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Florida and How I Met Barbara Walker

Posted on | October 27, 2009 | 19 Comments

My next stop after Rhinebeck was southwest Florida to visit with my Grandmother. It was so warm and relaxing, I didn’t really want to come home! And yes, if you must know, there was knitting happening by the pool.

The visit seemed so short, but I manage to pack in a decent amount of activities plus have time to relax. On the first day, we took a trip up to the Marie Selby Gardens. I am a big fan of orchids, and it certainly did not disappoint.

On the way back, I wanted to do a little yarn shop exploring and I found a wonderful shop called A Good Yarn. Susan, Amy and Crew were so welcoming it was definitely my LYS away from home – so much so that I ended up coming back for knit night on Thursday and stopped in one final time on Friday before heading home. They have only been open for 6 weeks and the selection was wonderful: Madelintosh, Schaefer, Rowan, Malabrigo……I could go on and on! I didn’t come back with any yarn (darn deadline projects), but I did manage to pick up Wenlan Chia’s new book Twinkle Sews and a pretty cheap project bag.

And here’s where the story gets very interesting – and don’t mind my fan girl gushing. When visiting A Good Yarn, I had found out that I had just missed…..ready for this……Barbara Walker! Yes, The Treasury of Knitting Patterns Barbara Walker! I couldn’t believe it! How could I have been so close to meeting one of the knitting greats and it got away from me? As we were talking about it, my Grandmother realized that this must be the same woman that her neighbor knows and had told her about a year or two before, she just could never remember her name.

When we returned home, a few phone calls were made and sure enough, her neighbor did know Barbara and just like that, I had a meeting set up to meet her on Friday at her home. I can’t even pretend that I was cool, calm and collected when I heard the news. I was jumping up and down, twittering the news, smiling from ear to ear. I know you guys understand!

On Friday, I met Barbara Walker and got to see a small portion of her doll collection, actual knitted pieces from some of her books, pictures of her published designs, and sweaters she had knitted for herself, family and friends. She has knit so many beautiful sweaters over the years and many were sparkly. I was in such a state of sensory overload, I wish I had asked more questions, but we briefly talked about magazines not giving credit to the designers in the past and how the pay scale hasn’t really changed much. She also talked about how she has created some 1,000 original stitches never seen before.

Next, she showed me a book shelf filled with books she’s written, books that she wrote that have been translated into other languages, and books she has contributed to. Besides her knitting books, she has also written several feminist books. I also got to see her tarot and I Ching decks which she had done the artwork for and her extensive mineral collection. Barbara Walker is quite the amazing woman and I feel so lucky to have had the chance to have a short visit with her.

So I celebrated my birthday, saw some great sunsets, ate good food and met Barbara Walker. I don’t know how I’ll ever top this one!

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