There’s a back room in the best little knitting shop in Cville. This is where the owner, Mimi, banishes those people who come, wool in hand, for fellowship, croissants and coffee only to hear, “Let’s go take a look at it.” If you’re at a point of no return, you’ve botched up your knitting so badly that you need a full-scale rehabilitative effort, or your piece is just too big and unwieldy you need to lay it out on a table to stitch it up, you are escorted into “The Kitchener.” It is pronounced with two syllables, as in “kitch – ner.” My British friend Diane explained, Lord Kitchener was Commander in Chief in India and later became known for his poster boy good looks and OCD attention to details in World War I.
He believed that in order to march well, his troops needed only the best socks that would not rub at the toes. British and American women were knitting socks for soldiers (this was around 1915, before WWII called them to be riveters) and the pattern at that time used an inelegant seam at the toe. That nasty little seam would cause many a blistered foot that might possibly impact the war effort! So His Lordship developed a sock pattern featuring a new technique for a seamless joining of the toe, still known as “The Kitchener Stitch.” http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEsummer04/FEATtheresasum04.html
Tomorrow is Veteran’s Day 11-11-11, and it is also the 93rd anniversary of the Armistice that finally ended WWI in 1918. A member of our Ivy Farmer’s Book Club, Kathleen Ford, has published many short stories on tales from The Great War. Tonight at 7:30 pm she will be reading from one of her stories “Choosers of the Slain” on our local public radio station, WVTF Radio IQ Virginia. You can listen to her beautiful voice live online at http://www.wvtf.org/ Or pick up a copy of The Sewanee Review to read another WWI soldier’s story called “Homecoming.” We honor the 24.9 million American veterans tomorrow and every day. We also honor those who perished. Here’s to all my brothers who served.
And here’s to you, Kathleen, our esteemed writer! And and here’s to us, women of a certain age, who would never think of Kitchenering anybody! Only our WIPs (another knitting term that means Works in Progress).
MountainMornings 