Hello friends,
The holiday knitting continues! After finishing my hat for Morningside High Park’s mitten tree, I continued working on my Christmas tree themed rustic holiday bunting (see last week’s blog). And while I was working on those small pennants, our eldest, Fin, remarked that I could knit up a Hanukkah version as well. Great idea, Fin. Then, a few days later, a post about “Project Menorah” showed up in my Facebook feed:
And it was pretty obvious what I needed to do. So, I quickly adapted the Rustic Bunting to sport a Hanukkiah motif. I started knitting like a fiend, because Hanukkah was only a few days away, and I needed 8 pennants, one for each day of the holiday. But a very clever person on Facebook commented that I could hang one new pennant every night, just like lighting a new candle on a Hanukkiah. Fabulous suggestion, which also gave me time to knit the remaining pennants. Mind you, if was going to replicate a Hanukkiah with pennants, I would need one special pennant to represent the Shamash, or ‘helper’, candle. So I made a slightly larger pennant featuring a Star of David to be my Shamash pennant. Here’s a shot of them in process:
And here’s how they look today, in our window, as part of Project Menorah, on the second day of Hanukkah:
For those of you who might want to knit a Hanukkiah yourselves, here’s the link to the Rustic Bunting pattern on which I based my version. I’ve included the two charts I created below. The only other adaptation I made was I purled the row after the pattern was finished (row 29 for the Hanukkiah, and row 35 for the Star of David). This formed a fold line. I then purled the next row, (row 30 Hanukkiah, row 36 Star of David) and returned to stockinette stitch, decreasing at the end of every second row to mirror the shaping of the front. If you have any questions, send me an email via www.kirkdunn.com. Happy Knitting!
Hanukkiah Pennant Chart
Star of David Pennant Chart
the knitting pilgrim talks
We continue to release new episodes of The Knitting Pilgrim Talks, which explore the imagery of the Stitched Glass tapestries in conversation with faith leaders and academics.
episode 115: islam and science
Islam and Science
In Episode 115 of The Knitting Pilgrim Talks, I chat with accomplished physician, scientist, theologian, and Muslim community leader Dr. David Liepert about Islam and science. We use the Islamic tapestry’s image of a winged figure (that of Abbas Ibn Firnas, who experimented with flight in the 9th century CE) as a jumping-off point for a conversation about the incredible contributions and technological breakthroughs made by Muslim mathematicians, engineers, and physicians throughout history.
"Everybody was free to think… to practice their religion… to explore… to reason. Because in fact, the Qu’ran told people to do all of those things." -- Dr. David Liepert.
Episdoe 115 is available on Youtube here: KPT 115 Islam and Science
Or all of the podcast places, like KPT on Spotify, if you’d rather listen than watch.
If you have any questions about any of my projects, would like to book a talk, workshop, The Knitting Pilgrim, or Spycraft, please reach out to me at www.kirkdunn.com.