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Village Books, Washington, Maine

On Saturday my friend Karen Jelenfy opened her wonderful used book store for the season, Village Books (www.villagebooksmaine.com) in Washington, Maine. I bought an Edna Lewis cookbook and ate orange scones made by Karen's husband Jeff. My husband brought an atlatl and he and Jeff threw spears out back.
-Kathy

corkscrew scarf

At a "Stories of Knitting" talk in a library in New Hampshire, a woman in the audience was knitting this scarf. The next night, at a different library, the same scarf pattern was being knit. Here it is: cast on 20 stitches, knit the 20 stitches, knit 8 then turn needles around and knit over the 8 stitches, knit 6 then turn needles around and knit over the stitches, knit 4 then turn needles around and knit over the 4 stitches, knit 20 stitches, repeat above to desired length.
-Kathy

Review: Knitting Lessons

Jennifer Bogart has written a great review of Lela Nargi's Knitting Lessons: Tales From The Knitting Path over at Blogcritics.org. Check it out here:

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2009/03/04/221833.php

Bogart focuses on the book's subject matter, noting that "Some of the interviews that struck me as the most moving were those of everyday knitters, such as the Brownstein family, three generations of Jewish women with a history of knitting passed down by grandmothers to granddaughters stretching back into antiquity." However, she also addresses the audio aspects specifically, and praises the reading, saying, "Read by actress Julia Olson, her crisp clear voice shifts in cadence, accent, and inflection as she creates unique vocal portraits of many of the interviewees."

To hear a sample clip from Knitting Lessons on our website, please visit: http://www.knittingoutloud.com/big_knitLssn.html

-Katherine Jane

John's Garden in Summer

On March 7th I gave a Stories of Knitting talk at the Harwich Library on Cape Cod. Before the talk, I visited my friend John Posey, whom I had not seen in twenty years. He is a landscape architect in Brewster, and his garden is enchanting. Here it is in summer, but it looked fantastic even in March. His two sweet dogs, Olive and Teddy, are pictured below.




-Kathy

Knitting in Honduras: A World Journey of Smiles

In November, 2007, to commemorate a quarter-century of providing new smiles, Operation Smile International launched the World Journey of Smiles, a multi-faceted initiative aimed at increasing the number of children served each year. Around the world, on the same day, at the same local time, Operation Smile volunteers conducted 40 missions in 25 countries, with the hope of treating an estimated 5,000 children with facial deformities. As of this writing, 4149 children were reported to have been treated during the World Journey.

Operation Smile is a non-profit volunteer medical services organization which provides free reconstructive surgery to children and young adults around the world suffering with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities.

Angela Martinelli, RN, PhD an Operation Smile nurse volunteer since 1993 joined the team of volunteers on a mission in Santa Rose de Copan, Honduras. Santa Rosa de Copan is located in the western mountains of Honduras and is a combination of colonial architecture, cobblestone streets, and delightful people. The ruins of Copan, just 7 miles from the Guatemala border is a designated World Heritage Site believed by archeologists to be the cultural center, the Paris, of the Maya world.

As part of the World Journey, Dr. Martinelli was assigned to the Mission site in Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras. Operation Smile has been a conduction mission in Honduras since 1997. In 2006, Operation Smile Honduras opened its Cleft Lip and Cleft Palate Integral Care Clinic in Tegucigalpa. Currently, more than 300 patients come on a regular basis for free medical care and psycho-social services the clinic offers in the fields of plastic surgery, pediatrics, speech pathology, orthodontics, nutrition and psychology. More than 1,000 consultations have been conducted by the Foundation’s medical volunteers since the clinic opened.

Dr. Martinelli – a very amateur knitter - enjoys knitting hats, scarves and headbands for the patients and their families. She typically knits all year and takes them on her mission, giving them to patient as they arrive for screening or putting then on children to keep then warm during and after surgery.

Notes from the Field. 12/11/2007

CAPT A.M. Martinelli, USPHS

Angela Martinelli, PhD, RN, CNOR Captain, USPHS

www.operationsmile.org

http://www.worldjourneyofsmiles.org/

-Kathy

Martha Giancola's Knitting Story:

I have been teaching knitting classes at our local high school adult education program for years. My students, usually about 10 ladies between the ages of 30 to over 70, would always end up hearing various stories about my small "farm": the chickens, goats, rabbits, and ducks. One winter night I was particularly distressed during class because my favorite rooster was getting severe frostbite on his comb, because the weather had been dipping below zero, and I wasn't quite sure how to help him (short of bringing him into the house). Hens do not usually get frostbite on their combs because they tend to sleep with their heads under their wings. Roosters sleep with their heads up, though, so they almost always have frostbitten combs in the winter. I cannot remember who brought it up, but as a joke, one of the ladies mentioned that I should knit him a hat. BING! I thought it was a great idea, and went home that night to see if I could come up with something. I was knitting some socks at the time, and noticed right away the the heel or toe of a sock would be the perfect shape to cover the comb. So within an hour I had turned out the first hat, knitted in self-patterning sock yarn, embellished with a jaunty tassel and braided ties.

The rooster cooperated with me while I tied the hat on, but alas, as soon as he was on his own he quickly found a way to remove it. But the pictures were so funny that I ended up showing everyone I knew, and it became a funny story to tell at family functions. Shortly before Christmas that year, my knitting group was working on some charity knits, and I even went so far as to make up a fake charity hand-out called "Hats for Chickens". The handout implored knitters everywhere to not forget about all of the cold, needy chickens who were spending the winter outside without any hats to keep them warm. Of course I only gave the handout to the women in my class. I wouldn't really want people to start knitting hats for cold chickens everywhere. That would be cruel.

I've attached a photo of my rooster wearing the hat I knitted, and I've also attached a photo of him meeting Santa, looking very handsome in his handknitted hat.

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-Kathy