Author: Betsy

TODAY!

| Betsy

So I used caps up top because, this is a BIG announcement… the book that I have been working on for the last year and a half is out in the United States TODAY!

The book is about how you can use your knitting (or your creativity) to help yourself, your community and your world. It was so wonderful to have the chance to write it, and can’t believe it’s finally out! You can see more information here.

I couldn’t have done this without the help of the kind people at Shambhala, and everyone who contributed something to the book:

Patterns:
Katie Aaberg, Li Boesen, Janice Bye, Naomi Johnstone, Aneeta Patel, Fawn Pea, Linda Permann, Judith Shangold, Kelly Wooten

Pattern Illustrations:
Joy Gosney

Sidebars:
Sage Adderley, Susan Beal, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Heather Cameron, Cinnamon Cooper, Cathy de la Cruz, Donna Druchunas, Rayna Fahey, Kari Falk, Felicity (Felix) Ford, Sally Fort, (Sister Diane) Gilleland, Bryant Holsenbeck, Faythe Levine, Cat Mazza, Valerie Soles, Wendy Tremayne, Otto von Busch

Thank you all for all of your hard work, and for believing in the power in the handmade.

leaves, knitting awesomeness and the marshall tucker band.

| Betsy

Above you will see a photo from the November issue of Ode magazine, which I took in the bookstore, while it was on the shelf with people looking at me weird. You can read the review online right here. Thank you Ode! Thanks also to my friend Jeff for taking this photo of me on his front porch one afternoon in Durham!


Today is one of those days when it’s lovely and perfect to sit outside drinking tea with your feet up and no shoes on, even if your neighbor insists on listening to The Marshall Tucker Band* really loud and leaves keep falling on your keyboard and in your tea. I secretly wish it was like this outside everyday.

In knitting news, I found the most amazing article about how knitting can change lives today! It’s the story of my new favorite knitter, Tonks (aka Jessi Rose), and how knitting both saved and changed her life.

After battling mental health issues for years, Tonks saw a way out as she planned to commit suicide one night after the mandatory group therapy class at the halfway house where she was living. What she didn’t plan, however, was to learn how to knit during the class. As she watched the slow and steady progress of the instructor’s work and picked up the needles herself, she began to see how she could slowly rebuild her life bit by bit, just as the scarf progressed row by row. That was 7 years ago.

She is now preparing for her full knitted wedding vow renewal ceremony in 2010. You can follow her progress on this project on her blog! Go Tonks! Her story is one of hope and persistence and love and creativity that makes my heart smile.


*“In My Own Way” seems to his favorite, generally closely followed by his second favorite, Can’t You See.

knitting for good!

| Betsy

So, yes, I wrote a book that will be out in a mere 5 days! And yes, this book is called Knitting for Good!

But this is not the time to talk about what I’ve done, it’s the time to talk about just a few of the many knitters who inspire me each and every day.

Last week, the Saddleworth Salvation Army Thrift Shop in South Australia celebrated the collection of over 10,000 knitted items during the past 18 months. The photo above shows some of the knitters wearing some of the donations. The quote below was taken directly from the article which pretty much encompasses why I believe that knitting can (and should) be used for the greater good.

“At Bramwell House (supported accommodation for women) a woman and her four children who had left everything they owned behind, they received a very large knitted blanket among the goods they were given. It was made in lots of different colours a

Just a few of the other knitters recently in the news for their knitting and their giving:
*The CareWear project in New Castle County, Delaware
*A lovely group of knitters in New Bedford, Massachusetts
*Knitters in Truro who aim to cover Afghanistan like a blanket
*The Knit Wits of St. Edward’s Episcopal Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
*The Baby Blankies Makers of the Seabrook active-adult community in New Jersey

What are you doing with your two hands at this moment? (When you’re not online, that is.) Do you have any idle time? Could you be using that time to make someone’s day better? This someone doesn’t have to be a stranger, even. This someone just needs to be a someone who may just need a little extra love, attention, care, pat on the back or hug. This someone needs to be a someone who could use a little hope or joy or comfort.

If you know someone who fits the bill and have some idle time on your hands, you could be helping them the next time you’re waiting for an appointment, watching television, riding public transportation, or in line at the bank. We all think we have no idle time, but if we really look, it’s always there. Waiting to be filled by kindness. I’m not suggesting that you need to be spending all of your spare seconds altruistically, I’m just suggesting that maybe some of them could be more wisely spent.

Knitting for good (the construct) not necessarily the book, is about looking beyond ourselves and the little bubbles we’ve created with our lives. The knitters noted above are examples of that quiet kindness that always exists in us always. Quiet kindness is in the tiny actions like a smile to a stranger, letting cars in front of you in traffic, telling someone they have toilet paper on their shoe. Teeny tiny actions that are rooted in infinite kindness. It’s there, I promise, all you have to do is look.

change.

| Betsy

After spending the past few hours hanging out with Anderson Cooper and CNN, they just projected that Barack Obama will be the next president.

My thoughts went to all the Martin Luther King, Jr, footage I watched in school as a kid and all the Jim Crow photographs taken around my native South.


Although I was hoping my prediction was right for the results, what I didn’t see coming were the tears of happiness streaming down my face.

No matter who you voted for, there is no denying, that yes, things are changing.

new! new! new!

| Betsy

So, as you can see….things look a little different around here. When I started this site, 5 years ago, I had someone (a very nice someone) set up everything. 

And, after many hours of wanting to throw my laptop out the window and shake my fist at any file ending with .php, here is the NEW BLOG which looks a bit better than the OLD BLOG. I still need to import some entries from the past year along with the archives, which I hope to do this week. One of the cool things about screwing things up, is that you generally tend to right yourself with a little persistence and learn from the experience, although I’m sure I’m not going to feel so new age-y about when I have to wake up in a few hours to go to the gym…Awesome!

One thing that might be of note, is that now you can SUBSCRIBE to the RSS feed, using the little button to on the top right of the sidebar that says “Subscribe!” Yay! (Thanks to the fabulous Milla for letting me know that it wasn’t working before.)

Hopefully everyone has recovered from their Halloween festivities (I was a Magic 8-ball) and has voted. Or is going to vote TODAY. 

Since there is little craftiness in the above and many capital letters and exclamation points, here’s the result of a very short-lived experiment in our house the other week. As you can see by the evil eye, it will never be repeated. After a few minutes, we decided that while quite amusing, the hat was not worth the loss of Bobbin’s dignity. I think Bobbin agreed.