Day by day my sukkah’s harvest grows as I grab moments to work on the basket of fruits and vegetables. My harvest bowl now contains etrogs, lemons, red and green apples, a cluster of grapes, and banana, cucumber, corn-on-the-cob, and acorn squash.
The acorn squash and red apple were completed during our field trip to Greensgrow Farm, and the banana and corn cob came to life during my Sunday afternoon demonstrations at the 2007 Philadelphia Area Knit (and Crochet) Out at the Philadelphia Convention Center. I was especially gratified by the enthusiastic responses of so many Knit Out participants to my demonstrations of plastic bag knitting (and crochet), and to the knitted sukkah decorations I’ve been working on. We scrambled to find enough plastic bags to slice and knot into yarn, and experimented with the “inside out” knitting technique I’ve extended from the double knit bears to the fruits and vegetables. There was also a chance to show one of the youngest visitors to the event how to fingerknit – it’s always a treat to introduce little ones to handcrafts. You can read more about Sunday’s Knit Out here.
It’s been difficult to get harvest baskets out of my mind, and the chance to return to Arcimboldo’s organic portrait paintings reminded me of another one that’s especially appropriate to Sukkot and the time of year. Arcimboldo’s many paintings were, in Mannerist style, visual puns that employed thematically-appropriate visual elements (such as a crowd of sea creatures in Water). The Vegetable Gardener (c.1590) (link) is another of these visual puns.
While some friends think my knitted harvest is amusing enough, I’ll have to see whether I can arrange my fruits and vegetables into a portrait by the time Sukkot arrives.
You’ll find updates on the progress of the sukkah and its knitted fruits and vegetables here (click this link)
I love the knitted fruit. I was thinking of doing something similar for my sukkah but then thought of the damp mornings we have her during Sukkot. I wouldn’t want them to get moldy. But I have my 5 yo daughter busy cranking out finger knitted chains. An early chag sameach to you!
For Philly Farm
17 Sep 2007 by PrincezLeah613
I found this site and I actually I saw a lot of cute things on it. Check it out. You might like the concept of some of the things that she knits. Tikkunknits.
Leah Country – http://leahcountry.blogspot.com/
wow.. how creative… some of my fondest memories of Hebrew school in NY, was decorating the sukkah. Now we do it here in G-d’s country, our inn in Montana!
shalom
GP in Montana
I would love to see the pattern for the bunch of grapes using bobbles. I have a baby shower w/ an autumn theme, and I’m making by sister-in-law a diaper cake w/ a cornucopia theme. I want to top it w/ fruit hats. I’ve already made an apple (you can see my daughter wearing it in one of my recent blog entries) and I’ve made the apple hat from Crazy Aunt Purl’s blot (but modified it to have a 2×2 rib instead of a 4×4 at the bottom). I’d like to have a 3rd fruit to help top the cake. Since they are having a little boy, berries are out. I’ve navigated a little on your site, and I find I’ keep running in circles (of course, I only had one cup of coffee today).
Thanks in advance for your help!
Thanks for your interest in the knitted grapes pattern. I’ve added the pattern to my Patterns for Peacebuilders available on Etsy (here’s the link). If the pattern is sold out when you get there, just send me a message and I’ll relist it for you. Good luck!