Knitting and six degrees of separation....

I finally broke down and bought the latest VK this weekend. This morning, I sat down and browsed some articles. I was particularly interested in the article on Phoenix Bess. I think she's spot on for her age group, and I hope she does well. The part of the article that I found interesting was her work with Elann. She designed a cotton candy pink shrug in Cuzco alpaca. I loved seeing Ann's site mentioned prominently.

I've always been fascinated by the theory of six degrees of separation. I participated in Columbia University's project to test the theory. For us in the craft world, it's often fewer than six degrees. In 1990, I attended a quilters event in Odense Denmark, and wandered into a gift shop. Guess who I met? Bonnie Lehman, the grand dame of quilting, and Betty Boyink, who founded the Hoffman Challege two years prior. Be still my heart-I tried so hard to not gush.

And so it is with knitting. I was surprised to discover that Marisol Ravicz, daughter of my LYS owner, wrote for IWK in the late 90s. I was delighted when I ran into Yvette Holmes (a San Antonio crochet goddess) last year in Philly, because she told me she was recently published in a Rita Weiss book. And my little brother proudly announced that one of his co-workers at McKinsey was cashing out to start a yarn store. It looks like she's doing very well!

My biggest networking arena is also the place I check in almost every day. It's Elann, naturally. And it surprises me now and then that the Elann forum helped me grow into a much stronger knitter. I can't post photos of crap to all my knitting peers, so it's made me strive to knit better, quicker, more challenging patterns. It freed me from waiting to see what I can make out of the next VK. And I can see how it's challenged my friends. They are growing, leap-frogging onto the next area, challenge, construction method. I gotta work those needles to keep up!

Six degrees of separation? Honey, we knitters are in a shallow pool. I love the fact that our "royalty" is so accesible. Kathleen Power Johnson designed my current project, the Lady Eleanor stole. I met her in Houston, where she led a class in design. Kafe Fassett? Met him when he was promoting a knitting book. Phoenix Bess might be the new darling of the knitting world, but I know the woman who ordered the Cuzco. I never dreamed that VK would feature something I could relate to so personally.

The next knitter you meet could be a design dynamo! (I am personally betting on SK and LG to crank out some truly memorable knitwear.)