“Put it on the blog!” Emma said, happily. And so I am.
Emma has been going to trapeze school for several years now and loves it. Absolutely loves it. Yesterday she told me she’d like to learn how to fly an airplane and learn to knit. I can’t help her out with learning to fly a plane, though one of her uncles can, BUT I can help her out with knitting as I learned from my mother and during a brief period in my life when I was a fashion designer, I designed… wait for it… yup, that’s right. Knitwear.
In fact, I used to be a contributing editor at Elle Magazine where they featured a hand knit with the pattern on the back of the page. This was long ago, as Emma would say, and for a short time, I had my own page where once a month I designed a hand knit and it was photographed like this… A beige hoodie, which originally I had designed to have a faux fur trim around the edge of the hood, but my boss nixed that idea and so I had to remove the knitted trim.
This was during the 8o’s when magazines like Elle gave editors like me a car and driver. Remember this is New York City where having a car and driver at your disposal is something people only dream of. It was at a time when CBGB’s reigned and Studio 54 was a place many of us had danced in. The meatpacking district was still used to slaughter meat and transvestites and transexuals hung out just west of it on the edges of the Hudson River. Times Square was considered squalid by most and Nell’s Nightclub was in full swing.
It was a different time in New York City. Yarn shops flourished. On the subway, it wasn’t unusual to see people knitting, and I was one of them.
So yes, Emma. I will teach you to knit.
Emma's Hope Book 
I want your patterns! For real.
I have to admit something Judy… the patterns were my downfall and were plagued with errors. (I was young and reckless, what can I say?) A couple of the patterns were okay, but most of them I received so many complaints from people who tried to follow them and could not, I used to dread opening my mail. That hoodie, I had to amend several times and I’m still not sure it’s correct. I do have the pattern somewhere and can try to take a screen shot of it if you like…
Oh well. If that is the case then I do not need the pattern. It takes many hours to knit something and if the pattern is wrong the pleasure becomes a huge frustration. So sorry the patterns are messed up.
You can imagine how angry the knitters who emailed me were!
The Mets won the year I was born at Roosevelt Hospital and again the year I got my alternative diploma and found out I was queer. My first gf and another friend got into Tisch and I was able to hang around a lot wearing the Born Here credential like James Dean’s leather jacket. Great times! So sad CBGB’s isn’t any more now.
Gone the way of Tramps, (I saw Kool and The Gang there) Danceteria (went to Johnny Rotten’s birthday party, but can’t remember how I was possibly invited to such an event..) the Peppermint Lounge where my shoes were stolen during an Iggy Pop concert (we were having a blizzard and I had to get a cab barefoot) and the Pyramid Club where naked men danced inside cages… 🙂
Huh…surprising turn to that post. =D
Lol, that knitted sweater looks fabulous. I am sure You and New York were fab, back then, too 🙂 thanks for sharing!
Emma obviously fab for being an awesome trapeze artist !! And for having great plans too. We all look forward to your knitting adventures 😉
A little trip down memory lane… surprised me too!
Perhaps a scarf may be a good place to start. I am a horrible knitter. I learned how when I was on (13 long weeks of) bedrest with Nathan. Can’t screw up a scarf too badly. And it sounds like she should stay away from your patterns :-p
Ha! Exactly. It’s like asking me to write down a recipe of something I’ve created. Can’t do it. For starters I don’t measure… it would be – take some flour, eyeball it, add a bit of sugar, now dump in some butter, maybe a cube or a cube and a half… My knitting instructions were similar – Knit the diamond pattern until it measures from upper thigh to shoulder…
A scarf however, will not be a problem: Knit until you run out of yarn or it’s long enough to wrap around your neck a couple of times, whichever comes first…
Squeeeeee 🙂 Emma and I have so much in common in this post. 😛 And yeah, a scarf would be great. As someone with major texture sensitivities, I suggest taking Emma to a craft store and picking out yarn together – the wrong yarn can be my downfall – if I can’t tolerate the texture, it goes very badly. If you’re both there, she can touch and play with the different yarns and pick one out she really likes. If she’s serious about learning to knit, she’ll be spending a LOT of time with that first yarn. Same with needles… I learned on metal needles, and that was ok, but then I discovered bamboo needles, and it is sooooooooo much better, because they don’t make the awful scraping, clinking sound that the metal needles do. As you know, I just recently wrote a knitting post, and I’ve been thinking lots about knitting recently.
Hehe! I did think of you when she said she wanted to learn to knit, E. And you have the same initials as well, need I remind you!
I loved your knitting post and the thing about the needles was interesting as I too like bamboo, not for the lack of sound, but because metal are cold and slippery. Em might like the cold, slippery feeling and clickety clacking sound. I have both so will let her decide. And thank you for the suggestion about taking her with me, as I hadn’t thought about the texture and how that could be a huge deterrent.
Oh I love it–Emma looks so free and flying! Nothing better than freedom from the weight of our bodies.
I love watching her. Makes me smile every time.
She loves knitting! It must be genetic…maybe crocheting comes next? And I agree with E about the needles. I too hated those metal ones.
It’s always good to take a look in the rear view mirror. Love the trapeze work, and that’s not genetic, unless she got it from her father, or her grandfather. Victor was sort of a dare-devil.
xxoo Granma
I definitely think this offer you made her should be more of a trade: you teach her to knit…she teaches you to trapeze. Just because I think the resulting post would be pretty entertaining.
A friend of mine taught my daughter, Katrina, who is autistic, to knit. While she knitted she said this little verse: “Under the fence, Around the big Tree, Under the fence, and off pops she!” Katrina learned it very quickly.
When you are casting on, you say , “On pops She!” Good luck and have fun!
Such a blessing that you designed knitwear now you can teach Emma. Everything happens for a reason.
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I love this sweater (52). I used to have this pattern saved and even bought the yarn, but lost the pattern when I moved years ago. Is there any way you could send me the pattern? I would really appreciate it.