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The Meaning of Knitting

July 11, 2012 by Sarah White

You don’t see stories about knitting in the New York Times all that often, and this isn’t a news article, but an op-ed contributor wrote a really nice piece for the paper about what knitting means and what it does for those of us who do it — eventhose who don’t do it very well.

“Knitting My Way Home” is about Joy Kündig-Manning’s train trip across Switzerland, during which she literally knit her way home, working slowly on a purple mohair scarf. But it’s also about the generations of crafty ladies who came before, and how craft can be like the comforts of home, a reminder of the traditions you came from, even if you don’t always practice them yourself.

It’s also a great argument for people who’ve ever been criticized for knitting at a meeting or in public, noting that we tend to listen more intently when knitting than we might otherwise.

It’s a nice little story about what people see when they see knitters and what’s really going on. I hope you enjoy it!

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Knit a Hat with a Flock of Chickens

It’s well known (among knitters, anyway) that knitters seem to love chickens as a motif and a subject of our knitting projects. The Emotional Support Chicken and all the other chicken knitting patterns are just the beginning of our devotion to farmyard friends. 

For example, there’s Farmer Dennis’ Chicken Hat. This free pattern from Stacy Black is a simple worsted weight beanie sized for adults and decorate with a couple of little rounds of colorwork fences and a flock of chickens strutting around the body of the hat. 

You don’t need a lot of any of the colors for the chickens, their facial features or the fences, so this is a great project for using little leftover bits from other projects. The main color for the body of the hat is less than a skein using the yarn suggested, so you might just have everything you need in your house to start stitching up this hat right away. 

The colorwork is presented as a chart, with a 16 stitch section that repeats around the body of the hat. All the color changes are shown on the chart but I think it would be easier to knit the whole chicken in the chicken color and add the eye, beak and other features using duplicate stitch when the knitting is done. That way you don’t have to carry those yarns around the whole hat for just a few stitches. 

As the name suggests, the original hat was given to a farmer who shared their eggs, but anyone who raises chickens or just has a thing for the fowl is sure to love this cute hat. It wouldn’t be too difficult for someone new to stranded knitting or reading charts to make, either, so if that’s you, give it a try. 

The pattern is available for free on Ravelry. 

[Photo: Stacy Black]

Knitting Patterns for Little Chicks

Tiny Hens to Knit

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