Have you met Georgia Walker yet?

I just spent a lovely weekend visiting with Georgia, Dakota, Anita, James, Marty, Peri, and all the other characters that are part of the Friday Night Knitting Club.

We've had this book in the store for about a year and it's been quite popular. Then in the past few weeks, I've had at least a dozen people tell me that they were reading it and how much they were enjoying it. When I asked Pam from the Kingston Knitting Circle, who happens to work at Chapters what was happening to explain the sudden interest in the book, she said that it had just come out in "trade paperback" format, making it cheaper and more accessible. It really is a great way to read a book.

Being a huge fan of NYC (I have always said that if I ever win the lottery, you can find me for the next year doing the rounds of Central Park and its perimeter,) reading this book was like spending Easter Weekend in the upper West Side, although I dare say it was a bit warmer to visit with them from the comfort of my easy-chair in my living room than it would have been to be trekking through the streets of Manhattan in mid-March wearing an Easter bonnet.

It's fun to be following the progression of this lovely book from its first launching, to hearing whisperings of Julia Roberts' interest in playing the lead role, to seeing that it will be coming to a theatre near us sometime in the future. There's no question, that we have to get ourselves well organized to show this city just how many knitters there are across all generations; we could have a great knit-in for charity to raise awareness of the support that knitters offer each other and the community at large. I'll be sure to keep you posted as to likely release dates.

If you link here: http://www.pr-inside.com/entertainment-blog/2006/11/03/julia-roberts-is-going-back-to/ you will get an update about the movie being made of the Friday Night Knitting Club starring Julia Roberts, by the director of The Devil Wears Prada.





ALRIGHT, Hands up all of you who have just about had enough of winter, and cold, and snow!
Well, according to the Associated Press, in Yellow Springs, Ohio they have an art project that would warm the coldest heart. And it's becoming a growing trend as knitters in many communities are turning their brightly coloured odds and ends into "cozies" for trees, street signs, benches, door handles and other public objects.

On this particular tree, the first panel was a gold piece with the words "Knitknot Tree" and a smiley face, which went up in October. Since then people have been coming from all over to add their own little touches to warm up the tree and the lives of passersby.

When I'm in knitting class and see people fretting over their less than perfect tension, or whether the cast on edge will stretch or be too tight, I can imagine how incredibly freeing it would be to simply KNIT with whatever outrageous colour comes to hand and then stretch and seam your piece of knitting around a tree, without worrying about details, like invisible seaming and perfect matching. LONG LIVE PLAYFUL KNITTING!