Stories in Stitches Book 1: Counterpanes

We all have stories. Every time one life touches another, we make new stories. Take that pattern that caught your eye and fired your imagination in a magazine the other day, add a yarn you couldn’t resist in the local shop, and knit it up into a warm sweater to wear sledding with the family. The winter begins to accumulate stories like snowflakes. First there is the story about making the sweater and wearing it sledding. Add to that the memories the handmade sweater generates each time it is worn, seen, or touched. Stories like this are a large part of what make us human. They never stop For many years, Donna and I have laughed (and cried) as we have unraveled the mysteries behind antique and tradition- al projects, and patterns from around the world. We’ve done this because we were curious, and we’ve used all sorts of excuses to dig in and satisfy that curiosity: magazine articles, museum research, classes, and books. Our journals read like travel guides that map out paths from stitch techniques to design ideas. We have each logged entries about disasters as well as solutions.

The small treasures from the past that have caught our fancy and teased our brains speak through their stitches and sometimes through the archaic language of a written pattern. As we have examined their work with minute attention, we have learned to greatly respect our knitting ancestors. Our study of their handiwork has certainly made us better knitters. Equally important, they have bequeathed to us a wealth of histo- rical, social, political, cultural, and personal information. We have gained so much as a result of our passion for following the clues as we travel, in our minds, through the stitches on our needles, and sometimes to distant lands, to learn the stories from our knitting past.

Please join us for a journey through time to learn the stories of knitters and knitting near and far.