Sunday, March 18, 2012

Dreaming Dancing Spinning Knitting


Tuesday night I had a dream that I taught a man to waltz and he then asked me to marry him.  (The man in question is a B television actor who shall remain nameless … and blameless.)  That is the extent of the dream.

On Wednesday I told my students in my “Knit Fingerless Mitts” class at Interquilten  this dream.  It got a chuckle.  I added, “Everyone should know how to waltz!”  To which Pat replied, “And everyone should know how to polka!”

Too true!  I often use the waltz and the polka to explain the concept of take-up tension on spinning wheels.  A low take-up tension is like a waltz; a strong take-up tension is more like a polka.

Wednesday night as I was falling asleep, I was thinking about waltzes and polkas.  My mind started to see different knit stitch patterns for the two dances.  Doesn’t the traditional “Feather and Fan” stitch make you think of a waltz?  And I think of bobbles when I think of polkas.

Then my mind really got revved up with this stitch-dance pairing.  Here are some more dance forms that I would like to, someday, translate into knitting:

Tango, Contra, Minuet, Morris, Square, Fox Trot,  Rumba, Danzón, Swing, Jig, Strathspey, Schottische...

I could go on….

One more note about the Wednesday knitting class.  I had three students:  Pat, Claudia, and Julia.  Julia is eleven, about to turn twelve.  And she is crazy about knitting.  What a treat!  I got everyone started with the mitt pattern last week, and I told them to go as far as they want to before the second session.  At that second session on Wednesday, Julia stunned everyone by bringing in two finished mitts (nearly) and a third one started!  Now that’s precociousness defined!  Tawni, the owner of Interquilten, took a picture of Julia with her mitts:


1 comment:

  1. Julia is all personality and inspiration. I enjoyed being in class with her. And I love, love, love the fingerless mitt pattern.

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