give me another evening with her (she passed away in 2001).
2. You. I can’t tell you how many years you have already added to my life with your wonderful sense of humor.
3. My friend Gail, who is a knitting Goddess. She can do all sorts of lacy stuff that makes my head spin.
(1) My grandmother (MorMor) who knit socks long after Alzheimers took everything else and who might like to know that 30 years later her grandaughter is knitting socks;
(2) Miss Marple because its easier to think while knitting; and
(3) Stephanie because she has given me a knitting thing to share with my husband (laugh out loud excerpts from the books and blog)!
Knit and Tonic Wendy, The Yarn Harlot and Debbie Bliss. Covers all of my favorites, smart, funny women who can knit and British humor and Tea to boot.
I already picked my three and Stephanie on July 11th. Since I’m over the limit already can I throw in another? I was so sad that I forgot Cheryl Oberle. Her book, Folk Shawls, is the only knitting book that I’ve ever felt moved to knit every single pattern. What an inspiration she must be.
I have two lists:
People I haven’t met in person before:
Maggie Righetti
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Elizabeth Zimmerman
People I have met:
my Great Gran Marie
my mom
her mom
I can’t limit myself to just three, so here are my six picks:
1. Elizabeth Zimmermann
2. Barbara Walker
3. Meg Swanson
4. Cheryl Oberle
5. Sally Melville
6. Maggie Rhigetti
I had to think about this one… no need to be hasty since I would have to clean the house and all that. Which three knitters for supper, and conversation of course. Well, we are going to assume that you will be there as well. Not only because you are outrageously funny and I learned a few really cool tricks when I met you at the Madrona Fiber Arts festival; but also as I would be unable to relate anything that happened other than we giggled and had to much to drink and discussed knitting alot. 🙂
Hmmm… and since my husband would totally freak, at just the mere thought of inviting DEAD people….
1. Jacqueline Fee Author of “The Sweater Workshop” since she presents Elizabeth Zimmerman’s percentage system so well and makes the maths really easy to figure.
2. Cat Bordi Not only for her mobius magic but also for coming up with a cool way for us with severe DPN allergies to knit socks.
3. Eunny I happened upon her blog a few weeks ago and was totally blown away by her skills.
Happy Knitting!
1. Alice Starmore: She has a wonderful idea for sweater composition. Her use of color and cables is beautiful.
2. Sharon Miller: She seems to know almost everything about Shetland lace knitting and is wonderful at encouraging knitters to try something difficult.
3. Meg Swansen: She seems to have tried every type of knitting construction there is. She know what works best and what doesn’t.
1. Barbara Walker
2. Alice Starmore
3. Meg Swansen
The books! The inspiration! The beautiful knitting!
I got my shovel out: let me help with the burial.
And three knitters? You, dude, Juno, and Cate.
If I could pick just one?? Too hard to do, but my first would be my grandma – I’d want to share the handcraft with her. But that’s not the point of your book. So, my other choice would Be Sally Melville – presuming you could not make it. And presuming that if you are writing the book, it would be a bit odd to vote yourself the worlds most wanted dinner guest for a knitterly dinner, but alas, I think you are – Can’t wait for the next book. How about some more on spinning?? I’ve got the bug and now can’t stop!!
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman
2. Alice Starmore
3. I shall divide between the Yarn Harlot (who ever she is) and Valentina Devine
my sneaky way of getting all 4 names in.
I would invite my Aunt Peggy and my daughter Amanda.
Seems that my three have been picked several times. I am glad of that since then they actually might be the set invited. I pick
1- Elizabeth Zimmerman because I love her writing and the way she encouraged me/us to free up my/our knitting. Her % pattern is fabulous.
2- Cat Bordhi because I love moebius knitting and so does EZ so they would be great together.
3- I was torn between you, Stephanie and Meg Swanson but I think I have a way to get both of you there. You be the emcee and Meg can be the third guest. Of course this will need to be fictional unless we are bringing EZ back from the otherside for the occasion.
1) Miss Marple
2) Virginia Woolf
3) Prudence Mapstone
Or Stephanie, Brenda Dayne and Alice Starmore- I’ll make supper!
Alice Starmore – for her amazing sense of color and pattern
June Hemmons Hiatt – because she must know almost every technical aspect
A knitter from generations ago who knit for livelihood rather than pleasure
1. my mom – who taught me to knit to keep me out of her hair
2. the girl in War and Peace who knits one sock inside another – who inspired me to take really big risks in knitting
3. EZ – who showed me How to take really big risks in knitting
And, sorry, all my leftover sock yarn is spoken for . . .
My 3 knitters…
1. My Sweet Irish Grandma who taught my sister to knit who, in turn, taught me (the knitting gene passed over my mom).
2. Debbie Stoller for her funky collection of patterns.
3. EZ for the history and humor
And I agree with Helen that you should be the MC. What a fun time! I may be laughing to much to knit!
I have to go with two lists, too:
1. Nana
2. Mom
3. mom-in-law
1. Jean (Jean’s Knitting)
2. Wendy (knit and tonic)
3. Ann & Kay (I think they count as one because they have one blog. And it’s my list. So there!)
1. You
2. Crazy Aunt Pearl
3. Amy Singer
Good conversation, and lots and lots of red wine.
If I was going with the more traditional
1. Alice Starmore
2. Melissa Leapman
3. Kaffe Fassett
As for fictional
1. Miss Marple
2. Molly Weasley
3. Holly Golightly (who confused her blue prints for her knitting instructions)
Erhm, Dearest Harlot, I’d ask YOU. And I generally have really excellent beer at my house so you’d really like coming here.
You and Elizabeth Zimmermann for the same reasons: Your wit, enthusiasm, ingenuity, love of knitting, and generous spirits. The third would be the knitter of the Dura-Europos pattern on p. 139 of Barbara Walker’s A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns that she calls “the oldest known piece of knitting in existence.” I would offer this knitter some dates and honey and maybe a good Gewurztraminer and ask him/her, What did you have in mind for this knitting? How did it or did it not turn out the way you wanted? What do you most like about making knit things? Have some more wine.
Peggy Norris
Los Angeles CA
lex2459@yahoo.com
ohmygod what an old lady!
If I went to the trouble of having a dinner party…which isn’t going to happen…but if it did…I would invite the people who have really stretched my sense of what I can do or try…
you for the knitting Olympics
The Mason Dixon creative thinking duo
and probably the person that invented steeking…
And certainly if it were my dinner party…I wouldn’t stop at three…
Elizabeth Zimmerman for her creativity and confidence inspiring (and Meg for enriching the sport!)
and I would probably hold a contest to round it out with someone to represent all the great bloggers we have out there…
assuming this dinner party is at your place, i’m making my choices by the blogs i love most:
alison of the blue blog
laurie of crazy aunt purl
margene of zeneedle
oh, i can’t wait to see what comes of the house burial! where do we send the yarn!?!
Well, Elizabeth Zimmerman, the old lady whispering “Hush” from “Goodnight Moon” and Gromit the (knitting) Dog from “A Close Shave” – these are my knitting meal companions. I don’t think the latter too would eat much but I always admired Eliabeth’s choice of good things to eat.
I noticed that the comments for this were at 666. I figured this may have something to do with your run of luck, although, maybe you are wanting it (to cover for Lee Ann)?
Good luck to her – here I break your 666 & I hope you burry that house. I may have some sock yarn I can contribute as well.
The 3? Three? Only Three? okay, okay
Elizabeth Zimmerman- Queen Mum of Knitting
Or her brillant daughter Meg Swansen
Annie Modesitt- knitting heretic
Priscilla Gibson-Roberts
And then, because we had so much fun we would do it the next week with…
Galina Khmeleva
YOU
Barbara Walker
Elizabeth Zimmerman
Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
Richard Rutt
There were a couple of other famous people who would have made it on the list but they have since done some things to cause me to lose respect for them. Hence Richard Rutt making the list.
Yay! A new book!
1.Elizabeth Zimmermann
2.Debbie MacComber
3.Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
What in the world is she going to DO with all that sock yarn??
Even though I would surely love to dine with you, dear Steph, and with Meg Swansen and Lily Chin and Debbie Bliss and Anna Zilboorg and and and … for this exercise, the option of resurrecting dead knitters is a one-time opportunity, so the deceased win, hands-down. I figure there’s still a reasonable chance that I may dine with you or Meg one day, seeing that you are still alive, and hopefully will remain so for quite some time.
For my dining companions, I would choose:
1. Mary Margaret Murphy, my great-grandmother from County Clare, Ireland, who did not live to meet me, who plied her trade knitting lace. Great-Granny was Goddess-knows-how-many in Goddess-knows-how-long a line of Irish knitters. ALL of her descendants know how to knit, at least a little. I still recall the first time needles and yarn were placed in my hands, and I was guided through a few knit stitches, and I just started knitting. Just like that. I remember an overall physical thrill, like being on the rollercoaster, and taking a deep breath, and thinking something like, “OH! I know how to do this!” I am certain that knitting is literally in my genes, built into my neuromuscular structures, and I want to thank Great-Granny in person for that, and soak up her knowledge, too.
2. Elizabeth Zimmermann, of course. For teaching us all that it’s okay to knit what WE want to knit and for showing us how to design our own garments. For teaching us how to think about knitting in a holistic way, and for giving confidence to so many knitters previously bound to row-by-row instructions. For teaching knitters how to READ their knitting, fix their mistakes, and comprehend the structure of a knitted garment. For being witty and wise, for knitting while riding pillion on a Harley, and for her wonderful warmth. Last, but definitely not least, for taking the trouble to respond to a letter from a 15-year-old girl who had borrowed “Knitting Without Tears” from the library and who wondered how a 15-year-old might go about trying to sell a two-needle striped slipper-sock pattern to a magazine, and did Mrs. Zimmermann think the pattern was good enough?
3. The very first person ever to take up yarn and needles. I would love to know what clicked in their head to make it happen, how they thought of it, what compelled and inspired them to do so … and I would love to see that person’s jaw drop to the floor with the variety of yarns, books etc. available today. It’s all her fault, really, so she deserves to see her legacy and have a great meal.
RESTAURANT: Commander’s Palace, New Orleans. Appetizer: each knitter’s choice, but something with oysters is suggested. Main course: Crawfish Bisque. Soup: Gumbo. Salad: knitter’s choice. Dessert: Bananas Foster. Wine: something French and red from the year I was born, and a whole lot of it. It was a fantastic year for wine, and I don’t just want to eat with these people, I want to get silly with them. Besides, I can’t afford such wine outside of this fantasy! After dinner, a stroll through the French Quarter and the Marigny for the Quarter Stitch and Bette Bornside’s shop (they will remain open late that night) … coffee and chicory with beignets at Cafe Du Monde (we shall have TWO desserts for such an occasion) and last, a stroll along the Mississippi River (this dinner will take place in beautiful cool November) where we shall find a nice bench, and sit, and drink the rest of the wine (which we smuggled out of Commander’s in our knitting bags), and knit and talk until the suns comes up.
Jane Austen (2 brothers in the Navy. Must have knit.)
Mrs. Charles (Caroline) Inglass — aka “Ma” of Laura Inglass Wilder who wrote the “Little House” books. Plus Laura herself.
Anne of Green Gables. No way she’d get through her childhood without knitting her own socks.
Stephanie – since you are hosting this party I’m not going to count you – like George Clooney didn’t count Oprah as one of his since she was hosting and they would be married by then…right?
Ann & Kay – do they count as one? Def.
The woman who has a blog called Knit & Tonic
Kaffe the MAN
I’m seriously behind on my blog reading so I just read your post today. I hope I can still give my opinion on the knitters:
Elizabeth Zimmermann, Annie Modesit, and you. All 3 of these knitters have inspired me in one way or another:)
Good luck burying the house in yarn….I’d really like to get pictures of this!
1) My Grandmother
2) My Great-aunt Helen
3) Elizabeth Zimmermann
Because they all tried to teach me to knit, and now that I finally can I would like to know them on that level.
Elizabeth Zimmerman (Knitter’s Almanac was the first knitting book I read like a novel), Barbara Walker (because I like the poem Meg shared in her first Schoolhouse Press e-newsletter) & Lene (theseatedviewDOTblogspotDOTcom). After her February 27 Olympic knitting post (and her other posts), I think she’d be a heck of a dinner companion.
Oh, man… if I didn’t have the *strongest* urge to start the same project, I’d totally be up for it! Hmmm… maybe she’d be interested in swapping half of each of my leftovers for a similar amount? Then we’d each have even more variety!
Yes, I think a house covered with sock yarn would be quite a sight and a good use of all the partical skeins of sock yarn I have just waiting to “darn” a sock with. In fact I have found a few others who are willing to help.
Three knitters, EZ, of course, You because you have made every knitter know that she is not the only person who loses a needles behind her ear, (my favorite), and Elaine Rowley, founding editor of Knitter’s Magazine and XRX books, the woman has SO much knowledge!
hi!
I was just thinking of this the other day. Here are my thouhgts:
1. Elizabeth Zimmerman because without her, all of our (yours, mine, this community, etc.) wouldn’t have any foundation to think about knitting as something that we could do *just for fun,* because she made possible the contemporary sense of independent and creative knitting. While others on this list have mentioned Meg Swansen, and this is a nomination that I would gladly (and whole heartedly support), except it would mean excluding another amazing knitter, and given that Elizabeth is no longer around to come to dinner, I say let Meg come as her proxy.
2. Alice Starmore. Alice has written the best patterns I’ve ever read, and the only ones that I am, for some unknown reason, drawn to follow without question. What I like most about Starmore’s is that her sweaters are complicated, difficult, but not undoable, and unabasshedly so. Most designers these days seem to be attempting tailoring or dresmaking with knitting needles, and I’m generally less than impressed with the products. Starmore patterns, though clearly not (all) traditional in the strictest sense, respond and interact with a knitting tradition, and are sweaters, uniquely designed by a knitter, and the patters shine as a result.
3. Pricillia Gibson-Roberts. The first two were no brainers, and I think many knitters would say “starmore, zimmerman, and um, um, um….” in search of another knitting giant perhaps of either a more contemporary/popular (a la Nacy Bush, Sally Melvile, etc.) and while I think they are very important to our contemporary understanding of knitting (and indeed Nancy Bush, in particular has written a number of books which I predict will provide the perfect stepping stone for those knitters, converted in the recent fad–the frilly polyester novelty scarf knitters turned felted bags/hats/etc knitters–to move on to more complex things like color work, cables, and lace. But this is merely a diversion.) Pricillia Gibson-Roberts, with some of the best qualities of both Zimmerman and Starmore, doesn’t give patterns but teaches the skills neccessary to design patterns like the ones that earned Starmore her place at the table.
So there!
Three knitters:
I had to think about this one a long time, but here they are:
1. My mother, Mildred Louise Orr West — so I could show her I really did learn how to knit despite being lefthanded, and so we could finally talk shop about it!
2. The unnamed “Swiss woman” who taught my mother to knit, back somewhere between WWI and when I came along after WWII, because I have always wanted to know more about her and I’ll bet she and my mother would have a fine time catching up.
3. Elizabeth Zimmermann, because she was amazing and funny and immensely creative and I think she was probably be the only person who ever lived who might have been able to get my mother to loosen her gauge.
Just thought I’d tell you: The Dura-Europas pattern or what ever it is exactly, was actually originally nalbound. Nalbinding predates knitting.
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