Knit Clicker
As I have previously shown, the textile arts are a large part of my surroundings. These pictures are of my daughter who visited for the entire day on Christmas. Between helping out, and eating, and celebrating, she filled time with knitting. If you listened very carefully you could hear clicking of the busy needles. Knitted things featured prominently among the presents given and received and were much appreciated.
I think there is a bit of a knitting revival happening in Victoria. Not only is my daughter knitting (and spinning), and my wife returning to it after long dormancy, but two or three of my younger co-workers are also taking it up, and I hear of others too. Why? I don’t know. Has anyone else in other places noticed a trend towards greater popularity in knitting for younger adults? There also seems to be more art that is based around knitting, such as yarn bombing and knitted landscapes and similar, even marketing. Is all of this connected? How?
I took a series of shots with hands in many positions. I find the manipulation of wool and needles really interesting to watch and wish that the other ones had turned out – but the f-stop was low and keeping moving hands in focus was tough.
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Canon EOS 5D MkII, Canon 50mm lens, ISO 400, f 1.4 for both pictures, 1/100th (top) and 1/125th (bottom), cropped and black and white conversion, slight contrast adjustments. Lit mostly from window behind and supplemented with overhead room lights.
burnt embers 
Beautiful, useful hands!
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Hi Photobooth – what a pleasure to have you visiting! I am a fan of your photobooth photos – what a wonderful idea. I wonder if you ever get useful hands in photobooth pictures, or if its always about faces and clothes?
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I have drifted from knitting, but can hear the sound as I read your post. That sound of knitting needles is part of the relaxation… something of that has been lost with the resurgence of the wooden needles. Thank you for finding me so that I can enjoy your wonderful blog as well.
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Hi kc – thanks for coming by, very nice to have you here. I was amazed by the things lingering in your garden at this time of year, in a colder part of the world than I live in. I did have to listen very carefully to hear these needles, small too.
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Very nice shots. i pointed them out to my wife (a knitter) and she said she thought your daughter was knitting socks, something she has done from time to time in the past. Is she right. I can’t tell but my knowledge on the subject is nil.
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Hi oneowner – your wife hit the nail on the head – sock it is. She made some very nice ones for her partner as a Christmas present.
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Yes, knitting and spinning both seem to have had a resurgence in popularity, at least around Oregon. I know one small public library which had two of their books on knitting recently stolen. It was considered a big loss. The library holds a weekly class called “Chicks with stix” focusing on knitting.
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Hi Danita – there should be a special afterlife for people that steal from libraries. I have heard of similar classes up here, with similar names. One I have heard up here is “stitch ‘n bitch”.
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I actually had to learn to crochet not to feel left out! I can’t knit to save my life, but with everyone around me doing just that I needed a pin and some yarn to be one of them… So it’s happening across the pond as well!
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Hi Anne – that is interesting. A wide spread happening. I do wonder how these things come about.
Are you familiar with sprang (a Neolithic “weaving” method but which seems to have proliferated in Medieval times, especially in Scandinavia)? My wife figured out how to do sprang recently and had a lot of fun with it. That is something that might be of interest to you – not like knitting or crochet, kind of like a simple weaving where you twist the warp together (no weft) on a small wooden frame. No need to manipulate pins/needles. (The European use of ‘pin’ is so much more logical than ‘needle’ – a needle after all has an eye in it, while a pin does not).
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Yeah!!! I love to knit. It can be like meditating, and it can also be very social.
I’d love to find a knitting circle to join … heck, I’d like to learn how to join wool in the round like on the 3 needles above!
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Hi SuzyQ – my understanding is that there are classes for knitters, and aspiring knitters, which might be a pretty good place to begin as it could lead to a knitting circle too. Knotty by Nature seems to be a main hub for fibre arts in Victoria these days and could probably help out.
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Oh, yeah! I’d forgotten about KbN. Thanks, you clever whisker, you!
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And guess what? They are moving to a new location in Fairfield – corner of Fairfield and Lillian across from Hollywood Park, apparently will be opening next week. So, all that much easier to get to.
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Knitting has always interested me too! My mother used to knit all the time…scarves, mittens, sweaters etc. I used to sit and watch for hours as a young boy!
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Hi David, I spent a few months at the age of 7 going to a village school near Aberdeen, Scotland. Many ages in one of two classrooms and we all learned the same things, including knitting and needlepoint. Based on that early training I tried to knit a hat in my 20’s – it was a disaster. My wife tells me it is soothing and I should take it up again. I don’t intend to, perhaps in my dotage.
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