Before I get to my actual entry, I want to commend to you this piece in Josh Kornbluth's blog on the right wines to drink with Thai food, pastrami sandwiches, rice krispie treats and potato chips. Personally, I thought the answer in all of those cases was barley wine, a.k.a. beer, but it's good to know the experts have thought this through.
Now, let's turn our attention to the subject of knitting. I learned to knit when I was about 12 or so. What's significant is that I learned from my mother, which means that learned to knit in a technique that pretty much mystifies everyone else who sees me. Typically, they say that I knit "backwards." The ones who are rude claim that I knit "wrong" despite the good results I get.
So, today I was at my knitting group for the first time in a while and working on a sweater. Jill looks at me and says, "oh, you also knit Eastern crossed." It turns out that the way I knit is very common both in Eastern Europe and in the Middle East. This makes perfect sense since Mom learned to knit from the Eastern European Jewish ladies at the local knitting shop in the Bronx, with some reinforcement from her grandmother. It's called the Eastern crossed technique and is perfectly legitimate. (It does, though, require a few minor adjustments in patterns written by people who knit in the Western style.) I can't tell you how happy I was to learn this.
Throw in the delicious homemade chocolate truffles Julia brought and it was a great afternoon.
Copyright 2006 Miriam H. Nadel