August 10, 2017

Patty’s Purls of Wisdom Joining Twist Collective!

Patty’s Purls of Wisdom is BACK!!!

Dear Abby for Knitters: Technique, etiquette & lifestyle advice for the modern knitter

I’m so excited to announce my knitter’s advice column will be back and joining the amazing Twist Collective!

I love this online magazine. The patterns are incredible, the photography is always stunning and the articles are wonderful, so needless to say I’m pretty thrilled!

Knitter’s Advice Column

I need letters from you amazing knitters out there!

Send me your questions about ANYTHING. No topic is off the table. We are here to talk about the burning topics that keep knitters up at night (and arguing at their knitting group!) Send me your techniques, tips, how-tos, knitting etiquette, lifestyle questions, you name it. Doesn’t matter how silly you think it is (in fact, we encourage the silly, as it helps us keep our life in perspective).

Please write them in letter form, just like the old letter’s to Dear Abby. We’d love to feature the full letter in the column, not just the questions, so have fun with it! Let’s all learn from each other and let’s start talking knitting! So e-mail your questions to:

E-mail Patty’s Purl’s of Wisdom (info@pattylyons.com)

EMAIL ME!

Here’s a bit about what this column is all about, here’s my original introduction to the column:

Knitters are not shy. Knitters have opinions. Get 10 knitters in a room together; odds are there will be eleven opinions (It’s one of my favorite things about knitters). Knitters also come up with the most amazing questions. This advice column will be a space for questions and opinions and I couldn’t be more excited! You see I’ve been dreaming of this day since I was little.
Allow me to explain. When I was a kid growing up in Chicago, I used to love Dear Abby. It was the first thing I read each Sunday, even before the comics. Let me be clear, my love of Dear Abby is in no way a reflection on Ann Landers. I’m sure Ann Landers was a wonderful writer; it’s just we were a Tribune family and Ann Landers was a Sun Times gal. You see, the early ‘70s was a tumultuous time, and like so much of the country, Chicago was a city divided. You were a Cubs fan or a Sox fan; you read Dear Abby or Ann Landers.
But I digress . . . fast forward a few (okay, more than a few) years later and I am now a knitwear designer and a traveling knitting teacher. I teach classes live as well as online with site’s like Annie’s. I am lucky enough to teach thousands of knitters and answer their incredibly varied questions. In my classes I always say, “I teach with the funny.” One student told me I hid the learning in the laughs the way she hides her dog’s distemper pill in a ball of peanut butter (I think she meant that as a compliment).
Well, I was teaching at a knitting guild one day and as per the norm, the Q & A period of the class had questions that ranged from “what’s your favorite way to weave in ends,” to “how do you fix a moth hole,” to “I’m a knitter, but my boyfriend is a crocheter, do you think this relationship has a chance?”
After a lively discussion, answering all sorts of questions, one of the knitters declared, “You’re like the knitter’s Dear Abby!” . . . Cue the cartoon light bulb over my head while the chorus of imaginary angels began to sing.
So hear I am, gentle readers, ready to humbly attempt to fill, in a fibery way, the shoes of my childhood hero. So send me your questions. Don’t be shy, it’s just us knitters here, and we are here to talk about ANYTHING: techniques, tips, how tos, knitting etiquette, lifestyle questions, you name it.
Questions like
What’s your favorite cast on for ribbing?
What are the tricks to keeping your sanity when knitting lace?
How do you avoid killing your spouse when he moves your shawl off the couch making your delicate stitches slip off the needle and your stitch markers tumble to the floor?
Let’s all learn from each other and let’s start talking knitting!
I look forward to reading your letters, and stay tuned for the first column of “Patty’s Purls of Wisdom.”
(By the way, as for the knitter who was wondering if her relationship with her crocheter boyfriend had a chance – I told her as long as they stayed away from touchy topics, he doesn’t tease her about how much longer it takes her to finish a project, and she doesn’t mock him for needing 1/3 more yarn than she did, then I think those two crazy kids just might have a chance.)