World War II Knitting

I had the opportunity to attend a talk today at the Minnesota History Center on World War II Knitting. The program was presented by Linda McShannock, the Textile Curator at the History Center, and Steven Berg, aka 'The Glitter Knitter' and owner of the Yarn Garage in Rosemount, Minnesota. Linda talked about the museum's collections (and mentioned me and Carol Ogren because of our volunteer work cataloguing the knitting collection - years ago) and showed us some wonderful pieces that were on display for today's event. Steven talked about the history of male knitters as well as the charity knitting done during the World Wars for soldiers. It was really interesting!

Here's Steven (in a sweater made out of multiple fibers, including 8-track tape!):

You can just barely see in the background a mannequin with a fantastic dress made out of a silk underdress, covered with an overdress made of copper wire! It is so cool. I wish I had gotten a better photo... It was made by a local fiber artist (can't remember her name) and is called something like "Yeah, I'm a Goddess."

At my table there was a wonderful woman named Trudy (sorry, I've forgotten her last name) who is 82 years young. She had a couple of great anecdotes about wartime knitting. In addition, she has given a couple of her hand-knitted items to the collection. Here she is (on the left) with Linda McShannock and Trudy's beautiful, Chanel-inspired sweater. The sweater was a blue ribbon winner at the Minnesota State Fair in the 1990s.

A Star is Born

O.K., maybe a bit player is born! I woke up super early yesterday morning (3:50!) so I could go and participate in a promo on the KARE 11 morning show for Stitch N Pitch. If you don't know what Stitch N Pitch is, check out The National Needlearts Association for more info across the nation or the Minnesota Twins website for the Stitch N Pitch event on Sunday, July 22, at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.

I'm the one in the red shirt behind the guy with the blond hair (Steven Berg from The Yarn Garage who was immortalized today in the Star Trib). The only person interviewed from the group of stitchers was the little girl on the left who surprised the interviewer by answering the question of what she was knitting with "A hedgehog." You should have seen the look on the interviewer's face - it was classic: skeptical, amazed, etc. I was happy I had brought a few props along, because not only did we get the hat my partner Cis made for TC (the Twin's mascot) on air, but they also talked about our Twins tote during both segments!