Knitters Quotes:

Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either.

- Elizabeth Zimmermann

topic: Hurt, Knitting, Spirit, Knitters, Knitting Needles

Really, all you need to become a good knitter are wool, needles, hands, and slightly below-average intelligence. Of course superior intelligence, such as yours and mine, is an advantage.

- Elizabeth Zimmermann

topic: Knitting, Average, Hands, Knitters, Superior Intelligence

In the nineteeth century, knitting was prescribed to women as a cure for nervousness and hysteria. Many new knitters find this sort of hard to believe because, until you get good at it, knitting seems to cause those ailments. The twitch above my right eye will disappear with knitting practice.

- Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

topic: Believe, Eye, Practice, Knitters, Nervousness

It is a little known fact that much like birds, who can always find north, knitters can always find yarn.

- Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

topic: Yarn, Knitting, Bird, Knitters

...the number one reason knitters knit is because they are so smart that they need knitting to make boring things interesting. Knitters are so compellingly clever that they simply can't tolerate boredom. It takes more to engage and entertain this kind of human, and they need an outlet or they get into trouble. "...knitters just can't watch TV without doing something else. Knitters just can't wait in line, knitters just can't sit waiting at the doctor's office. Knitters need knitting to add a layer of interest in other, less constructive ways.

- Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

source: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (2010). “Free-Range Knitter: The Yarn Harlot Writes Again”, p.8, Andrews McMeel Publishing

topic: Clever, Smart, Numbers, Knitters, Interest In Others

It is a peculiarity of knitters that they chronically underestimate the amount of time it takes to knit something. Birthday on Saturday? No problem. Socks are small. Never mind that the average sock knit out of sock-weight yarn contains about 17,000 stitches. Never mind that you need two of them. (That's 34,000 stitches, for anybody keeping track.) Socks are only physically small. By stitch count, they are immense.

- Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

source: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (2012). “At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much”, p.17, Storey Publishing

topic: Happy Birthday, Average, Two, Knitters, Immense

I will not let the non-knitters of the world decide how normal I am.

- Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

source: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (2012). “At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much”, p.41, Storey Publishing

topic: World, Normal, Knitters

When people see me knitting, I tell them I'm a knitter. Not the sort of knitter they may have run into before, but a passionate, constant, deliberate knitter. I knit everyday, all the time, everywhere I go.

- Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Running, Knitters

Your average knitter, obsessed as we are with the art form, is quickly going to begin producing far more in the way of warm things than are needed by even an arctic-bound knitter. Knitting breeds generosity, true...but perhaps in a hurry to avoid burying ourselves in hand-knits. There are only so many scarves one knitter can use.

- Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

topic: Art, Average, Hands, Knitters

I do know that there isn't ever going to be a time when there aren't any knitters.

- Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

topic: Knitters

Virginia Woolf, I enjoyed talking to her, but thought nothing of her writing. I considered her 'a beautiful little knitter.

- Edith Sitwell

topic: Beautiful, Writing, Virginia, Knitters, Woolf

I'm a knitter. My projects are the ultimate in 'some assembly required.

- Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

topic: Knitting, Projects, Assembly, Knitters

Knitters use knitting to value-add to the world.

- Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

topic: Knitting, Use, World, Knitters

Portland is a place where you can find a community as a feminist, a vegan or a fat activist. Artists, musicians, knitters, and filmmakers can all meet like-minded souls. It's proved the perfect place for me and all my punk friends.

- Beth Ditto

topic: Artist, Oregon, Perfect, Knitters, Portland

The only difference between an experienced knitter and new knitter is that the experienced knitter makes bigger mistakes faster. Be bold; there are no terrible consequences in knitting.

- Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

topic: Mistake, Knitting, Differences, Knitters

My mother was good at reading books, making cinnamon biscuits, and coloring in a coloring book. Also she was a good eater of popcorn and knitter of sweaters with my initials right in them. She could sit really still. She knew how to believe in God and sing really loudly. When she sneezed our whole house rocked. My father was a great smoker and driver of vehicles..He could hold a full coffee cup while driving and never spill a drop, even going over bumps. He lost his temper faster than anyone.

- Haven Kimmel

source: Haven Kimmel (2002). “A Girl Named Zippy: Growing Up Small in Mooreland Indiana”, p.109, Broadway Books

topic: Mother, Father, Believe, Knitters, Cinnamon

Achieving the state of SABLE is not, as many people who live with these knitters believe, a reason to stop buying yarn, but for the knitter it is an indication to write a will, bequeathing the stash to an appropriate heir.

- Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

topic: Believe, Writing, Yarn, Knitters

The best reason for a knitter to marry is that you can't teach the cat to be impressed when you finish a lace scarf.

- Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

source: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (2012). “At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much”, p.94, Storey Publishing

topic: Cat, Knitting, Scarves, Knitters

It is important for knitters to know two things about frogging: that cats are capable of this knitting action, and even seem to enjoy it and seek opportunities to do it; and that foul language is a normal, healthy accompaniment to frogging, whether it is you or the cat that accomplished the task.

- Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

source: Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (2012). “At Knit's End: Meditations for Women Who Knit Too Much”, p.120, Storey Publishing

topic: Cat, Opportunity, Two, Knitters, Foul Language

Some knitters say that they buy yarn with no project in mind and wait patiently for the yarn to "speak" to them. This reminds me of Michelangelo, who believed that every block of stone he carved had the statue waiting inside and that all he did was reveal it. I think I've had yarn speak to me during the knitting process, and I've definitely spoken to it. Perhaps I'm doing it wrong, or maybe my yarn and I aren't on such good terms, but it really seems to me that all I say is "please" and all it ever says is "no".

- Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

topic: Block, Thinking, Yarn, Knitters

You need to do some work even if you have the talent. So I just went the way that was easier, the way I knew what to do, but I have always had the pleasure of the eye. I've always enjoyed color. I'm a knitter.

- Nell Irvin Painter

topic: Eye, Color, Needs, Knitters