From A Knitter's Journal

“Really, all you need to become a good knitter are wool, needles, hands and slightly below-average intelligence. Of course, superior intelligence, such as yours and mine, is an advantage.” – Knitting Without Tears

“One un-vents something; one unearths it; one digs it up; one runs it down in whatever recesses of the eternal consciousness it has gone to ground. I very much doubt if anything is really new when one works in the prehistoric medium of wool and needles.”
– Knitter’s Almanac

“...there are few knitting problems that will not yield to a blend of common sense, ingenuity and resourcefulness...” – The Opinionated Knitter

“My kind of character enjoys work best when work is fun, and progress can be noted and gloated over. When I have a long plain piece of knitting ahead I put a safety-pin at each day’s beginning to show me how I am coming.”
– Knitter’s Almanac

“In some quarters November is considered rather a dull month, but not at our house. It is a time of snugging down, of finding and foiling sources of draughts; of augmenting the woodpile, putting up the bird-feeders, starting in on some serious reading, and knitting—always knitting.” – Knitter’s Almanac

“One important admonition—carry yarn very loosely across the back of your work, otherwise your knitting will pucker, and be wasted and unloved.” – The Opinionated Knitter

“When times are tough I sit down to spin during the news-broadcasts, with therapeutic results. Knitting, as you well know, is therapy too.” – Knitter’s Almanac

“A swatch is not wasted labor by any means; it makes an excellent pocket...” – The Opinionated Knitter

“I deliberately keep my knitting notes vague, because tastes vary, and your brains are as good as mine anyway.” – The Opinionated Knitter

“I don’t like zippers in sweaters, but many recipients insist, so I give in...I sew them in neatly, by hand, on the right side, muttering to myself.” – The Opinionated Knitter

“To blend almost-matching yarns, work alternate rows of them for an inch or so.” – The Opinionated Knitter

“Did I say I am never inspired? Pay no attention to me; I’ll say anything. Inspiration is unsettling to a degree. If not pinned down immediately by being worked on—actually knitted up—it melts away like the morning dew and is lost forever.” – Knitter’s Almanac

“Now, have a good summer. Dabble your feet in the water, and fill the sock-drawer against next winter. I find this as satisfying as studying seed-catalogues by a roaring January fire.” – The Opinionated Knitter

“Last night, the moon—three-quarters full—reflected herself in the water behind the triple twisted cedar as in a Japanese print. This morning the print has changed; all the further shores have disappeared, the sun is seen only as a pale radiance, and sky and water have merged and mingled. Tall rushes mirror themselves unwaveringly in the glassy lake, making one perfect circle...” – Knitter’s Almanac

“Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn’t hurt the untroubled spirit either.” – Knitting Without Tears

“...how comforting to be engaged in the creation of artifacts for which the demand is—as far as I can see—infinite.”
– The Opinionated Knitter

“October: the month when knitting really starts coming into its own again... The sun is once more welcome to shine in at the south windows and as the sunshiny patch moves across the floor, the cats move with it, basking and stretching.” – Knitter’s Almanac

“For people allergic to wool, one’s heart can only bleed. Synthetics are a marvelous substitute, but a substitute is all they are.” – Knitting Without Tears

“Although babies rarely, if ever, express their pleasure at being dressed in wool, it is surely manifest when you dote on a small plump person soundly and contentedly asleep, swaddled in woollen sweater, woollen leggings and a soft wool bonnet, snugly tucked under a fine warm wool blanket.” – Knitter’s Almanac

“Now, let us all take a deep breath and forge on into the future; knitting at the ready.” – The Opinionated Knitter

For more information on Elizabeth Zimmermann and her legacy, please visit www.schoolhousepress.com.

PHOTO CAPTIONS: The many faces of hand-knitting pioneer Elizabeth Zimmermann (1910–1999). 1) Elizabeth at Knitting Camp, 1981; 2) in 1964; 3) modeling a dirndl; 4) with husband Arnold (nicknamed Gaffer); 5) as photographed for Knitting Without Tears. In the book, EZ explains that the shot was meant to show her knitting the sleeve of the sweater she was wearing, but the publisher cropped the photo above her hands. 6) Meg Swansen with her mother, Elizabeth. 7) Arnold and EZ. An entry in The Opinionated Knitter reads: “[Meeting them], I was prepared to be awe­struck, but they were so kind and so obviously in deep love; how could anyone be anything but charmed....” Elizabeth and baby Meg in New York City (8) and a few years later (9). Meg was 4 or 5 when her mother taught her to knit. 10) Betty Lloyd-Jones, circa 1926. She left England in her mid teens to attend art school in Switzerland. EZ on the beach (11) and on the slopes (12). 13) Elizabeth with fellow knitting luminaries Mary Walker Phillips (left) and Barbara Walker in Florida in 1980.