Home » Home & Style » Knitting Tips » Real People Online: Leigh Witchel, Part 2

Real People Online: Leigh Witchel, Part 2

© Suzanne Griffith

(This is a continuation of my interview with Internet knitter, knitwear designer, choreographer, and writer, Leigh Witchel. To read Part 1, please click on "previous article" above.)

How do the practices of dance and knitting harmonize or conflict in your life? (continued from Part 1)

When I was still dancing, there was no question that knitting and dancing conflicted. I knit when I was unhappy, and sometimes as a way of indicating my unhappiness. Dancing is an insecure and demanding profession; it was much easier to knit competently. (It was easier to feel more competent at almost anything other than dancing.) After my first year in a company, I forbade myself from bringing my knitting to the studio. I felt dance needed my undivided attention while I was there.

Once I changed my focus from performing to choreography, however, I could knit all I pleased! I remember bringing three bags of oddments for a sweater to a Vermont summer program where I was resident choreographer. One of the dancers there had a sort of mania about always matching all items of clothing, so this sweater, with about 70 colors in it, horrified her. I really enjoyed placing it on her and watching her grimace and flinch. Then, I'd say quite innocently, noting the color she was wearing quite carefully that day, "See, it has some green in it somewhere. It matches everything!"

Knitting was a wonderful way to keep myself creative during the times I didn't have an opportunity to choreograph, and zanily creative in a way I couldn't afford when making a dance. Knitting was a place to be daring with little risk. A choreographic failure is a tremendous waste of resources. A failed knitting project can even be unraveled and reknit. One way in which I find the two practices harmonize is that I'm an omnivore in both knitting and choreography. The next project is what I haven't done recently. My last sock project was colorwork, this one is lace. The next one will be textures. There are few areas of knitting I don't want to try. (Although I do share with many knitters a dislike of intarsia.)

What's in your stash?

MOTHS!!!!!! I found them last weekend. Augh. But if anything prompts an organization and inventory of the yarn farrago, this is it. There's some gorgeous stuff in there (and happily all undamaged), and now that I know that it's there, the good stuff is rocketing to the top of the knitting queue. Knit your cashmere while ye may, for tomorrow it will be eaten. I have conducted some very inhumane experiments as well. 10 seconds in a microwave will not kill moth larvae. Two minutes, on the other hand, make them appetizingly crisp.

The copyright of the article Real People Online: Leigh Witchel, Part 2 in Knitting Tips is owned by Adelle Tilton. Permission to republish Real People Online: Leigh Witchel, Part 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.