I Am Not a Knit Wit, But I Have One

One Saturday afternoon in late 2008, while I was happily browsing the racks at Value Village, I found a Knit Wit kit. By which I mean one of the above. The Knit Wit, despite its name, is not a knitting tool, but is rather a sort of small, simple hand loom. Knit Wits used to be advertised on TV when I was little. The commercials showed a woman and her little girl happily making afghans by winding yarn around the pins on the tool and then twisting the handle to make the finished rosette pop dramatically off (there was even a special sound effect). In retrospect, the items the two of them made on the commercials were freaking hideous. But I was the kind of child who always wanted to try my hand at every craft going (actually, that's the kind of adult I am as well), and I clearly remember how much I wanted a Knit Wit. So I bought the Value Village kit. It was only $5 and I was pretty sure I could put it to good use. Plus I got to gratify a childhood desire, which is one adult pleasure I totally recommend.

Then I went home and began doing some research. Knit Wits seem to have been around since the 1950s, and this is one of the former reincarnations of the kit.

In company with a lot of TV-advertised plastic gadgets, they don't work quite as easily as the commercials lead us to believe. This is part of the instruction manual from one of the older kits. Apparently there were also several pages of written instructions to accompany these visual aids.

Looking at the official Knit Wit website that night in 2008 made me laugh until I had tears streaming down my face. The company was using the same images they used in their commercials circa 1981, and offered almost no recent designs or patterns. Unfortunately the Knit Wit web site is not extant anymore, or I could show you horrendous pantsuits and mini-dresses and daisy afghans (such as the one above) that dated from the sixties and seventies. They were offered for sale individually, as if anyone would ever buy them. And as God is my witness, I swear I could hear the yarn screaming.

There aren't too many Knit Wit patterns or examples on the net at all, and most of them are decades old and/or terrible. This, for instance, is one of the pattern books from back in the day. I wish I could page through it, because I'm sure it's a gem of its kind.

Here's another book, with two close ups of the afghans in it. On second thought maybe I don't really want to see the rest of the patterns in these booklets.

This is one of the very few recent designs I could find, and it... leaves something to be desired.

But there aren't any needlework techniques or tools that can't be used for good rather than evil — the failing is usually that of the crafter's taste or skill rather than inherent in the craft itself. And there are a few good examples of Knit Wit items on the net that prove that yes, it is possible to use the Knit Wit tool to make something attractive. I don't care for the pink snowsuit above, but I must admit the cocktail dress is quite something.

Blogger Kathleen Gauthier has written a post on her site about her mother's 50s-era Knit Wit dress, which was made out of purple organza ribbon, and gotten her own daughter to model it for us over a vintage slip (Gauthier's mother wore it over a purple silk sheath). It's lovely.

Martha Stewart has featured a few quite desirable Knit Wit designs on her site. There's certainly nothing wrong with this delicate scarf.

Martha Stewart also offers us some Knit Wit décor ideas: making a cushion from Knit Wit rosettes, or using the rosettes to decorate a plain cushion or throw.

But even so I know I will mostly be on my own as far as Knit Wit designs go. And I am afraid but ready. The Knit Wit tool kit doesn't seem to be in production at present, but if you'd like one of your own, try your luck on eBay, or perhaps make your own with pins and cardboard.


Addendum:

A reader named Karen (thank you Karen!) has helpfully pointed out that there are more Knit Wit designs available on the net. Rather than limiting myself to what's under that one brand name, I should have searched under "daisy loom", "bloom loom", "flower loom", and "square loom".

This is not to say that all the flower loom designs are attractive. A western skunk cabbage by any other name would still smell just as bad. You know how I keep saying some designs are too afghan-like in my magazine issue reviews? This photo must be the ultimate illustration of my principle that though an afghan is a fine thing, you can't wear it.

Here we have an afghan/skirt, and a rather cute little top.

Here we have a collection of atrocious items with one that's actually quite good. As you can see, this little cardigan is a clever hybrid: it's partly flower loomed, and partly knit. If you want to try making wearable items with flower looming, you probably will need to incorporate some knitting into it at some point. I don't know how you'd shape the rosettes into a flattering garment otherwise.

Great photo. This woman actually looks chic. The purse and hat are useable by contemporary standards. I'm going to reserve judgment on the blouse because I can't see enough of it to tell whether it's flattering and attractive. What we can see does look promising.

You can see more pictures of flower loom items here, and check out the many related links here.

Shrinkage Happens

Even the most experienced of us make mistakes in laundering. I have two stories about sweater shrinkage. The Christmas my niece Clementine was five, I gave her a pink angora/mohair sweater I'd knitted for her. Clementine only got to wear it once. I had told my sister-in-law not to put in the dryer, but she did and it shrank several sizes and had to be given to Clementine's two-year-old sister. My sister-in-law reported that "there was much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth" on Clementine's part, adding to my mother, who lives half an hour's drive from my brother and sister-in-law's farm, "I'm surprised you didn't hear her screaming from here." After that I never gave my sister-in-law's children any items that needed special care. She had three children under six and it just wasn't fair to saddle her with extra work.

Then circa 2003, I, who until that point had never ruined anything in the wash in my life, shrank three sweaters in a six-week stretch. Fortunately they were thrift shop finds rather than handmade, but still. One was completely trashed but the other two shrank down into perfectly proportioned little sweaters, so I gave them to my niece Peaches, who was then about seven. I was told she got lots of wear out of them. And, for the next two or three years, Peaches would occasionally ask me, very hopefully, "Aunt Orange, did you shrink anything else in the wash lately?"

Do you have any horror stories about the time you shrank a hand-knitted item? Feel free to spill them in the comments section. There's nothing like laughing at someone else's hapless shrinkage story to make one feel better about one's own.

For the Knitter Who Loves to Read... Since There Aren't Too Many of the Other Kind

Yesterday's Beowulf sock pattern post got me wondering about other literary reference knitting projects, and the resulting internet search led me to Literary Knits: 30 Patterns Inspired by Favorite Books, by Nikol Lohr, which include patterns inspired by characters from classic books such as Pride and Prejudice, Moby Dick, The Catcher in the Rye, Jane Eyre, Dorian Gray, A Room With a View, Tess of the d'Ubervilles, The Golden Compass, The Chronicles of Narnia, and more. Some of the literary references are a stretch (the interpretations aren't very, well, literal), and some of the patterns aren't anything special in any way, but there are enough terrific patterns included that this book is worth buying. The patterns can be viewed on their respective pages on Ravelry, and I'll just share a few of them below.

This is the Anne of Green Gables pattern. You'll have to tell people that it is. Of course once those who have read Anne are told they'll get that it's knitted in brown and has puffed sleeves exactly like Anne's brown gloria Christmas dress, and serious Anne geeks will get that it has the "crowning glory" of two rows of puffs in the sleeve that are trimmed with brown ribbons.

This is the Daisy cloché. I hate the colour, but it's a nice, wearable design. Do try not to cheat on your husband with an old flame when you wear it, unless of course your husband is kind of a pig and already has a mistress, in which case you'll have to do as you think best.

This is the Phoebe jacket, and it's one of the designs that actually look like something the character would have worn. And if there were a Catcher in the Rye movie, this little imp could be cast on the spot to play Holden Caulfield's little sister.

These Laura Pinafores are supposedly inspired by the Little House on the Prairie books, and of course they look absolutely nothing like anything the little Ingalls girls would have worn. Even the costuming for Michael Landon's none-too-faithful seventies TV series got leagues closer than this. The designer writes that they are made in the spirit of prairie life, in which nothing was wasted. This is true, of course, and these scrap yarn jumpers are very cute and a great way to use up odds and ends of yarn, and I may just end up making one for my little grandniece, but I can't help wishing they'd at least used one blonde and one brunette model for this photo shoot instead of two blondes.

Very cute Scout "mockingbird" cardigan. Do make sure your little daughter isn't pestering the neighbours when she wears it.

This Gregor sweater is awesome and would be the ultimate Christmas present for the Kafka fan in your life. Or for a Naked Lunch fan if you've got one of those instead.

A Sock Pattern That is Literally Epic

Hwaet! Listen! Let me tell you a tale of a pair of socks, that in turn tell the tale of Beowulf, the epic Old English poem dating from between the 8th and early 11th century. The text begins on one sock and continues on the other, and of course the colours mimic that of an aged manuscript and dried ink. The pattern is available as a $5 download from Verdant Gryphon, and if you never cared for Beowulf and are feeling up to a typographical design challenge, you could always knit a different text into your socks. Just don't go with a Stephanie Meyer quote. Trust me on this one.

It gives me the vapours to think how long this project would take to make, but I have to admit this is the ultimate literary tribute and knitting project, and that if you work on these in an English literature class, your professor won't have the heart to tell you to put your knitting away.

Creative Knitting Spring 2013: A Review

Let's have a look at Creative Knitting's latest issue.

I've done my share of scrap yarn projects like this hat, just making them up as I went along. Most knitters have probably done the same, although this designer actually wrote up a pattern for it and sold it to a magazine. It makes you think.

Very pretty little purse, though that daisy sticking up at the side would drive me insane. It catches the eye but would also catch on everything else possible. I'd put it on the side of the purse or leave it off entirely.

I'd love to try turned wire knitting some time, but I think I'll wait until I come across a better pattern than this. This bracelet just looks like it's all bent out of shape.

Speaking of waiting for better patterns, this looks like knitting and beading's bastard stepchild. This could work as a bracelet, but as a necklace it's just hanging there limply, neither fish nor fowl, and neither scarf nor necklace.

It's the spring issue, Creative Knitting. Why are you giving us more cowl and fingerless glove set patterns? That said, I must admit this set is very pretty and graceful and suitable for late winter/early spring weather.

This looks like one of those Home Ec projects you make as an adolescent and are very proud of at first, but that within a few months becomes a source of embarrassment that you'd like to forget all about — if your older siblings would let you. But they won't forget, and if they're especially cruel they'll go behind your back to publish it in knitting magazine with a circulation of oh, 72,000 or so. This means war. It's diary publication or girlfriend- or boyfriend-stealing time.

This isn't bad. It's simple yet has a little interesting detail, and its standard fit and style will flatter most women.

This is probably supposed to look minimalist and contemporary but only looks not only unfinished but as though it shrunk in the wash.

This is probably supposed to be a relaxed, casual look, but it just looks sloppy and won't be flattering.

Here we have another sweater that calls itself asymmetrical and just looks as though it shrunk in the wash. Maybe the next time you do shrink a piece of your knitwear in the wash, you should just wear it with an insouciantly confident air and casually refer to it as the latest in asymmetrical style. It seems to be how the knitting designer pros do it.

This is a really cute child's cardigan. The tabs on the front make it look a little like something one of the von Trapp children would have worn, but it would have been on one of the cute little ones instead of the older one who snuck out her bedroom window to have a tryst with her Nazi boyfriend, so all is well.

I like this lace tunic on the whole, but I can't help thinking it's a little on the dowdy, drab side. I'd do a little tweaking to pep it up a bit: shorten the sleeves and hem, make the fit a little neater, and go with a fresh, spring-like colour.

The blurb for this pattern suggests that you can wear this wrap several different ways ("wear it buttoned at each side of the neck for a unique look, or simply fasten at the neck or shoulder as a long wrap"). It looks a little on the skimpy side when worn as a wrap and a little bit afghan-like, but somehow I am having a hard time condemning it. I may be biased in its favour because of the colour — green and teal is one of my favourite colour combinations. It would be easier to be objective about the patterns I review if they were in black and white, but it would also be far less of a pleasure to look at them.

This little cardi has two attributes that I normally condemn out of hand — it's cropped and too oversized — yet it looks attractive here. There are a couple of factors that make it work: it's worn over a dress which means it hasn't added another horizontal line to an outfit that already has one (as it would with a two-piece outfit); and it's lightweight and lacy enough that it has a shawl-like effect rather than bulking up the model's figure. If you're reasonably trim and intend to wear this over a dress, you can probably get away with it as well.

This top broke a couple of knitting design rules. For one thing, it looks like something the designer whipped up to use some leftover yarn. Not that there's anything wrong with leftover or scrap yarn projects (I have made many myself), but the end result should look deliberate and as though you wouldn't have changed a thing even if you had a truckload of yarn to choose from. This doesn't. And secondly, no sweater should make a woman look pregnant when she isn't.

Lovely little baby blanket!

I'm not crazy about this scarf, but I suppose it's wearable. I can't give those felted buttons a pass though, partly because they look random and pointless and partly because if I were to try to wear this scarf I'd somehow manage to catch them on things and whack myself in the face with them.

Love this scarf — the shape and the lace pattern are really sriking — though it does look a little overwhelming when worn with a tank top.

Very pretty rainbow scarf. I do like to see a variegated yarn put to good use.

Erhm. This isn't bad. It fits fairly well; it has an interesting texture. But if I wanted a pattern for a cute, textured summer top, I'd look a little further for something that looks just that little bit smarter and more finished. There are too many wonderful patterns out there for any knitter to have to settle for anything that just warrants a meh.

I'm not enthusiastic about these, but I suppose they could look cute and playful in the right kitchen. They're not terribly practical, though. Knitting isn't best fabric to wipe your hands on (think "gunk collecting in the weave") or to protect your hands from a high heat (think "scorch marks").

Inspirational words as a design element have been around for quite some time, and I suppose it was inevitable that someone would manage to come up with a way to incorporate them into a knitting project. These aren't by any means bad examples of their kind, but I do wish people would show a little more creativity and attitude when they choose "inspirational words". I've seen "Faith", "Believe", and "Hope" so often it would be refreshing and delightful to see words like "Question", "Challenge", and "Get Real".

This afghan is supposed to have a woven ribbon effect, and of course it does, but I am put off by the rather crude colour scheme and the "beginner project" look of it. I'd use a more sophisticated blend of colours to upgrade the look.

This not only screams "beginner project", it screams "little girl's beginner project". If you are a grown-ass woman wanting to make something for yourself, please trust me when I say that there are better beginner projects out there that you can be proud to wear in public rather than something you can only carry to your niece's tea party for her dolls.

Here we have a cowl that matches the purse just above. The same comments apply.