soxy lady
a q&a with Cat Bordhi
Knitter, teacher, writer, publisher—those are just a few of the tags you could apply to Cat Bordhi. Among her written works are two treasuries of imaginative, inspiring Magical Knitting in which she breathes knitted life into the mathematical form of the moebius—a two dimensional object with only one side. And anyone who has ever struggled with 'second sock syndrome' has Cat to thank for the technique of knitting of socks on two circular needles, as detailed in her book Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles. Here she gives us a glimpse of what she's up to now.
Q: Here's one we have to ask: how did you get your start knitting?
A: I was 8 years old when my mother and grandmother both taught me to knit. One held the yarn in the left hand and the other in the right, so it was confusing. I went off by myself and let my hands show me what they wanted to do, and ever since I have knit with the yarn in my left hand and am quite fast. When I was in my 20s, I entered a 'Nimble Fingers Knitting Contest' at a county fair and was the fastest contestant. The judges said they weren't sure my method was really knitting. This would have been about 1972, and back then there was almost no awareness of things like stitch mount, so my method of handling the needles and yarn seemed exotic and suspicious to them. I had little awareness of these elements myself, until about a year later when I spent three months on a very remote island and asked Interlibrary Loan to send me books on knitting. Barbara Walker's Knitting From the Top Down arrived and changed my life. Since then I have described this remarkable woman as the Einstein of knitting—I am deeply grateful to her for making me into a circular and independent knitter at an impressionable age.
Q: And when did magic come into it?
A: This is a lovely question. My earliest memories involve a sense of awe and mystery and I feel the same delight when I fall into the embrace of a knitting adventure. The unknown looms large—perhaps I have no idea how to get there from here, but my instinct sings with certainty that a path will reveal itself if I just rest in the sultry limbo of not knowing. I always end up discovering what is meant to happen on the needles, not in my head.
Actually I write novels and design knitting the same way—not knowing how something will unfold, just showing up with keyboard or needles in hand, to listen and follow and take delight in what reveals itself, and being willing to delete passages or unravel knitting in order to make room for the eventual appearance of the 'true' form.
A: Stubborn curiosity. One day it occurred to me there must be a way to substitute circular needles for dpns for sock knitting. But how to do it was a mystery. It took me a month to finally recognise the obvious—that basically, one circ replaces dpns 1 and 2, and a second circ replaces dpns 3 and 4. I couldn't believe I had spent a month trying to puzzle out something so simple. Once I realised how helpful the technique was, I wanted to share it with knitters everywhere—so my first knitting book was born.
Since then Sarah Hauschka discovered the 'Magic Loop' method, which uses just one long circ with two loops of excess cable pulled out like Mickey Mouse ears. I often recommend what I call the Vincent Van Gogh Mickey Mouse method, which requires just one loop of excess cable pulled out to shorten the long cable. This does not work for socks as well as Sarah's two loops or my two circ method, but is useful for knitting hats and other larger circumferences. All three methods—my two circ method, Sarah's Magic Loop, and the Vincent Van Gogh Mickey Mouse method—display the grace of circular needles.
Cat Bordhi at Philosopher's Wool Farm in Ontario, Canada. Her sweater is a design spun from local wool, supporting the small farmers of the region. The sock she's working on (on two circular needles, of course) is also made of Philosopher's Wool and will eventually appear in one of her new books and as a pattern in the Philosopher's Wool design collection.
Q: Your knitting also explores maths and topology. Is there a mathematical or topological problem you would still like to take on?
A: The Moebius will probably always tantalise me—it is such a lively and incredibly intelligent playmate. Another topological curiosity I'd love to be able to knit in pure form is a Klein bottle, which is a pair of reflecting Moebii grafted together along their continuous edges. Mathematicians inform me this form cannot be made in our dimensional reality. But I refuse to accept such pessimism, am haunted by the possibilities, and hope to uncover a knitted Klein bottle solution one day.
There are crude approximations of knitted Klein Bottles on the Internet, such as the fabulous website kleinbottle.com, but I am only interested in the pure form.
The other thing that lures me deeply is my belief that circular needles contain the promise of many as yet undiscovered knitting techniques. I hope to find a few more and am sure other knitters will discover many others, which I hope they will publish so all of us can have the joy of adding them to our knitting repertoires.
Q: What kind of socks are you wearing right now?
A: A pair of my favorite house socks knit of Fleece Artist hand-painted yarn from Halifax, Nova Scotia. They are thickly knit of one strand of mohair and one of Blue-Faced Leicestershire, from the toe up, in a Buddhist-monk orange that makes my feet look as warm as they feel.
Q: And what's on your needles at the moment?
I like to have more projects in process than I can count or remember, since I love variety and surprises. At the moment on my needles I have: a Moebius bag design; five or six pairs of top secret socks, each of which is a new kind of sock architecture in progress (top secret until my books are published); a new felting strategy I am developing for a book which Clara Parkes (knittersreview.com) is writing for Potter Craft, due out in 2007; a reversible sock that will appear in Ann Claxon's forthcoming book Reversible Knitting: Inside/Outside, You Decide, from Schoolhouse Press; a Feather & Fan stitch sock in my Ginkgo Leaf sockitecture lineage which will appear in both Myrna Stahman's forthcoming book, Variations on a Theme: The Versatility of Lace Knitting and my next book; a shawl knit of yarns especially dyed by my friends at the Pennsylvania dye house Wool in the Woods to match my novel, Treasure Forest (colourways are Treasure Forest and Treasure Water) ; a bag design that capitalises on the clever tricks possible with Denise Interchangeable Needles; and a hat (the Reversible Lotus Blossom Hat from my First Treasury of Magical Knitting) to replace the one I have finally worn to smithereens. These are just the projects that are traveling with me as I write these words (at the moment I'm in between one workshop location and the next); at home there are many more projects which I can't wait to see again!
Q: Describe a day in the life of Cat Bordhi.A: If I am at home, an island about an hour and a half by ferry from the mainland, from the moment I awake until I go to bed I am happily knitting, designing, imagining possibilities, writing patterns, proofing patterns, corresponding with other designers and publishers, or pausing while my creative stream secretly shifts and rearranges itself. I also take walks and usually visit with friends or meet my daughter for lunch. Several times a week I drive to my storage units and ship books off to distributors, and while I am there I can have a piece of chocolate. I keep these temptations there, away from home, to protect myself from myself. If I am traveling, I am on my way to teach a workshop, which means I am probably going someplace interesting and will be meeting a group of wonderful knitters.
Q: What would you change about your day?A: I need more sleep.
We also asked Cat to 'tag' three inspiring knitters she thinks the world should know more about. Here were her picks:
Lucy Neatby is one of the most ingenious knitters on this planet. She is a prolific designer whose busy home—three kids, a tug-boat-designer husband, friends, dogs, birds, etc—is full of chairs, tables, and sofas draped with her eye-popping, mind-boggling, in-process knitting investigations. She has several new books coming out in about a year and I predict they will be hugely loved all over the world.
Myrna Stahman is the author of the revered and much-sought-after book Stahman's Shawls and Scarves, a generous collection of meticulously detailed techniques and patterns for Faroese shawls and Seaman's scarves. Wwhen it was rumored to be going out of print recently, it appeared on eBay for hundreds of dollars immediately!
Since then Myrna has been working on what may become one of the pillars of every serious knitter's bookshelf, a vast collection (probably two volumes) of variations on Feather & Fan. Lest this sound fussy and not terribly interesting, let me assure you that I have visited Myrna and seen some of the several hundred knitted designs, from about 40 designers, which she must choose from. Among them is one piece that I think is the most beautiful and impressive knitted garment I have ever seen, and I actually got to touch it. I am sworn to secrecy so I cannot tell you what it is, but I hope it will grace the cover of her book. Feather & Fan has grown wings, let me tell you, I felt like abandoning everything I have been working on and just knitting F&F the rest of my life.
In addition, Myrna has a private knitting museum which I had heard about but thought was just a kind way of saying she had a lot of things in her collection. She does indeed have enough for a full-fledged museum and dreams of building one somehow someday (after her books are done!).
Sivia Harding is a fresh and insightful designer, able to take the seed of a concept and allow the graceful, ingenious design within to blossom. She designs knitted jewelry, lace shawls, wraps, and scarves, sweaters, and is an expert in beading techniques for knitters, as well as an innovator in creating new ways to incorporate beads into traditional knitting projects. She has a rapidly growing following and I think it is only a matter of time before she is among the most well-known designers.