Knit to This
Extreme Knitting Calendar
You can call this a non-traditional Knit to This pick. You can also call it 365 days of fun.
Not only is Betsy Fitzpatrick’s Extreme Knitting 2026 calendar full of images that will make you want to take your knitting as far into the wild as possible—on glaciers! on mountain tops! on red rocks!—it’s also an opportunity to dig a little deeper into the places themselves.
Barbara Kingsolver—yes, the Pulitzer Prize winner—is pictured in the header image, having her own knitting adventure with some beasts of rural Kentucky. Now would be a great time to listen to her Demon Copperhead, a loose re-telling of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. Not only is the story a gripping one, her words will take you to Appalachia, if only in your mind’s eye.
You can also adventure to Colorado.
Above is a tangle of knitters all wearing their Mesa Verde hats from Nancy Bates’ Knitting the National Parks book. Which is a great reminder to watch (or re-watch) Ken Burns’ excellent documentary about how these treasures came to be while you knit your own chapeau.
Fitzpatrick and her photographer spouse John (he’s Grumpy Highlander on Instagram) have assembled a dozen images of knitters knitting in the great outdoors (mostly) that are a jumping off point for your own adventures in the coming year. And if you can’t get there in person, you can always get there in spirit while you knit and daydream.
Kingsolver and mountaineer photo credit: Grumpy Highlander
Thank you for this reminder about the National Parks. I will watch it. Love Nancy Bates’ books. Back when blogs were king/queen, there was a blog called Evergreen where young Hannah? Maybe? would be pictured on a mountainous outcropping of some sort with her knitting. It wasn’t called Extreme Knitting back then, but should have been! I used to show that photo whenever anyone said knitting was for grandmas.
Not that grandmas can’t climb mountains!
Definitely!
In the mid 1980s I was sitting around a fire with some sort of new friends after a day of rock climbing at what is now City of Rocks National Reserve in Idaho. Four or five of us pulled out knitting. Some of the men laughed, but we were delighted to realize how many of us were knitters as well as climbers. One of us organized a dinner and knit party that fall and the group grew to about ten twice monthly regulars that we dubbed the pigknitters as food and knitting. Well.
Forty years later, some of us still climb, ski, cycle, hike, some are with us only in our hearts. We mostly get together at Christmas and perhaps one summer gathering now, but knitting was the original thread, or yarn, that drew us together for a long lifetime of connectedness.
Such a beautiful way to establish those long-lasting friendships!
I love the knitting on a tandem bike, I’ve never been able to knit in the wild. I usually have a pattern and it’s just too complicated to get it together.
This is awesome! My husband usually gifts me a calendar as a holiday gift and I left him a hint about this. Thanks!
Great photos! I’ve tried knitting on horseback, but only for a photo op. My girl isn’t to be trusted not to wander off trail!
My cousin gave me this year’s calendar and I love it! Knitting in nature combines the best of both worlds!