Knitting Heritage

Charity Knitting was nice today. A lady and her daughter who had attended Hive Knitting showed up today. In addition to her daughter her son also knits but refuses to in public. I finished a blue blanket that was working on for Charity Knitting made from Galaxy super bulky yarn. It is a nice little acrylic that is soft and knits up fast. And with a stockinet center and a garter boarder I think it is a nice effect. I have a couple ends to weave in. Blogger is not letting me load the picture I will put it up when I can.

As I think about the generations of knitter I am forced to think about the line of people who taught me to knit. My clown mentor Beeppo (yeah that is where the name came from) learned from his mentor Beepko (and you can see where his name came from). Both were male and had come from hard lives. They had joined the circus both victims of the injustices of their time. B (Beeppo), was the son of a rather unenlightened Pentecostal Minister in Ohio who used his family as a punching bag. As a young teen in the 20’s he decided this was no way to live and ran off and joined the circus.

After he secured a place as an apprentice it became apparent that he had inherited some of his father’s racist tendencies. To cure him of that they assigned him to Beepko. John Smyth was also a young man in an untenable situation when he joined the circus. It was shortly before the Civil War and the Circus had gone to Richmond for their first tour of the South. Since the Clown troop was about a third black they figured the time was wrong for the Southern Tour and headed back to Philadelphia. As they were in the Richmond area young John Smyth took his opportunity to escape. He was what they called a house boy. He entertained his master and fetched things. As he was reaching his twelfth birthday he could see that his next stop would soon be their fields.

He hid in the Circus slop wagon eating the food waste on his trip north and when in Philadelphia he went to the local abolitionist society and told them his story. They said great, get a job kid. Well he went back to Circus and became a clown. Apparently one of the things his did as part of his duties on the plantation was to knit. I was told that he made one of my old Circus’ first long scarves and long sweaters and was one of the early pioneers in those routines.

Well I didn’t come from a family that knit. My mother sewed as do I. Someone was talking today about their great family heritage of knitting. Until I was thinking about John and B I never really thought I have a knitting heritage. B would tell me about John and the fact he learned to knit from his mother who encouraged him to escape when he could.

John was afforded a certain amount of protection because of his skill with the needles as was his mother and grandmother who he knew. I suppose that is as nice a knitting heritage as anyone has.

Well onto other subjects Hive Knitting is tomorrow on the South Side at 7:00 PM anyone that would like to join us please. Great fund will be had by all.

Well be safe out there and keep your stick on the ice.