I love this story from the Toronto Sun about the fastest knitter in North America, Lina Benne. The 49-year-old yarn shop owner from Mississauga entered a speed knitting contest on a whim back in 2004 and managed to knit 253 stitches in 3 minutes, deftly beating the American record of 213.
She learned to knit when she was 4 and uses the pivot style of knitting — where one needle is held under the arm, a hallmark of fast knitters the world over. She says she picked up speed through years of muscle memory, and having lots of time on her hands in the early years when her shop wasn’t that busy.
She doesn’t compete for speed much these days — though she says in the video accompanying the story that she’d love someone to come along and blow away her record so she could retire — she does have another goal in sight: starting a Canadian sheep to shawl team to turn fleece into a sweater in record time.
[Photo by Richard Lautens via the Toronto Sun.]
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