The Friday Night Knitting Club: all about the book,the movie, and knitting

I've just started reading "Knitting for Peace" by Betty Christiansen. It's so hard to just read about knitting, a good book will make me want to drop the book and pick up my knitting.

So it is with this one. I've been reading about the knitting activism of American women through the years, especially as part of the Red Cross Knitting Tradition for soldiers during times of war. The Red Cross recruited knitters during WWI, in an amazingly coordinated, organized and methodical way.

American knitters' fingers flew throughout the war and afterward. The very first known celebrity knitter was Mary Pickford; in 1925 the actress knit between scenes in support of ongoing Red Cross activities.

The Friday Night Knitters Club is about female friendship. How subversive is that? It's all in what they knit when they gather together...

This article is a couple years old but holds true today. If you forget about granny blankets and knit up a mural of nudes, well, knitting becomes subversive. Or where you knit. Try knitting on a bus or subway, or in a fancy restaurant - knitting becomes weird, attention-grabbing, or blatantly provocative.

Here is the link to the article. There's even a pattern for a knitted hand grenade. You read that right. Talk about subversive knitting - that's knitting with an attitude. The grenade is actually a grenade-looking pouch knit in army green and steel gray; perfect for holding your hand grenade, or your iPod, or your cellphone...use your imagination.
Radical Knitting

It's hard to knit for others, unless you have their measurements. Where's the surprise in that?

I don't know about you, but knitting something that doesn't fit isn't an option.

We could all knit tea cozies instead. Or, we could knit spiral tube socks.

Spiral tube socks are very forgiving, they adjust their length to fit any foot because they have no knitted-in heel.

This pattern also expands and contracts quite a bit because they are knit in ribbing. But there's a twist to this ribbed spiral tube sock...read more...

Well, I could copy/paste but instead I'll just link you up! Kate's a Canuck living in the U.S. - she's me in reverse, I moved to Nova Scotia, then British Columbia, next is Alberta. I'm testing the sanity part of "how to stay sane while moving every few months".

About Kate Jacobs

Kate's website

Message Boards

Redbook magazine made "The Friday Night Knitting Club" their January book club selection, you can read a selection from the book here.

For all you Centigrade users..."normal" for this time of year (end of April) here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada is about 14C. It is -5C today, and trying to snow.

In case you only think in Fahrenheit, those numbers are about 57F and 23F.

This white stuff fell about 5 days ago and lingers still. I see no real relief in sight before this coming weekend. Mother Nature is laughing at me. Really. It's sort of a muahahahahaaaa.

So I'm still knitting a wool blanket and wearing wool socks and felted wool slippers.

My blinds are closed as I slowly go through the stages of grieving - I'm in denial at the moment. I'm compensating by enjoying my woolens far far into spring, and sipping on hot chocolate in my spare time.

I've also assembled my "hopes of spring" inspiration board so that when I'm finally warm enough to put away the wool, I'll be ready with plenty of inspiration for spring knitting.

My current favorite spring fiber is Bamboo...yes you read that right. More about that wonderful fiber next time.

I updated the message boards link in the previous post so now it goes directly to the boards.

There's a lot of potential in these boards, they're new and small, over time I think bonds will be formed and friendships forged.

Just like in the book, knitting is the medium, but support and friendship is the essence.

I also emailed Kate Jacobs to say hello and invite her to stop by here. After all, it's all about connections.

My beloved cat Bugger has become an attack cat since she became pregnant and abnormally paranoid. Now that she's had the kittens, she's worse.

My legs are so scratched and sore from her attacks whenever:

Someone comes to the door;
The kids next door yell;
The dog down the street barks;
Any cat fights outside, doesn't have to be anyone we know;
I move something she doesn't want moved;
I say "ouch" really loud when a kitten crawls up my leg;

...you get the idea...

So what does this have to do with a joke about knitting?

I need a laugh that has to do with cats...

What happens when a cat swallows a ball of yarn?

She has mittens.

Why are we fascinated with celebrities? Because we feel like nobodies and want to be somebody, so we obsess about people that we feel are somebody? Because we're bored, and celebrities are glamorous, or because they distract us from the real issues of our lives? Does it makes us feel better to know that somebody is either having a better time than us or a worse one?

Our triumphs are smaller, quieter, and less noteworthy perhaps - we nurture small businesses, raise healthy children, or watch our charitable efforts make a difference in our communities. Our successes won't happen in a dramatic instant lit by a spotlight and applauded by a room full of glamorous people. Our accomplishments will mature slowly over a lifetime to be shared privately with our loved ones.

We care for our homes, nurture our families and enjoy our hobbies, and yet we still feel somehow more important when a celebrity shows interest in what we do everyday. Witness the success and fascination with Martha Stuart. And now suddenly there's a renewed interest in knitting, especially among the young, when celebrities pick up knitting needles.

Russell Crowe doesn't even knit, but this picture of him makes us want to knit. Now that it's cool enough for him to be seen "resembling a knitter".

Is this the end of civilization as we know it, that we are so foolish?

For people such as me, who have been happily and contentedly knitting for decades - well, quite frankly, if I ever met Julia Roberts in person, I would not know what to say to her, except hello. How lame.

Now I know what I'll say. "Julia, how come I can't find the sweater pattern you designed anywhere on the internet? Want to see what I've designed?"

Cool. An embarassing moment avoided. Just in case I run into her some day.

Oh the drama unfolds...did Cameron and Julia knit together between sets?

Who picked up knitting first?

Celeb Den

Does it matter? :-)

More importantly...Got yarn?

Julia Roberts has welcomed her third child, a boy named Henry Daniel Moder.

Henry was born Monday in Los Angeles and weighed 8½ lbs. The family is doing well by all accounts.

Welcome to the world, little Henry! May it be full of many soft warm things knit by Mommy!

2004 - 2005:
Julia took time out to have twins with cinematographer husband Danny Moder.

2006:
Julia made her Broadway debut in April in the play Three Days of Rain;

voiced roles for The Ant Bully and the title character in Charlotte's Web;

began shooting Charlie Wilson's War with Tom Hanks;

acquired production rights to a series of films inspired by the American Girls dolls.

began production of The Friday Night Knitting Club

I doubt if she knit these hats, but maybe!

Kate Jacobs' novel "The Friday Night Knitting Club" centers on a single mom who juggles the demands of running a Manhattan knitting store with raising her spunky teen daughter. Her regular customers gather once a week to work on their latest projects and chat, but when a tragedy occurs, the customers realize they've created more than just a knitting club.

I found the book fascinating, probably because I love to read about women's relationships. There have been criticisms of the book, that there weren't enough references to knitting. That wasn't the purpose of the book, it's about women's strength, and the power of their caring.

Read what USA Today has to say about "The Friday Night Knitting Club".

Saying there weren't enough knitting tips is like criticizing "Steel Magnolias" for not having hair style tips in it! You missed the point! It's about how women gain strength through sharing their lives, through sickness and through health, functionality and disfunctionality.

I simply cannot wait for the movie!

Online affiliate marketing using my own website has made my store dream come true. Maybe my story will spark an interest in you too!

Finding your carefully researched niche is the most important first step for several reasons. With the likes of Amazon and Barnes and Noble as competition, you have to carve out a very specific small piece of the online bookstore pie and serve it with whipping cream. By that I mean, you have to create a very focused smaller bookstore that offers something that bigger websites don't have - a very warm, personal touch.

My focus is knitting books, and the personal touch is combining my first two passions, knitting and books, with my third, writing. So writing yarn and book reviews, as well as bookstore reviews, comes easy and is just what the search engines love.

Pros and Cons

The Pros - I have chosen affiliate programs as the basis of my bookstore because I don't have to deal with receiving payments, accepting credit cards, processing orders, storing inventory, taking back orders, shipping, and so on and on.

I have my own website, customized and under my control, I don't have to dress up, do my hair, makeup etc. to go to work, my store is open 24/7/365 to customers around the world, I never meet cranky people face to face (just sometimes in emails!) and my store is private and always peaceful (no cranky kids!).

I had two options for running my online bookstore, I chose the first. I can simply fill my site with quality, relevant content pages and encourage visitors to click through to the merchant's website to purchase, or I can use a data feed to create a carbon copy of the original store on my website. I still have to write original copy, to make it unique and not be penalized as duplicate content, but I can have a huge site instantly, automatically updated. Visitors then don't need to leave my website to make their purchases.

The Cons - you can't touch the yummy yarns and sit down with a stack of books to choose the one you want to buy. You can't hold the yarn and the book at the same time. And you can't have your purchases the same day you buy them.

As a "store owner", you have to help your potential customers overcome all their doubts, hesitations and reluctance with written words alone.

For me, love of my niche combined with love of books convinced me that I'd made a great choice, and success is almost assured as my next love, writing, makes it easy to write book reviews. If this all makes sense to you, then you just might want to try an online bookstore.