Something about the click of knitting needles calms a person down. No doubt that’s why the knitting ladies are such a staple of town meetings. If you sit and knit, you’re not so apt to get knotted up in controversy. Remember the old saying: Sometimes I sits and thinks; sometimes I just sits. A variation might be: Sometimes I sits and stews; sometimes I sits and knits. Of course, it is possible to sit, stew, and knit all at the same time. But that takes talent.
The women’s club sponsored a knitting group on Tuesday afternoons. After about three weeks, the instructor came by the table where Mavis was clicking and chatting with her friends. “I’m not much of a knitter,” Mavis admitted, holding out her two feet of scarf.
“You’re not a knitter at all,” the instructor said. “You’re a purler.”
A few years back, I told stories at an evening meeting of the New England Handspinners Association at Loon Mountain Resort. It was the only performance I ever did where no one in the audience looked at me the whole time. They were all busy spinning, weaving, and, yes, knitting, usually with yarn they’d spun themselves with wool from their own sheep. As usual, I invited stories from the group. A spinner told this true, cautionary tale.
Each year she visited an old friend in Connecticut. On one visit she learned that the friends husband, Clarence, had suffered a serious back injury in a motorcycle accident, was unable to work, and going quietly crazy from boredom. So the spinner taught him to knit.
When she returned a year later, he’d knit up a storm. He’d knit scarves for all the family, a shawl for his wife, a blanket for the dog, and covers for the kitchen appliances. His back still troubled him, but he loved knitting!
The spinner said, “Clarence, it’s time for you to learn to purl.”
When she returned the following year, he’d mastered the mitten. Afghans draped the easy chairs and the couch. He was halfway through a spread for the king-sized bed. She was impressed. “How’s your back doing, Clarence?” she asked.
“Healed!” he said.
“Unfortunately,” his wife added, “he still can’t go back to work. He’s got carpal tunnel in both hands.”
