Every knitter appreciates our craft’s heritage but exploring all of those traditions is certainly daunting. On the other hand, just reading the history of sweaters like ganseys, Fair Isle, Norwegian, Cowichan and other fiber reflections of culture somehow doesn’t seem like quite enough. Thanks to Kari Cornell, you can use what I think is a brilliant way to blend samplers, utilitarians items and heritage into completely approachable projects – scarves!
Sometimes I am blown away by the way such a simple concept can be so brilliant! Think about it, scarves have been providing warmth, comfort, or decoration to both men and women almost as long as human civilization has existed. So says Donna Druchunas at the very beginning of her introduction to Knitting Scarves from Around the World. Then she goes on to appeal to my love of knitting history focusing on head and neck coverings. All the way back to 2900 B.C. and all around the world including Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, Rome on up through seventeenth century Croatian soldiers, King Charles II of England and the aeronautical scarves of Amelia Earhart, Howard Hughes and WWI’s “Red Baron”.
Read more »
