Originally posted September 25, 2006
I saw a knitted brain the other day in the newspaper – this is not a joke. It’s from the Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art – I don’t think that this title is a joke either – it was in the newspaper – now some people will say that this particular newpaper is a joke – I guess you just can’t win.
Anyway here is the website.
http://harbaugh.uoregon.edu/Brain/
It resides in the Department of Psychology at the University of Oregon. Now if I remember correctly that is where the person who knit the entire digestive system came from. I don’t remember the mountains being particularily high in Oregon – maybe other things are high in that state, anyway there are a lot of very unusual things going on there – hmmmm.
The idea of a brain that was made completely of knitting stitches intrigued me. I know of a number of people that could lay claim to the fact that their brains were actually knitted – boggles, or should I say bobbles the mind. Maybe someone has actually accused you of having a knitted brain – or at least – knitting on the brain.
If we knitters actually had knitted brains, what mental activity could we ascribe to various stitches. Would cable stitches, for example, be part of our strength of character – those strong sturdy rows with the regular twists for everytime we had to grit our teeth or clench our fists to just keep going.
Would the beautiful open lace stitches be the area of our dreams. I know that ssk and psso always remind me of dance steps, and garter stitch has to be those really boring repetitive activities – rote things that require no thought but have to be done to keep our worlds from falling apart – like taking out the garbage or cleaning the bathroom.
Which stitches would govern our sense of smell and\or taste? Is slip stitching like the little tricks we play on ourselves when we try to justify eating something with a few extra calories or skipping a must do in favour of a want to do – like paying a bill vs buying yarn.
And then there is I-cord – for when our mind gets twisted in knots of ideas and complex interactions – observe – “Chain d’amore” from Lucy Neatby – wherever did it get the name “idiot-cord” anyway. I know it is attributed to Elizabeth Zimmerman and yes it may appear to be simple; but it has the ability to be amazingly complex or as Lucy says – for the lunatic fringe – unsuitable for serious in-battle wear. And battled I have to turn I-cord into frog closures or handbag draw cords or brooches or…… the list goes on.
Would our sense of music come from the lovely rhythms of the feather and fan stitches? Certainly our appreciation of all things graphic would be in the fair isle lobe. And since this weblog is a search for that creative inspiration which raises knitting to the sublime as an art form. In what area of the knitted brain lives the “divine”.
Please add to the list by posting your comments. Right now I must knit up some ideas for dinner tonight. Spaghetti comes immediately to mind with maybe an entrelac sauce – could be tasty.
Enjoy Carol