Dear Jan,
This weekend seemed a bit empty with no major horse race to follow. I guess the horses deserve a week off before they have to run the Preakness, but after all the colorful silks and beautiful animals of last weekend, this weekend could have seemed a bit dull. Luckily, Dr. Yarn entertained me with some news about the future of the Derby, and how it may involve knitters.
Our font of wisdom reports:
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To my editors at TwinSet:
This letter came from Lexington, KY, so it deserves an answer while the Kentucky Derby is still fresh in our minds.
Q. Is there any truth in the rumor that the rose blanket used for the winner of the Kentucky Derby will be changed to a knitted blanket of poppies next year?
A. It wasn’t supposed to get out yet but Wikileaks has no shame. There has been a lot of high-level talk about it, and I must admit I have been contacted. Roses have been associated with the Derby for 127 years, and now many are thinking we need a change. Some say the rose blanket got started from the War of the Roses, but that was a long time ago and we can’t be certain.
Because we have had so many other wars recently, I think knitted poppies, like those from Flanders Field, would take the Kentucky Derby in a new direction. Horses and wars have a long association (wouldn’t the Derby be interesting if the jockeys had to ride inside the horse, like they did in the Trojan War? or how about in full armour as in the medieval wars?). Please don’t say I said so, but a blanket of knitted poppies has a good chance of needling its way in.
Do keep this special intelligence under your hat (knitted, of course) for a while.
Dr. Yarn
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Hmm, this may prove to be as controversial as Dr. Yarn’s last column, in which he advocates a catch-and-release program for wool moths. Please remember I am merely the messenger!
Love,
Ellen
Jan and Ellen are identical twins who have always had an innate fashion sense. Crafting is an integral part of their lives and they stay stitched together sharing their love of knitting, family and community.
May 16th, 2011 at 7:50 pm
Last week found me and my husband in London at Winston Churchill’s underground bunkers where I purchased a CROCHETED poppy. Quite lovely.
I’ll “knit my bit” if the poppies represent the graves of squashed-but-not-released little moths.
Still shuttering from the last column,
stashmuffin
May 16th, 2011 at 8:42 pm
Wool moths: they are to be served up fried on a tennis-racquet-shaped bug zapper and served to the birds, who snap them up faster than any birdseed you might ever put out there. Spiders, likewise.
May 17th, 2011 at 3:57 am
Why do I feel sleepy…sleepy…
(Oh no! Flying monkeys!)
May 17th, 2011 at 5:50 pm
I’m good with the poppies, but I must say that the whole catch-and-release thing is right out!
May 17th, 2011 at 6:13 pm
I like poppies. Can’t say the same for moths, though. There are three kinds of living things that get killed without mercy in my house; they are one of them. (Cockroaches and mosquitoes are the others, if you must know. Fortunately we’ve never had problems with the first, and the second doesn’t show up very often. I’m doomed on enlightenment, but their scarcity keeps my karma relatively safe.)
They could probably manage to knit roses if it’s such a big deal to have poppies instead…