Letters
More Thread Love
Dear Ann,
I have been sitting here half the evening YouTubing up sad songs suggested in the comments. Whoa. There are a lot of sad songs out there. We may need to put together a Programme of Sad YouTubes and watch them together, while sipping absinthe and keening. We will call this event, “Tuesday.”
I have also activated the Random Drawer and can report that we have our 3 winners, and I have sent them all emails. (Congratulations, Specklepop, Cynthia cynsmc, and Montanasue!) Meanwhile, Rosanne has kindly offered to sign the CDs, so I am going to take them to her before I mail them out. If you’re in the New York area, you can see her tomorrow evening, at the Barnes & Noble at Union Square. Rosanne and her husband, John Leventhal (The Pride of Scarsdale High, tweets Nancy Franklin), will perform songs from The River and the Thread. Details here. (I’ll be in the crowd, knitting, so if you’re there say hi.)
In other exciting news, the New York Times Magazine’s blog, The Sixth Floor, reports that “Gardiner says she taught Cash to knit.” (Emphasis added.) You are just going to have to trust me on this.
It tickled me that the main point of interest for the Times seemed to be the old knitting pattern picture of a smoking cowboy-in-cardi. It’s special, I’ll grant. But I think the best Western themed sweater ever is a Mary Maxim design called Hoedown. I thought it worth sharing here.
Hoedown makes that Palomino zip-up look like something out of James Bond, don’t it? Downright understated.
Check out Rachel Herron’s fabulous Hoedown, unearthed from the way-back archives of her excellent blog. I have dreamed of Hoedown for years. Not sure it works as a real wardrobe staple for me, but it is one of the all-time great picture sweaters.
Goodnight my little cowpokes, and remember to support your local knitting musicians.
Love,
Kay
So, in my travels, I couldn’t figure out how to respond to the “one tin soldier” comment. I think it may have been the same weekend in the NYT (or I may be hallucinating), that I read that Billy Jack died. That song, that movie, I’ll stay up to all hours watching it on cable, and always cry at the thought of the bad stuff, even before it happens (just like in the Brian Piccolo story, if I may age myself!)
Wow, that is a sweater, alright. But I still see Olive as more of a “rearing mustang” sort, possibly with duplicate stitch text reading:
don’t fence me in
Quinn, you are so very right about Olive, I think. If Kay does not knit this, then I will.
That Hoedown sweater is awesome. I don’t know that it would be a wardrobe staple for me, either, but it makes me want to knit intarsia, which is kind of like never for me. Whoa.
Gotta love the NYT and their crack team of investigative reporters. All the news that’s fit to print for sure!!
Who doesn’t love a great Mary Maxxim sweater. Brings back memories of days sitting at Grandmother’s thumbing through the Mary Maxxim catalog (along with Lee Wards). Great memories….
Hoedown is certainly charming…perhaps you could tone down the color palette and create a yoke of miniature hoe-downers (aka Lopi the 5th).
Well I want the Palomino one. Seriously. I would SO wear that (and look fab in it, even though I say that myself).
Now, what OTHER musicians could you teach to knit, hmmm?
Ah! Perhaps the question can be revearsed: how many knitters can be taught to play a musical instrument? Don’t look at me, I am already proficient in a musical instrument. I play the triangle (don’t usually admit this, but it was a case of “childhood prodigy” for me–‘nuf said).
At any rate, weather it be the Palomino, the Hoedown, or a diffrent western intarsia knit, I think there is a GREAT space for that in one’s wardrobe. A pair of jeans, a plain/gingham/western stlile shirt, and one of those classic sweaters on a sunny but nippy fall day would work very well. Add some boots and a white cowboy hat, well that would be just fine. I’m also thinking of how to add a Texas Star quilt into the mix…
Knit on!
LoveDiane
Why have I never even heard of Mary Maxim? So out of it!
Memo to us: next time, definitely get people to provide a YouTube link to their songs. So many I haven’t heard of and obviously need to hear.
I suppose you don’t curl either.
http://www.campkitschyknits.com/item_44/Granite-Club-Curling-Sweater-by-Mary-Maxim.htm
Southerners.
Greetings from Canada.
P.S. There is a Hoedown in the banner, and an excellent cow portrait sweater too!
That curling sweater is a perennial favorite when the Winter Olympics come around. Why Canada does not outfit the whole team in it is beyond understanding. It’s a National Treasure.
There are hockey Mary Maxims, too. Skiers. Guys standing with rifles in grass, with ducks flying overhead, quacking, “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot.” We got it all.
I inherited my Dad’s Herford Mary Maxim sweater. He paid a friend to knit it for him after seeing the Holstein sweater she knit for her dairy farmer husband. He hardly ever wore it because it was so warm, the sweater had a flannel lining in addition to the worsted weight wool. It is very much a coat and not a cardigan. Various grandkids will borrow it for hipster styling, otherwise it is kept safe in the cedar chest.
“Tuesday” indeed.
I sing Summerfly (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhw7C5SiW8w) when I want to be the weird lady at Seward Park. Singing it doesn’t make me cry, but Maura’s version above, with lovely Leo Kottke, sure brings on the dark clouds.
If I need to stop crying, for instance if it’s suddenly Wednesday, Nada Surf’s Blankest Year can usually make me dance. There’s a version without the f-bomb, and then there;s this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXRLUeVXpMA
Mary Maxim…now there’s a stroll down memory lane! I was always a sewer, but loved to look through the MM catalogs! Thanks for the memories, Kay, and for the recipe for the Gingery Citrus beverage. My head is completely stuffed up – I made a cup of tea and dropped a menthol eucalyptus cough drop into it – I feel like a new person!
Happy knitting…and for making the NY Times Magazine’s blog!
Once or twice I’ve seen a Mary Maxim sweater in the wild. Thrilling!
Speaking of Rachael and her fabulous knitting, did you happen to see the OCTOPUS sweater she knit Lala for Christmas? Here.
My husband’s aunt actually knit Hoedown. Twice. Yep, matching his-and-hers. She never really seemed to approve of anything I knit.
Now I could totally see wearing the Mary Maxim Shark sweater during Shark Week. Maybe I can get one done in time for Sharknado II !
Kay, can you attend this for all of us who can’t and let us know how it is! Cathy http://www.bbg.org/discover/gallery/knit_purl_sow
The owner of one of the yarn stores here on Cape Cod has the motherload of Mary Maxim patterns and still knits up 20 or so MM intarsia Christmas stockings to order every year, either from her pattern stash or to duplicate whatever you family has. They are classics. Maybe some day…
And it is via. MDK that I first saw the photo of Grant Lawrence & little one & their matching CBC sweaters. Those curling sweaters were a vintage clothing store’s buried treasure back in my days doing picking, lo so many years ago…
Got to love Mary Maxim.
I also have to weigh in on sad songs (can’t comment on any but the most recent post?)
“Rambling Rose”, by Nat King Cole. Some may consider this merely rueful, but the first time I ever heard it I was crying within the first three notes, when I was a little kid who had never cried at a song before. Still gets me every time.
Saddest song of all time: “Danny Boy”.
Apropos of nothing, assume you know that Rowan is now making denim yarn again. If not, FYI. They are calling it “Original Denim” and it even comes in “Nashville”, AKA black. Be still my heart.
That picture of Hoedown just says it all — knitting is fabulous!
Well it seems you can’t comment on a post once another one is posted, so I’ll have to post here. Loved the Roseanne Cash post, and still feel the need to say it even if I missed the chance to win a cd. I’m also marking the post so I can take my time reading all those suggestions of sad songs to see if there are any I’m not familiar with. For the record, my fav these days seems to be “If this is Goodbye” by Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris
I just showed my husband this awesome sweater and his eyebrows shot up! I said he could wear it to our dance class, since we ‘re learning the Texas two step, and he laughed! I hope one of you knits this sweater!
Whoa, I’ve been reading you for years through RSS and today realized I hadn’t heard from you in a while. Turns out your old RSS feed broke when you updated the blog. So now I’ve resubscribed to the new RSS and will start reading at the first post after the redesign, which is http://www.moderndailyknitting.com/our-favorite-things/welcome-new-world/