Knit Magic: essays on unraveling

Written almost entirely in 2020, Knit Magic is a collection of 9 short essays about the process of knitting and unraveling sweaters and takes place during a time of personal upheaval and loss. In some ways it’s a companion to my book Attention because they were written in the same year and both document grief, loss, self discovery, and transformation.

"I unravel the sweater on a beautiful day in late August. I’m wearing a greenish yellow tank top and I sit cross legged on my bed with the sun pouring in. I take a video of the process using my phone, which is propped up against a basket resting on the bed. I pull the needles out of the arm and begin winding that yarn back into a ball, unpicking the tubular binding at the neck and hem.

It is tedious, but when I am done, the entire sweater is a heavy ball the size of a child's head. I walk around with it clutched against my stomach. I think of turning it into another sweater, one with a v-neck and loose hem, something that will fall off the shoulder. In the end I decide against deciding and put the ball, heavy and orange as the sun, away for the winter. I will return to it when a sweater calls out again to be created."

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