Comments on: Connect with Ellen Jensen Abbott: The Writer as Knitter

By: BFF

BFF — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:30:54 +0000

BFF! I love this! I often feel guilty when I knit, tho, like I should be reading more or writing…so I still have a half-finished sweater on my needles. (Needles, which, btw, Hally has chewed the ends off, not once but twice now…I’m going to end up spending more on needles than I did on the yarn)
However, I just commandeered my daughter’s old ipod and downloaded several YA books onto it so now I can ‘read’ while knitting and not feel guilty. There is definitely something therapeutic in the repetitive, quiet activity that feeds a need somewhere deep within;)
I also have a pb about snail sisters where one is a knitter…go figure.

By: Ellen Jensen Abbott

Ellen Jensen Abbott — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 18:54:23 +0000

Wow! So many writers and knitters! There must be some connection in the brain….Knitting can be really soothing at times–when you’re not pulling out!–and so it is a good way to relax after a particularly tough writing day. And I can’t tell you how knitting’s saved me in faculty meetings!

By: S. Terrell French

S. Terrell French — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:30:40 +0000

Yes, knitting! Now I realize how much changes during revision and am trying not to obsess over small things (like chapter endings).
Good luck, Ellen!

By: Jacqueline Houtman

Jacqueline Houtman — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:03:00 +0000

I knit, too, but my knitting serves a different purpose (http://jjhoutman.livejournal.com/9513.html). I prefer the mindless kind of knitting, like doing the same mitten pattern over and over.

Not sure there’ s a metaphor there, but sometimes I skip over bits of writing that aren’t working and go on to another scene that is more clear in my head. Then I know where the troublesome scene needs to go. Perhaps it’s like putting that skipped scene on a stitch holder.

By: Jen Dutton

Jen Dutton — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:16:00 +0000

Hi Ellen–I’m a knitter a too. I can’t tell you how often I’ll start a pattern and then just change it because I want to see how it will look. Sometimes this works. Sometimes I make sweaters that look like they were designed for octopuses. If this isn’t a metaphor my writing issues, I don’t know what is. Thanks for an excellent post.

By: Chelsea M. Campbell

Chelsea M. Campbell — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 02:12:40 +0000

I’m a knitter and a writer, too, and that’s totally how I write! The details can change as I go and be smoothed over later, but I can’t move forward if character motivations are out of whack or if some big plot element just doesn’t make sense. So if something gets weird, I backtrack, untangle, and move forward again, just like with my knitting.