Book: A Knitting Adventure
Author: Dana Biddle
Publisher: Lapa Publishers
Reviewer: Colleen Dardagan
Homegrown, homespun and homemade. Three Hs no selfrespecting fashionista should drop.
Designers sitting down in their collective rocking chairs and picking up a pair of knitting needles or a crochet hook is hard to envision, but A Knitting Adventure opens the way for a whole new look at yarn that’s no yawn.
Describing herself as a slightly offbeat fibreholic who dances to her own tune, Biddle travelled the length and breadth of the country visiting farms, villages and cities where she looked up local yarn producers and, more particularly, those who have woven and dyed by hand, gifting their skeins with a weft and a weave all of their own.
For those who cannot resist emotive pictures of local landscapes, stories of country-style entrepreneurs and weavers, coupled with some truly off-the-wall knitting patterns, the book is hard to overlook.
But, once the stories are read and the pictures of soulful-looking Alpacas, sheep herders and spinning wheels have ceased to attract, the knit one, pearl one, drop one or, maybe two, cannot be delayed any longer.
Admittedly, looking for knitting needles stashed away for the past 25 years was a challenge. But confidence levels were high – how difficult could Biddle’s patterns be?
The book does have a comprehensive instructions chapter and size charts but Biddle’s urging to “wander down the road less travelled and to remember it’s only yarn and don’t be afraid to experiment”, should have sounded the first alarm. Knitting patterns back in the day were very “Woman’s Weekly”, very ordered and not too “road less travelled”.
Undeterred, however, a pattern for a harmless aardvark seemed a good, yet simple, place to start.
With appropriate yarn and 4mm knitting needles to hand, the television set on the dulcet ball bouncing sounds of the annual Wimbledon tennis championship, 40 stitches were quickly cast on. Simple. Nothing seemingly stood in the way of that perfect cuddly whose closest relatives are the elephant shrew and elephants.
The first attempt vaguely resembled a shrew, the second somewhere between a shrew and an elephant and only by the third did the burrowing creature who loves ants emerge – sort of. The road less travelled indeed!
Biddle’s patterns are not simple to read and do require focused attention. But, the knack was back. Piles of brightly-coloured yarns are now growing by the day, as are the grand ideas to knit, crochet and stitch. Who knows, the brightly-coloured tea-cosy with granny pansies on top might come in handy. A Christmas gift, perhaps? - The Mercury