shatnez = wool + linen

I'm an observant Jew, and that affects me as a knitter more than you might think. First, I don't knit -- or create anything new -- on Shabbat, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. I sometimes miss great classes with visiting knitting teachers because I don't drive or write on Shabbat. I'm not really complaining -- this is a choice that I made that no one is forcing me to make. I embrace a day of rest, a day devoted to devotion, even when that means that I can't knit. Well, sometimes I complain, just a little. Mostly because a quiet Saturday afternoon while my husband is napping and my kids are playing together nicely seems like the most perfect time to knit in the world. And yet it isn't.

The other way it affects me is through the law of shatnez. The Torah says, in two places, that one should not wear shatnez: "Do not wear Shatnez - wool and linen together" (Deut. 22:11), and "A Shatnez garment should not cover you" (Lev. 19:19) Believe it or not, there are some really great yarns out there that combine linen and wool, and I can't knit with them. Now, why can't you? The Bible doesn't say. There are two kinds of commandments in the Torah -- the ones we might have figured out on our own, like "Thou shall not kill," and the ones that there are no explanations for, including all the laws of keeping kosher, and this one -- the law of shatnez. For Jews who choose to observe the commandments --and let me say here that I believe we all, no matter how observant we claim to be, pick and choose which ones we're going to observe (for example, I have not broken the neck of a cow at the border between Atlanta and Decatur because there are unsolved homicides in the area, and I think it's good that I haven't)--we follow both kinds of commandments and let it be a mystery. Following the commandments that have no explicit reason for being are an opportunity for expression faith and devotion. It doesn't hurt me to follow the law of shatnez -- but it is a way for me to make the mundane things of life holy. I actually have to think about being Jewish when I get dressed, when I shop for clothing, and when I buy yarn.

So, that all leads up to my almost dilemma this morning. Quite a while back, I bought a Habu yarn kit to make a jacket out of Silk/Mohair yarn and "paper" yarn. When it said paper, I thought it meant paper and even though I wondered how I would ever wash such a garment, it seemed cool and I bought it. My stash has been speaking to me lately, and this kit just called out to be opened. So, I'm dutifully knitting a gauge swatch holding two strands of the silk/mohair yarn and one strand of the "paper" yarn this morning when my husband -- who is a rabbi -- walked in. I told him that I had looked the Habu yarns up on their website and was surprised to learn that the paper yarn was actually 100% linen. And then we both stopped mid-conversation and said "oops." But, I really want to make this jacket. I'm loving the gauge swatch of the purple, taupe and gray yarns together. So I ask -- well what does the Bible mean by wool? Isn't wool just from sheep and isn't mohair from goats? He admitted he wasn't sure whether "wool" meant just from sheep or not. So, we went to the internet. And thank God for the Shatnez Testers of America (because you can send your garments to them and they will test them and tell you if they are shatnez or not) and the following from their website:

"When we speak of wool, we are only referring to wool obtained from sheep or lambs. Other materials, such as camel's hair, mohair, angora, cashmere or alpaca wool, present no shatnez problems. Similarly, linen refers only to fibers derived from the flax plant, whereas other bast fibers, such as ramie, hemp or jute, may be combined with wool."

So, I learned a little Torah today. And I get to keep knitting my Habu silk/mohair, linen paper jacket. Now, I just have to remember how to read Japanese patterns.

musings on masks

A few weeks ago, I had this idea just come to me that I wanted to make felted masks. Now, to know me now is to not be at all surprised that I would felt something. I'm a voracious knitter, and I love felting--whether it's felting something I've knitted, or needle felting, or wet-felting. I just love it. But most people I know at this point in my life don't know that I used to make masks--plaster casts of my own face, which I then painted and embellished. It was a big project I was working on -- which I never completed -- to make 16 masks which each represented a different aspect of my persona. I got about half way through. They're in a box, which I think just got moved to mini-storage. Perhaps it was looking at them briefly as I dropped them off at the Space Max that rekindled the desire to make masks -- but with my current medium -- fiber.

What intrigues me about masks is that they both hide and reveal. They hide the wearer's face -- of course -- but through the vision of the artist and the actions of the wearer -- they reveal something much more intimate and personal than were one to be looking at the wearer's actual face.

I started right away -- just picked up wool and needles and begin to freehand knit a mask. It went quickly -- it came out just as I had imagined it in my mind's eye, and I felted it right away. I loved the way it came out -- especially the mouth. I've made 3 more, each with a different fiber, each playing with the shape of the face. I'm going to make a few more before I begin needle-felting them with patterns and symbols. I feel like they're -- or I'm -- not ready for that stage yet.

To use another fiber metaphor, I feel like this project is a very pivotal one for me -- one which weaves my past and present together. The warp is me -- the weft is my past, present and future -- anthropology, shamanism, symbolism, art, Judaism, fiber art, handwork. I will post more as they progress.