Public Purling

Learning how to knit was a snap.

It was learning how to stop that nearly destroyed me.

~Erma Bombeck

According to my infamous calendar of all things wacky, it’s Knit in Public Week!

Yes, Elbow Benders, it is time for your knitwit side to come out of the closet.

And there’s science to encourage this crafty indulgence —

Apparently, knitting can ease anxiety, depression, and chronic pain. Some experts even go so far as to say that the woolly art increases happiness and protects the brain from damage caused by aging.

But all that aside, there's no doubt in my elbow-bending mind that it expands creativity, too.

How else do you explain this —

This —

Or this —

And then —

Just when you thought that all creative nooks and crannies had been conquered…

A psychiatrist in Massachusetts knitted an anatomically correct replica of the human brain.

It all started innocently enough, I’m sure —

One clotted bit of yarn that looked strangely like a cerebellum…

A few strings of wool that screamed “spinal cord!”

The next thing she knew, she was up to her elbows in Merino and purling away at an amygdala.

It took Karen Norberg, M.D. about a year to create her woolen wonder, but it was well worth it —

So, thanks to Dr. Norberg, I suppose we can add yet another knitting benefit…

Purls of wisdom.

Like.

Literally.

PROMPT: Knitting is not just for cozies anymore! Wrap your cranium around a body part and purl away… 

On second thought, how about a yarn involving a character with an unusual knitting addiction? Does the family perform an intervention… or do they all think that it’s perfectly normal to pass the time crafting pencil turtlenecks and wickedly woolly clarinet bikinis?