Top Elizabeth Zimmermann Quotes

Elizabeth Zimmermann Biography

Elizabeth Zimmermann (August 9, 1910 – November 30, 1999) was a British-born hand knitting teacher and designer. She revolutionized the modern practice of knitting through her books and instructional series on American public television.

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Elizabeth Zimmermann Quotes

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.

Average, Good, Hands, Intelligence, Knitting

There is no right way to knit; there is no wrong way to knit. So if anybody kindly tells you that what you are doing is "wrong," don't take umbrage; they mean well. Smile submissively, and listen, keeping your disagreement on an entirely mental level. They may be right, in this particular case, and even if not, they may drop off pieces of information which will come in very handy if you file them away carefully in your brain for future reference.

Brain, Handy, Mean, Pieces, Take, Tells

Really, handknitting is a dreamy activity, built into many people's thumbs and fingers by genes already there, itching to display their skills and achievement possibilities.

Activity, Genes, Knitting, People, Skills, Thumbs

Now comes what I perhaps inflatedly call my philosophy of knitting. Like many philosophies, it is hard to express in a few words. Its main tenets are enjoyment and satisfaction, accompanied by thrift, inventiveness, an appearance of industry, and, above all, resourcefulness.

Express, Knitting, Perhaps, Philosophies, Philosophy, Satisfaction

Pass by the synthetic yarn department, then, with your nose in the air. Should a clerk come out with the remark that All Young Mothers In This Day and Age (why can't they save their breath and say "now"?) insist on a yarn which can be machine-washed and machine-dried, come back at her with the reply that one day, you suppose, they will develop a baby that can be machine-washed and -dried.

Baby, Mother, Yarn, Young

What? You can't knit in the dark? Stuff and nonsense; anybody can. Shut your eyes. Knit one stitch. Open your eyes and look at the stitch; it's all right. Shut your eyes and knit two stitches. Open them. Shut them. Knit three stitches. Falling off a log is no comparison.

Dark, Eye, Fall, Falling, Knit, Stitch

Knit on with confidence and hope through all crises.

Confidence, Crises, Crisis, Hope, Knit

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

Hurt, Knitting, Soothes, Spirit, Untroubled

For people allergic to wool, one's heart can only bleed.

Allergic, Heart, People, Wool

Now, let us all take a deep breath and forge on into the future; knitting at the ready.

Deep, Knitting, Ready, Take, Take A Deep Breath

I can knit. I knit all year, day in, day out. It is my passion, and I rarely knit the same thing twice the same way.

Passion, Same, Thing, Way, Years

One tends to give one's fingers too little credit for their own good sense.

Credit, Fingers, Giving, Knitting, Tends

Knitting is formed by a series of loops pulled through loops to the end of time or to 'desired length'. By picking up loops and working in the opposite direction you are really picking up the concavities between the loops, and it is sheer unexpected witchcraft that stocking stitch and garter stitch will permit such an anomaly. Be grateful for this and don't expect anymore.

Grateful, Knitting, Opposite, Opposites, Unexpected

(knitting while on a motorcycle) "For several years she knitted in secret (my father would not approve; she was to concentrate on motorcycling and LEAN into the curves, etc), and used a small circular needle (socks and mittens) in order to keep the knitting in her pocket until they were under way; then she leaned back slightly so Gaffer couldn't feel the movement of her hands. On the interstate one day, they were slowly passing a semi and my father happened to see the truck driver laugh and point out my mother's knitting to his passenger. Whoops-

Back, Father, Mother, Movement, Needle, Order

One un-vents something; one unearths it; one digs it up; one runs it down in whatever recesses of the eternal consciousness it has gone to ground.

Consciousness, Down, Gone, Ground, Running

I know that spinning sets me in a trance; it soothes me and charges my batteries at the same time. When times are tough I sit down to spin during the news-broadcasts, with therapeutic results.

Batteries, News, Same, Sit, Spinning, Times

Elizabeth Zimmermann Biography

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