“One can only cite the elegant appearance of Garter stitch. It forms beautiful crinkly ridges, which are handsome in themselves. They can be employed horizontally or vertically or both and enable the structure of offbeat knitted pieces to be visible and organically decorative. I like to think that the very first knitter, doodling with sticks and sinews at the sunny entrance to his cave, or peering at his knitting by the flickering firelight, doodled with, or peered at, Garter stitch; the bread and cheese of knitting, the basic stitch — surely the prototype.” — Elizabeth Zimmermann, Knit One Knit All
I’ve never met a knitter (or read a knitter’s books) who stretched a pattern to the limits in order to avoid a purl stitch like Zimmermann did. She purled only when she had to, and then only with reluctance. To be honest, I’ve been skimming through some of the other Zimmermann books in my library to find where I first heard about her dislike for the stitch, and so far I found a quote from Knitting Without Tears “Why do so many of us object to purling? Is it because as children we are taught to knit first, and are then presented with purling as the second and more difficult step? Who knows? Who is willing to take a little innocent child and teach it to purl first? You must admit it’s the trickier of the two.”
Knit One Knit All, therefore, is a collection of Zimmermann’s garter stitch designs. There is a good variety of patterns, starting with hats and working through to jackets. Despite the constraints of only knitting every row (although now that I use that word, I wonder how much of a constraint it really was to Zimmermann, considering her preference for the stitch). There are quite a few patterns I had never seen before, which was cool to see. The cover hat, the Chambered Nautilus Tam for instance is a hat made out of a spiraling i-cord. The pattern instructions for the book are a mix of Zimmermann’s more conversation writing style (more like a description of how to knit the item and less of a row-by-row list of directions) which I find makes this book a bit more beginner-friendly in comparison to her Knitter’s Almanac. Something I learned while researching this post is that Zimmermann’s company Schoolhouse Press has a very comprehensive website. I’ve been trying to order less from Amazon, etc. and more from small businesses, and I learned that you can order books, yarn, and individual patterns directly from the Schoolhouse Press website. I’ll have to take a closer look!
Shifting gears, this weekend I participated in a paranormal investigation of the USS Wisconsin along with the Wraith Chasers and hosted by Haunted Nights Paranormal Events. Very cool night!
Getting there from Fredericksburg to Norfolk, I was so giddy over driving through the midway tunnel (dork) that I took a wrong turn once I emerged from the other end and ended up driving through it twice more before I managed to reach the park where the battleship is permanently docked. I parked my car in the first available spot I found (a bit of a nail-biter there, the sign said two hour parking and I was going to be gone for quite a bit longer). Next time I’m in the area I want to check out the science center nearby and take a proper tour of the battleship itself. Fascinating history! If you’re interested in some more photographs and ghostly details, check out my up-coming Patreon post.