The Albuquerque Journal (Sunday Edition) - January 19, 2003

Amateur and professional writers unravel life and philosophy in tales of "Knit Lit"

Some Good Yarns

"KnitLit - Sweaters and Their Stories ... and Other Writing about Knitting" edited by Linda Roghaar and Molly Wolf

Three Rivers Press, $13, 260 pp.

Valentina Devine, Wren Ross, Luisa Golenter, Luis Tovar, Rosalia Feinstein and Lauren Baldwin are to sign, discuss 'KnitLit" at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 23, Page One, 11018 Montgomery NE

BY DAVID STEINBERG
Journal Staff Writer

Taking a cue from Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Lauren Baldwin says the anthology "KnitLit" is really writing "of the people for the people."

Baldwin, an Albuquerque attorney, mother and knitter, is one of six present or former New Mexicans who contributed stories in the popular anthology.

The others are Valentina Devine of Los Alamos; Luisa Gelenter, owner of La Lana Wools in Taos; Rosalia Feinstein of Albuquerque; former Albuquerque resident Luis Tovar who apparently lives in Texas; and Wren Ross, who lives part of the year in Arroyo Hondo.

All six of them are to attend a book signing for "KnitLit" on 'Thursday at Page One.

"Every knitter tells a story and what is going through their fingers into the yarn," Ross said in a phone interview from her car in Boston, Mass.

Her own story in "KnitLit" is "Tangles," which relates the many kinds of tangles with yarn and with one's personal life that can occur. Yet Ross writes that a tangle can be a light through the tunnel of confusion. As for knitting, Ross said that "you always remember the sweater you made when you were moving or when you divorced. Most know what project they were working on on Sept. ll."

Ross credits "KnitLit" editors Linda Roghaar and Molly Wolf for tapping into a whole body of stories.

Devine's story, "Stick to It!" talks about knitting for years before she had an epiphany after attending class in Washington, D.C., that exposed her to new designs. "When I walked into the class and saw Joyce Edwards' work, I thought, 'Oh, no, what am I doing here'. But I stayed and it changed my whole outlook on knitting," Devine said.

Now Devine makes sweaters, shawls and wall hangings of her own designs that are shown in boutiques and bought by film stars. "Julia Roberts is wearing my hat in the niovie'Stepmom.' Her little red hat. That's my hat," she said.

"I use a technique where I knit in different directions so it's not all horizontal or vertical. Very free form."

Gelenter's story in the compilation is "Wild Harvesting." Tovar's article is "Wolf Scarf." Feinstein's is called "Big Ugly." And Baldwin's story is titled "Road Kill."

Baldwin finds "KnitLit" special because it contains stories by amateur and professional writers. "It includes people who have never been published, like me, and people who do not even write very much and just had something they thought was worth adding... That kind of writing is vital to the artistic community and to the community at large," she said.