If you look around you can easily see the impact knitting as on our everyday lives. It allows us to clothe and accessorize ourselves for protection from the elements and decoration. Practically all clothing you see is knit or woven. A lot of clothing is made by first knitting large sheets of fabric and then sewing it together to make a garment. Our fascination with knitting has not been limited to clothing however. Knitting has been written about and referenced in the Bible and the works of Shakespeare for example as well as movies and television shows. I’d like to compile a list of occurrences of such references from time to time. Here are a few for the first of what may turn out to be many compilations …
Quotes
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. Psalm 139:13 (NIV) From the bible this is probably the most famous such quote.
Know your sheep by name; carefully attend to your flocks; (Don’t take them for granted; possessions don’t last forever, you know.) And then, when the crops are in and the harvest is stored in the barns, You can knit sweaters from lambs’ wool, and sell your goats for a profit; Proverbs 27:23-27 (MSG)
And John was clothed with camel’s hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey; Mark 1:6 (KJV) Even though it doesn’t specifically say that the garment was knit, camel hair is being used to knit with today!
And my favorite quote for knitting comes from the master William himself from an excerpt from A Midsummer Night’s Dream when Lysander pledges his undying love and loyalty to Hermia in the wood…
O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence!
Love takes the meaning in love’s conference.
I mean, that my heart unto yours is knit
So that but one heart we can make of it;
Two bosoms inter-chained with an oath;
So then two bosoms and a single troth.
Then by your side no bed-room me deny;
For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.
What can I say, I’m a romantic.
Films and TV
As with literary works, there are lots from TV and movies – and not just Hollywood ones too.
Demolition Man – In this movie Sylvester Stallone’s character has returned from a cybernetic prison where he was re-programmed to fit better into society. His program taught him many skills including knitting and he proceeds to knit a cabled sweater for Sandra Bullock’s character in a single evening. My little peeve about this is not that you don’t actually see him knitting (Syl can’t) but that he takes a ball of yarn and begins winding it into a skein using his hand and elbow. All knitters know that the process would actually be the reverse where you take a skein and wind it into a ball so you can knit with it!
Chris sends in two references:
In the movie “Fargo”, the wife is knitting at the beginning just before being kidnapped.
Bette Davis knits aboard a ship in the movie “New Voyager”.
So there you go – we’ve just scratched the tip of the iceberg – barely. There will be another post in the future with more quotes and references. Feel free to forward any you know so we can share them.
Hugzzz 😎