Knitlandia Quotes

“A funny thing happens when more than one knitter gathers in a public place. A solo knitter, presuming she is a woman, quickly fades into the backdrop like a potted palm or a quietly nursing mother. ... A single knitter is shorthand for "nothing to see here, move on."

But when knitters gather, we become incongruously conspicuous. We are a species that other people aren't used to seeing in flocks, like a cluster of Corgis, a dozen Elvis impersonators waiting for the elevator.”
― Clara Parkes, Knitlandia: A Knitter Sees the World

“Knitting has a profound connective power. The culture and people and rituals around it, the values, they all contribute to an immediate and profound trust in one another. It's home. You belong and are accepted, which rings true no matter where you are.”
― Clara Parkes, Knitlandia: A Knitter Sees the World

“Nothing is a stronger cultural lightning rod than two needles and a ball of yarn. But”
― Clara Parkes, Knitlandia: A Knitter Sees the World

“No matter how slick the technology or charming the person on screen, I don’t think we’ll ever be able to replicate the full extent of the human learning experience online.”
― Clara Parkes, Knitlandia: A Knitter Sees the World

“Along the way, I picked up an Old Scots word for dreariness: dreich. The man who taught it to me sold gorgeous cashmere scarves made in Scotland and had just finished reciting a Robert Burns poem to me. Dreich, he explained, “means . . . nothingness.” He pointed outside and said, “It means that,” referring to the gray spitty skies that hadn’t once shown the sun while I’d been there. Dreich. A perfect word both in sound and meaning.”
― Clara Parkes, Knitlandia: A Knitter Sees the World

“thick Icelandic wool knit into bulky sweaters. The sweater is called a lopapeysa, and it’s a national treasure. Everyone has at least one, from the baggage handlers to”
― Clara Parkes, Knitlandia: A Knitter Sees the World

“But when knitters gather, we become incongruously conspicuous. We are a species that other people aren’t used to seeing in flocks, like a cluster of Corgis, a dozen Elvis impersonators waiting for the elevator. Here”
― Clara Parkes, Knitlandia: A Knitter Sees the World

“Because we lack sufficient financial clout to establish a permanent place for such learning, we have this traveling circus of experts who roam from town to town, event to event, squeaky-wheeled suitcases of samples in tow.”
― Clara Parkes, Knitlandia: A Knitter Sees the World