“Most people have an obsession; mine is knitting. Your hobby might be pie-baking, playing the piano, or potbelly-stove collecting, and you can sympathize with my enthusiasm, having an obsession of your own. Will you forgive my single-mindedness, and my tendency to see knitting in everything?” -Elizabeth Zimmermann
The opening paragraph to Knitting Without Tears sums up Elizabeth’s philosophy perfectly. Last weekend I found myself at a local used bookstore and came away with a serious haul. I went to look for new material, went to the craft section, didn’t see anything at first. Then Elizabeth caught my eye, followed by Clara Parkes, Charlene Schurch, Beth Parrott…for less than a full tank of gas. You know I have a weakness for Elizabeth Zimmermann anyway, so I was delighted to find this.
The biggest thing that I appreciate about her works is her writing style. I’ve read most all of them, and she has such a conversational style that following along with her logic is incredibly simple. She’s certainly opinionated, but you’d be hard-pressed to deny that she knows her stuff.
Knitting Without Tears takes us through the basics of knitting, from fibers (she’s definitely biased towards wool, but she also refers to every type of yarn as wool, which is right in line with her English heritage and the year the book was first published, 1971), to needles, gauge, stitches, and patterns. To that point, in her section on different knitting needle materials she mentions walrus tusk! which I’ll admit threw me for a loop. I thought she was joking for a section, until I read further. She’s got a sense of humor that comes through in her writing, but I’ve never known her to make that kind of joke. Shes does call it “…pure boasting to mention these.” I haven’t heard of walrus tusk needles before, and according to her they are curved “as the tusk from which they sprang.”
One of her most ardent points is how much she dislikes purling and drafts her patterns specifically to avoid it. I don’t have such a strong problem with it, but if she chooses to use a garter stitch border for a hat or other circular garment, she will knit back and forth and sew the ends together rather than resort to purling. Having said that, she will use purl stitches in her textured aran sweaters, such as the January sweater from Knitter’s Almanac. I would rather purl than sew an extra seam, but to each their own.
Speaking of sweater patterns, this book contains organic instructions for color-worked Norwegian ski sweaters, patterned yoke sweaters, and the garter-based hooded jacket, the Tomten.
“There is no right way to knit; there is no wrong way to knit. The way to knit is the way that suits you, and the way that suits the wool and the pattern and the shape you are currently working on. Show me any ‘mistake’ and I will show you that it is only a misplaced pattern or an inappropriate technique. There are patterns that include dropped stitches and twisted stitches. There are projects which should be as tight as you can possibly knit; there are others where you have to relax to the point of lethargy in order to make them loose enough. I’ve not yet found a pattern which includes a split stitch; this is the only real mistake I know. ” What do you think?