Such Sweet Hands

Big Girl Knits 25 Big, Bold Projects Shaped for Real Women with Real Curves by Jillian Moreno and Amy R. Singer

I don’t know about you, but it’s rare that I read a knitting book. I peruse, look through pretty pictures, read a snippet or two. Colorful or highlighted words might intrigue me into reading. But for the most part I’m usually looking through a book ravenous for information (information in this case means stitch patterns and pretty pictures) with little patience to actually read it. All that said, I really enjoyed reading Big Girl Knits.

Yes, this book is for big girls. Yes, I am a small girl.
Amy and Jillian speak honestly about project issues that range from shaping to yarn shopping. Having been a yarn shop girl myself, I thank them for their words of advice. They encourage that patience and planning go into getting the right yarn and color, these are sane words that any girl can use.

Best Community Service Moment: they INSIST you wear a proper fitting bra. THANK YOU. Bras make a huge difference in how a garment fits. Once again, sage advice for all girls of all sizes.

Obviously, I enjoyed an evening reading this book. The information is delivered in an honest, entertaining voice. I certainly suggest this book for the for Big Girl knitters. If you are endlessly fascinated by the way a good designer tackles shaping issues, you can enjoy this book regardless of your size. To the crocheters out there: if you don’t knit and only crochet, but you have a friend who is a Big Girl knitter I highly recommend this as a gift. She won’t mind if you browsed the book for crochet inspiration will she?

I am a teevee fanatic. It doesn’t matter what I studied in school or who has paid me for whatever bit of expertise I might have, television is something that has been on my mind since I can remember. At eight, I had the primetime schedules for the major network’s memorized. I adore watching new sitcoms because I love to compare the changes made between the pilot episode and the first episodes made after a show has been picked up. I am a teevee geek. (For some reason I like to say/write “teevee” instead of tv. It just feels better to me.)

If I’m ever gonna feel qualified to open up my big mouth and share my opinions on anything, teevee is the place to start…      

     
What: Stitchcraft
Where: New Show on Lifetime
Who: Lily Chin, Adina Klein

The show basically follows Adina Klein at the photo shoots for the Fall 2005 issue of knit.1 and the Winter 2005/06 issue of Vogue Knitting. This makes for a dynamic background; models, make up artists, swanky knits hanging on racks, etc. From here Adina spotlights a few of the pieces, taking time to point out certain details of each item. She discusses lace and cabling and encourages people to see them as approachable techniques.

Lily Chin fills in with a few tutorial moments as well as narrating the entire show. This show is obviously not about showing step by step instructions, so I didn’t necessarily expect to learn anything new from them. I was still disappointed that the tutorials were a bit rushed and hard to follow. There was at least one jumpy edit that completely distracted me from seeing what they were trying to demonstrate. Their verbal instructions seemed to be fine, it was the visual that was hard to follow.

The segments with Lily Chin looked like they were from The Point, but it also seemed like they might have blue screened an image of the store. (I could be wrong on this, but I swear I saw a bit of the tale-tale halo in the last segment) She looked a bit stiff. Adina was moving around in a real environment with sweaters and good stuff, maybe if Lily is more active within the environment she’s hosting from (whether blue screened or not) she’ll liven up. I’ve seen her warm up to the camera more on other shows.

A long time ago in the 90’s far away there was MTV’s House of Style. The show featured runway and magazine fashions and the people of the industry with tidbits and inspiration for attaining the same style in your own world sprinkled in. Everyone knew who Cindy Crawford was before she hosted the show, after watching the show we came to know designers like Todd Oldham. Stitchcraft has a similar feel. A quick cut edited swoop through one of the more fashionable corners of the knit world. This is the strength in the show. Stitchcraft has the potential to shed light on the people and processes that go into the knit and crochet designs we love to make.

Not all shows need to be strict “How To” affairs. I like getting a close look at something interesting and getting a bit of advice along with some inspiration. This gives the show room to explore some pretty interesting facets of the industry. I loved the visit to the studio of James Coviello. We get to see his piles of swatches and the color and texture that fill his office. I am a fan of his work now thanks to the show. His brief story about how a flea market doily find turned into something really cool is just the sort of show and tell and inspire moment that can make this a great show. I can’t think of another show that would show how he used xerox copies of the doily to plan out the stitch pattern’s configuration for the intended piece. I can’t wait to try this idea!

Like any pilot there are things worth changing to make the show better. I hope the show gets a chance to grow into the idea. Considering that Oxygen has room on their roster for “Snapped! Women who kill!“, I hope they’ll give this show a shot. In future episodes I hope to see the few tutorial bits cleaned up a bit so we can follow the expert advice and more inspiring trips to the workspaces of creative people. This epsiode featured the magazines’ fall and winter issues, hopefully in the future the show will air at a more appropriate time in the season. And of course more crochet, but we always want more crochet!