parallel universes

Herself and our Thirty something baby were talking about one of their passions, knitting (as opposed to crocheting).

Damn… It sounds like what we do in a physical as opposed ti a musical sense. Or are they one and the same? Our Baby is a musician. She was talking about the 8 thing patterns, repeat, do the second pattern, repeat.

Herself, an astute observer says…"Damned that’s like the what you do at 5 AM…over and over and over…"

Are knitting and what we do parallel art forms? (I know that sounds pompous- but I am not wordsmith).

Everything is mathematics, patterns……

Would i be in revelance if i said that Dance, Visual Art, Music, and Poetry all seem to have like techniques, elements and methods? Like with all of them you have some type of pattern. Visual art with lines and colors(and many more) Music with rhythm and pitches, Dance with positions, and Poetry with stanzas? Like how all of them have ways of building and releasing tension? Like how when you add one Art form to another, they emphasis each other? Or that crocheting and nitting are crafts while Music is an Art?

I don’t know, but I’ve heard of a cotton reel.

Bum note = dropped stitch.

I’m a bit woolly on this one.

Then again, there’s all those tunes that give the game away:

Jumper at the Sun
My Darling’s a Sheep
The Cat the Knitted Jamie’s Wig
Kitty Got a Tank Top coming from the Fair
The Britches Full of Stitches

… oh, and anything learned from (knit one) Pearl (one) O’Shaughnessy

It’s all just a yarn.

What twill be the end, though?

Joking aside, I have clear memories of my mother sitting by the fire with her needles ticking out a very fast jig rhythm. Maybe she was knitting record sleeves? (That didn’t last long…)

@ethical blend - you missed the best one which of course is that famous song Raglan Sleeve…as rendered by the Crew Necks.
(I really should know better, sorry)

How could I miss that? I should cuff myself for that …

Ethical blend spins a darn good yarn,

This is a funny time for the topic to come up - tonight my wife was sitting on the couch crocheting (not knitting) and I said, for the first time, "can you teach me how to do that? I’d like to experiment with hemp guitar straps…. or a strap for my accordion. Something like what Willie Nelson uses, but in a neutral hemp color." She said, "okay, first you need to start with a row of knots - watch, it’s easy." She hands me a hook and a ball of yarn and away I went. Next lesson is easier, she says. Same goes for the one after that, and the one after that, etc.

And I knew exactly what that meant. Because when people who don’t play music ask me about playing a particular instrument, I always say, "sure it’s easy, anyone can do it." They never believe me. But what I meant and what she meant is that with a little bit of concentration, the activity becomes something rewarding that always gives back for the effort.

So yes, parallel universes is a good description. (Although musicians have a higher overhead.)

I am exactly six knots into my first crochet project. I untied them, and tomorrow is a holiday.

@ leftynow: well, it’s a wool blend

I thought about the rhythm aspect

I was watching the daughter and there was concentration and flow
She must have gotten that from her mother!

It’s really more to do with Waterford crystal when you get down to it.

My wife, who knits and fiddles says both music and knitting are based on patterns, repetive in nature, that creates something beautiful, so yeah, I think you have a point there, zipster!

Indeed
But if you miss a few counts in a sweater one arm could be much shorter than the other

"But if you miss a few counts in a sweater one arm could be much shorter than the other"

Also true of halves to a tune….

It can all be done by machine.

Weejie- are you eferring to music, knitting or crotcheting? they can all be done by machine.

Which begs the fundamental question of why we do anything at all if we can just defer to a digital device adn everything is perfect (except when the machine f’s up and then everything gets screwed up) and everything sounds and looks the same.

Isn’t that what we see in the Ipod universe?

"Weejie- are you eferring to music, knitting or crotcheting? they can all be done by machine"

Yep, why are we here? Even Kevin Burke is a robot.

Clothing and music

Most people are happy to just buy, others take the time to learn to make their own.

Also, maybe Crochet is bluegrass while knitting is Trad. To the uninitiated, they seem the same but…

Well this thread really has taken on a new twist… 😛

I always reckon you should knit by ear. If you follow a knitting pattern, you lose the pulse and swing.

And anyway, isn’t crocheting just playing music that’s in quarter notes? A way of getting the biggest garment out of the minim-um of material. I wonder if you could crochet underwear? You know, like vests and breves? For half a nicker, you could get a semi-breve.

"For half a nicker, you could get a semi-breve."

I quaver at the thought…..

Dang! Missed that one … 😀

And what if there are no quarter notes at all? Would that be crotch(et)less?

"Would i be in revelance if i said that Dance, Visual Art, Music, and Poetry all seem to have like techniques, elements and methods? Like with all of them you have some type of pattern. Visual art with lines and colors(and many more) Music with rhythm and pitches, Dance with positions, and Poetry with stanzas? Like how all of them have ways of building and releasing tension? Like how when you add one Art form to another, they emphasis each other? Or that crocheting and nitting are crafts while Music is an Art?..")

(posted by fiddlelearner)

Fiddlelearner - I think you’re spot on there. I certainly believe practising one of the arts or crafts you mention feeds one’s feel or ability in practising or appreciating one or more of the others. (NB - I am not myself very fussed about distinctions between art and craft.)

Learning and practising tunes can be very like making oneself knit so many rows a day (I once knitted a hot water bottle cover…) I am currently trying to learn a tune called Troy’s Wedding off the Mustard Board dots. It has a difficult third part. My attempts at it with the whistle sound so far like something horrible happening to a medium-sized bird. I’ll get there, if I give it a few minutes a day for a bit.

Very domesticated; a long way from the impression given by The Dubliners that playing Irish music involved going through life like a Norse god on holiday 24/7.

Oh dear. I just realized that the tune I been working on is Tailor’s Twist….I already know the Tailor’s Thimble

Norse god on holiday 24/7? is that out of Valkyries? Or credit card advertisement?

Yer all a bunch of knit-wits! 😉