Authors: Edith Eig,Caroline Greeven
The point of these stories is to encourage you to look creatively at your mistakes, and to devise your own solutions by approaching your errors rationally and analytically. Check your emotions at the door, until you’ve devised a solution.
[
EDITH KNIT TIPS
]Joining in the Round with a Circular Needle
Joining in the round is the process by which you join the beginning and the end of a row together to create a continuous circle. Joining in the round can be tricky. I suggest to first knit or purl a row, then join as this will prevent the row from twisting.
TAL MEIRSON
A high–profile production supervisor, Tal’s résumé includes such hits as the Academy Award–winning film
Million Dollar Baby,
starring Hilary Swank and Clint Eastwood;
The Human Stain,
starring Nicole Kidman and Anthony Hopkins; and
The Mothman Prophecies,
starring Debra Messing and Richard Gere. Tal is a high–powered Hollywood executive whose position comes with a certain level of stress. Tal walked into my shop one afternoon to learn to knit. She’d heard that knitting was relaxing and therapeutic and needed to take the steam out of her pressure–cooker life. Ironically, the biggest stress in her life was caused by her fear of flying. After a recent trip back to Los Angeles from Tokyo, Tal came to show me her scarf. It had to be at least thirteen feet long and was riddled with dropped stitches. “I know this isn’t my best work,” she said sarcastically, “but I think I owe my sanity to this scarf. My seven–teen–hour flight was filled with eleven hours of turbulence, and I thought I was going to die. Then I started to knit. It was the only thing that kept me from having a total panic attack. To tell you the truth, with every stitch, I literally felt the stress ebbing from my body.”
EMOTIONAL KNITTING
Besides the obvious pleasure of owning a successful business, one thing I find truly gratifying about La Knitterie Parisienne is that it enables me to help my knitters reconnect with something important that is missing in their lives, to feel some connection to their mothers and grandmothers, to their roots. When I first came to America, knitting
was a solitary activity; I was the first to reintroduce the idea of social knitting to a new generation.
For me, the knitting experience has always been a social one; in my first store, The Canvas Pad, I encouraged people to sit and linger and work on their projects. What was popular in New Jersey has exploded into a cultural phenomenon in Los Angeles; whether it’s Wednesday nights or Friday mornings, I always have people sitting at my table, chatting, knitting, and enjoying each other’s company.
I love this aspect of what I do. In a city like Los Angeles, where everyone is from somewhere else, it’s hard to meet people and develop friendships, and even harder to replace that feeling of having older female relatives—a mother you can call on when you feel out of your depth. Always available at my fingertips is a long phone list of my regular customers—they are more than clients, they are friends. We have dinner, share the holidays, and know and care about each other’s good and bad times. Just because a pregnant member of the knitting circle is confined to bed rest does not mean she is out of the loop: I will call her from the hubbub of Wednesday night so she can talk to her friends and feel part of the circle again.
SEEN & HEARD AT LA KNITTERIE PARISIENNE, PART 1
Edith’s ability to understand your work is amazing. You can know something is wrong but not know what it is. So you hold up your work from across the room and she will say, “Third row down, about halfway across—rip!” She’s seen the mistake, and she already knows what you have to do.
I’ve been coming to La Knitterie Parisienne for years now, and all my family know that it’s really helped to keep me grounded, give me somewhere to go to be with friends and just relax. A few months ago my mom called me on my cell phone with some bad news—the first thing she said was “Yoli, are you knitting,” and I said “No,” and she said, “I wish you were …”
I guess I’ve spent too much of my life here, because every so often my husband will call me and say, “Honey, I’m driving past the store now, shall I throw some food and water through the door?”
My husband was so excited when I started knitting, because he thought he’d save money since I was shopping at a yarn store instead of the Beverly Center. When I finally brought him in, he looked at a beautiful Prism scarf and said, “That’s gorgeous,” and Edith said, “Of course it is, that’s a $95 scarf,” and my poor husband replied, “Do you have anything else?”
SEEN & HEARD AT LA KNITTERIE PARISIENNE, PART 2
Drive to Edith’s shop: 1 hour. Cost of gas: $6. Sitting at Edith’s table: priceless.
It’s so wonderful. I knit two rows here, two rows there. I can relax for ten minutes. It’s added to my life; it’s more than a knit shop.
“You’re too stressed, go knit at La Knitterie Parisienne for a couple of hours,” said one husband to his wife!
The best words Edith can ever say to you are “Bring it here, I’ll fix it.”
This sense of community is what I mean by “emotional knitting,” and it’s what I hope in this chapter to help you to create for yourself. Over the years I’ve been called upon to organize customized knitting socials for countless celebrities. The baby–blanket social is always the most popular, but there are dozens of other holidays and special events that can be organized around a knitting party—the only limit is your imagination.
There are two kinds of knitting socials. The first is organized to accomplish a specific task, for instance, to make a baby blanket for an expectant mother. The second kind is organized for purely social reasons, perhaps to try and jump start a knitting group at your local coffee shop. In either situation, you need to consider the same basics: location, materials, guests, and theme. As knitting socials become more popular, you’ll need to be adventurous to draw guests.
SEEN & HEARD AT LA KNITTERIE PARISIENNE, PART 3
“I couldn’t stop, didn’t have time to stop, but my car stopped anyway.”
Debra Messing
“You made me an addict.”
Caroline Rhea, on opening the door to my shop on her way to dinner.
“I program my car. It only knows one way …to your store.”
Susan Tolsky
In all my years in business, it was Carnie Wilson who pointed out something I’d never noticed before about the store.
“Edith,” she said, “did you notice there isn’t a clock anywhere to be found? Your store is like a casino. The hours fly by and I don’t even realize it.”
One client who was in the shop with some time to spare suddenly got up shrieking, “Oh my gosh, I forgot my doctor’s appointment!”
The first thing you’ll want to do is find a location. Coffee shops are good, if a little predictable—make sure the owner is comfortable with her tables and chairs being taken over. Keep your eyes open for more interesting venues, like the London–based knitters who hold their knitting group on the Circle line of the Underground, or hold socials at friends’ homes on a rotating basis.
Keep it easy and simple. Knitting parties are most enjoyable when the hostess has created an ingenious theme for the party. You’ll also want to be sure to have enough experienced knitters on hand to encourage and lead beginners.
- Decide on a budget. Are your guests going to contribute? If you have ten or more guests I would estimate about $15 for materials per person, and don’t forget to include additional costs for food and beverages. Depending on the yarn you select, you can expect to pay about $7 to $10 a ball. Splurge a little for needles. Clover bamboo needles are a great choice; they are nonslippery, light, and easy for beginners to use. They also feel good in your hands, which may encourage your new knitters to keep knitting after your party.
CAMRYN MANHEIM’S BABY SHOWER
I had received a call from my friend and client Caroline Rhea asking for help organizing a baby shower for Camryn Manheim. “Do you have any ideas?” she asked me. That’s when I conceived the idea of hosting a “baby–blanket knitting party,” where each guest would knit a square for the blanket. The now famous baby shower knitting party was born. It’s rewarding to know that my original idea started a national trend. I knew that many of the invited actresses were knitters already, but to get the fun going without any hiccups I precast dozens of needles with luxurious yarns in a cheerful color palette—yellow, white, and green. As the dozens of guests—sixty–four to be exact, including Lara Flynn Boyle, Brooke Shields, Calista Flockhart, and Marlee Matlin, to name a few— took their places, my daughters, Natalie and Audrey, and I hopped from table to table, teaching, picking up dropped stitches, encouraging the beginners, and casting off when necessary. The party was a huge success. It was the very first baby–blanket knitting party of its kind, and pictures from it were featured in all the celebrity magazines.
CAROLINE RHEA
I happened to be watching
The Caroline Rhea Show
one day when Jane Krakowski was a guest. During the show, they started to banter about knitting, and Caroline mentioned my name. Caroline had thrown Camryn Manheims baby shower, and I had taught Jane, who was a guest at the baby shower, how to knit. Since they both knew me, I suddenly became the subject, and then Jane—who is also originally from Parsippany, New Jersey—announced that her mother and I had known each other for years!
It’s easy to throw your own baby–blanket knitting party. You don’t even need to be an expert knitter; just follow my guidelines.
- You’ll need 36 six–by–six–inch squares for a blanket. To ensure your guests finish their squares at the party, go for a relatively big gauge; 3 or 4 stitches to an inch. If you end up with more squares than you need, make another blanket: that’s what we did for Camryn Manheim. This also happens to be the
only
time it’s not necessary for each guest to make a gauge—originality is relished.- Buy good–quality yarn. There’s no point in having twenty friends work together for an afternoon if the result is a scratchy mess of acrylic. I recommend buying a heavy cotton yarn, like Pronto or Goa, knitted on size 10 or 10.5 needles so the results can be achieved quickly.
- Set up your tables, or, if you prefer, cluster your couch and armchairs together for an informal, cozy feel. Arrange the yarns and needles in small containers, one per guest. For Camryn’s shower we used wicker baskets, but you might use giant coffee cups or cute shopping bags from your local yarn store, whatever seems to fit your theme the best. Have a few good reference books on hand for the more adventurous knitters, though most people will inevitably knit garter–stitch squares, and mistakes only add to the charm of the blanket.
- As the host, if you’re not proficient in finishing the blanket, bring it to your local yarn store and they can advise you.
BROOKE SHIELDS
After learning to knit at Camryn Manheim’s baby shower, Brooke enjoyed it so much that she would frequent my shop, which is located around the corner from her gym, and sit and chat with her fellow knitters.
There was a reason why knitting was an integral part of my childhood education in Paris. Our teachers believed that it encouraged our mental development while teaching discipline and patience. They were right. Knitting is no longer a part of the school curriculum, but I believe knitting can be incredibly beneficial for children—it encourages creativity and coordination, and it helps stimulate the mind.
If you wish to ignite a love of knitting in your son or daughter, follow these tips. First, get them involved from the beginning; allow them to pick whatever yarn they like, and encourage them to take their time selecting it. Start them on a simple scarf. Don’t worry about having them knit a gauge, just select the appropriate needles; make sure that the stitches are relatively big, and use a chunky yarn.
Cast on for them. Don’t worry about teaching them how to cast on till they’ve mastered knitting and purling. Don’t wait any longer than that, though—otherwise they’ll think of casting on as a skill too difficult for them to master. Once they have the knack, keep a watchful eye, but don’t hover over them. Knitting is an amazing way to help children develop a creative independence, but you’ll need to give them their space in which to do so. Fix their big errors, but allow the little ones to slide, at least at first, and never rip out their work—unless they get to the stage where they are ambitious enough to want to rip out and reuse the yarn for another project.
Encourage boys by having them knit something for themselves, such as a wristband in an absorbent cotton. If you are inspired, you could even devise patterns for knee or elbow pads for them to wear while skateboarding. Just measure the circumference of their joints, calculate a gauge in a soft, chunky yarn, and show them how to knit the piece in a rib (to allow for the necessary elasticity).