Off With His Head!
I just watched the beheading of Charles I of England about 4 times. I get that way when I have a history tape or DVD, I watch it over and over and over again. Poor Charles. I have to admit that the period of English history from the end of Elizabeth’s reign to Victoria is a muddle to me, and I’m trying to fix that huge hole in my education. Watching a DVD is probably not the best way, but I can do it while I’m knitting!
When I was in college I took a Shakespeare class, but neglected to read the plays themselves. Oops. I was a terrible student. So the weekend before the final exam I got all of the plays out from the library and listened to the 33’s at 45 rpm (for those of you under 25, that means the records were played at more revolutions per minute than they were intended) I still have echos of MacBeth and Othello as performed by Alvin and the Chipmunks which I will NEVER erase from my mind. And I did poorly on the test.
I think that was the same semester I had the brilliant scheme to take all of my Zoology notes in French. I was failing both French and Zoology, so I figured that by taking my notes that way I would FORCE myself to really crack down and learn both subjects.
D’s in both. Brilliant scholar I will never be.
Today I’m taking another turn through history – costume history! I’m actually going to sit down and DESIGN SWEATERS all day. What a concept! Most of my day presently is taken up with answering emails, working on the calendar (fixing images, editing patterns, trolling for submissions) and dealing with book shipping issues. I don’t mind any of this – I’m good at multi-tasking. But I’m going to settle myself in on this very, very cold day with a cup of tea, my favorite colored pencils and my sketchbook and get some new stuff out.
I’m thinking of a book which marries costume history to knitting, but also features the knitters of the garments as much as the designer. I wish (oh, how I wish!) that the magazines would make as big a deal of whok knit a garment as they do who took the picture! Heck, I even think they should list the name of the model – how much does credit cost?
I think that most purchasers of knitting magazines (and books) would be VERY interested in the reflections of the person who actually KNIT the sample up for publication; their ideas about shortcuts, their input on how best to go about assembling the piece, their comments on how easy (or evil) the wool was to work with.
To that end I intend to highlight the knitters of my pieces. I’ll design, but I won’t knit these. I’ll hire knitters – who can write interesting comments about knitting up a sample – and will use their hands on knowledge to help the readers determine whether this is the right project for them at this time.
Que pense? Any takers?