Appreciating Elizabeth

The more I read Elizabeth Zimmermann, the more I come to appreciate her. Not just from a knitting perspective, but from a handworking fiber person perspective. She talks good common sense and I could use more common sense in my life.

I am working on a project for the store. It, of the ruffles conundrum, has taken up a lot of my thinking knitting time. Really, there were things that should have clued me in that this approach was not going to work. One was that with everything I was I avoided it. Knitting which is not happy knitting is telling you something. I realized this yesterday as I should have been unknitting, and was avoiding even that.

Instead of unknitting I was reading Elizabeth. Really, when you read Elizabeth, you should be knitting with her, but sometimes, you miss her most hearty common sense that way This time round I was just reading her, and I came face to face with the her belief that knitting should be fun.

This was not an aha moment at all. It was more like a D'oh moment, where I realized how silly I have been for even a moment forgetting that basic precept of things we enjoy doing. Everybody in their hearts knows their chosen craft should be fun, and probably stops when they aren't having fun anymore. I seem to get so stuck in my one set way of seeing a project that sometimes I miss the obvious thing a project and a yarn is trying to tell me.

If you don't already have her books in your library, consider them. If you have them, take a time out to re-read them. If you don't knit, get them from the library, and read them anyway. She has the most common sense approach to her craft, that you will be inspired to look at your own loved handwork with new eyes. If I was rating her books they would all be Dobule Trebles, but her books are just simply must haves, no doubt about it. Waaaaay beyond any pithy ratings I might use.

So, next time I have a project that is simply killing me, I intend to take a little Elizabeth break, and read her books. I appreciate the small nudge to better knitting, clearer thinking. Thanks Elizabeth wherever you are.

I am well on my way to becoming a Zimmermaniac.