Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Yarn Along: Anti-Knitting

I'm working away on my red socks whenever I get the chance, but mainly I have been spinning this in the evenings:


I dove head-first into The Shell Seekers, which contains several references to knitting.  I love it when that happens.  The main character, Penelope, is in her 60s, and there are a few mentions of her unfinished knitting, strewn about her cozy, cluttered house.  Her grown son, Noel, is a good-looking, no-good, grasping jerk, who is scheming to sell his grandfather's masterpiece, a painting named The Shell Seekers.  As if that's not enough, he slowly reveals that he is...gasp!...ANTI-KNITTING.

He goes snooping in Penelope's attic, looking for art he can hawk.  In order to get a better look, he goes on and on about how the attic is a fire hazard and ought to be cleared out.  He describes the contents of the attic to his sister as,
"Everything.  Old boxes; chests of clothes and bundles of letters.  Dressmaker's dummies, toy perambulators, footstools, bags of tapestry wool, weighing machines, boxes of wooden blocks, piles of magazines tied together with string, knitting patterns, old picture frames...you name it, it's there.  And like I said, it's all a hideous fire risk."
He wants to get rid of it all, which his sister tells him their mother would never agree to.  He replies,
"All right, then sort it out. But half of the junk up there is only fit for a bonfire, like the bundles of magazines and the knitting patterns and tapestry wool..."
Olivia is perhaps beginning to sense his vendetta against knitting.  She questions him.
"Why the tapestry wool?"
"It's alive with moth."
I know--scary stuff!  Sent chills down my spine!

10 comments:

Donna said...

I bought that book for my Grandma years ago. I had no idea there were knitting references in it. I'll have to go read it now!

Anonymous said...

I read that years ago, when a teen I think. I don't remember the anti-knitting sentiments but then it wasn't what I was interested in then.

Moths are definitely anti-knitting!

:-)

steph said...

I haven't read that book in eons!!!! and certainly don't remember the knitting references!! time to revisit it, I think!!!!!

Heather said...

I've never read that book, but it sounds interesting! I will have to look for it at the library.

Linda said...

This sounds like a wonderful book! I will have to look for it.

elizabeth said...

too funny... :)

love your socks and the spinning you are doing! :)

Sylvia said...

I seem to remember reading The Shell Seekers years ago. I don't remember the story. I might have to go back and reread it.

Love the red socks!

MamaBirdEmma said...

I have to re-read this book!!!

Erin said...

Oh my! Great socks!

katharine said...

Moths in the tapestry yarn? Are ou sure it's not a thriller?

PS - Did I spot a very well spelled name?