Knitting in the News

Again, some old news, but amazing! :

Knitting in the news

Posted by mmooney January 28, 2009 15:55PM

Picture it: You're rushing up a flight of stairs to get to your knitting club meeting. You're carrying (naturally) knitting needles. You trip. You feel a stabbing pain. You realize you've stabbed yourself. In the heart. With a knitting needle. Nope, it's not a knitting urban legend -- it's the story of Ellin Kor, who did just that, and survived. Read all about it here.

Image from Wikimedia CommonsIt's a veritable arsenal!

Me, I'm impressed as hell with this lady. As a congenital klutz who spent her childhood being picked last at gym (with reason, I might add), I can totally see myself getting impaled on my own knitting equipment one day. I wouldn't have to be running up stairs, though -- I suspect I could manage to stab myself while sitting the couch. (Anyone who doubts this has never seen me play softball. Or attempt to follow an aerobics routine.) So I'd definitely be able to stab myself. But there's no way in hell I'd have the presence of mind to know what to do afterward.

It's possible I'd go to pieces and scream. It's possible I'd run around wildly, hit a wall and knock myself out. But it's most likely I'd be all, "*&^%!! I better not have messed up that needle!" And I'd yank the thing out to check, bleed to death (thus ruining my yarn) and go down in knitting history as the first woman to value her Addis over her life. (Not to brag, but I've got a double set of 16" Addi circs from size 0 to 10.5. AND a set of 32" Addi circs from size 1 to 13. So I'm guessing most knitters would value my Addis more than my life, and they'd be right.)

So needless to say, I was very impressed with Ellin, but less so with the reporting job on this story. It's always painfully obvious when nonknitters try to do these kinds of stories, isn't it?

For instance: Was the needle a straight, a DP or a circ? Birch? Ebony? Walnut? What was the needle being used for? What size was it? (I gotta figure if you're gonna stab yourself, a lace needle's better than, say, a 10.5, but what do I know?) What kind of knitting club was it? Were they knitting for charity, was it a S&B, a combined knit/spin meeting? What was Ellin making when all this went down? Was she able to knit after the surgery?

How long has she been knitting? Is she a sock knitter? A lace knitter? Did the members of her knitting club make her presents (socks!) while she recovered? (I'd like to think so.) Was the friend upset that her knitting needle was broken? (I'd like to think not, but hey, stranger things have happened, right?) What's her favorite fiber? I'll grudgingly admit that nonknitters wouldn't care about these things -- and wouldn't get the lingo, frankly; let's face it, tell someone you took an Addi 00 32 to the heart, and they'd assume you'd been shot by a German spy -- but really, inquiring knitters want to know.

But since we're unlikely to ever know the whole knitterly story, let's all knit on, content in the knowledge that we really are wielding potentially deadly weapons. And let's be really careful on the stairs. Happy (careful) knitting, Ellin.

For more in the knitting news, check out http://blog.oregonlive.com/knitting/