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I have a thing for kitsch. I’m a sucker for tacky polyester shirts, campy movies, and disco. I love flipping through old magazines and perusing albums full of old pictures of family members in wildly-patterned polyester dresses and bouffant hairdos. So Stitchy McYarnpants’s new book, The Museum of Kitschy Stitches: A Gallery of Notorious Knits, was right up my alley.
What James Lileks did for food in his book, The Gallery of Regrettable Food, Stitchy does for knitting and crocheting. She points out the hideous stuff that people once considered perfectly acceptable—and even fashionable—and she mocks the heck out of it. It may sound mean, but come on—those crocheted acrylic hot pants are just asking for it.
The Museum of Kitschy Stitches is divided into twelve chapters, featuring everything from emasculating knits for guys to torturous knits for children to a plethora of granny-square projects to knits for the baddest of bad girls. Each page includes a picture of some sort of horrifying knit or crocheted item from anywhere between the ‘20s and the ‘80s—a picture of a hat or a dress or a granny-square tunic that someone, somewhere actually created—along with Stitchy’s witty, sarcasm-laced commentary.
Many of the projects featured in this book are train-wreck horrible. They’ll make you shudder. And laugh. And feel sorry for the poor models who actually had to wear them (and whose facial expressions occasionally betray their embarrassment at being forced to wear them). And Stitchy’s outrageous commentary adds to the fun.
The Museum of Kitschy Stitches is the ideal book for any fiber fanatic who’s ever had the urge to flip through boxes of old patterns—strictly for entertainment. It’s a book that you’ll find yourself flipping through over and over, just for a good laugh. Set it out in your knitting area as a warning that not all knits are good knits. And be sure to buy a few extra copies—because it’ll make a great Christmas gift for your knit-addicted friends.
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