As the fashion world’s fascination with
the styles of yesteryear continues and Brooklynites remain passionate
about knitting and vintage emporiums, the time is ripe for Stitchy
McYarnpants’s cautionary tale, "The Museum of Kitschy Stitches:
A Gallery of Notorious Knits."
McYarnpants, aka Debbie Brisson, has collected a number of hilarious
(and terrifying) photographs of crocheting and knitting crimes
from catalogs, patterns and advertisements, from the ’40s through
the ’70s, and packaged them into a small coffee-table book with
her scathing, laugh-out-loud captions. In the chapter "Your
Worst Knitmare: A Horror Show of Faux Fur Monstrosities,"
McYarnpants rails against a sweater’s U-shaped pocket, crooked
buttons and tangled mess of cheap yarn sleeves (pictured at left).
And she maintains that the chagrined model inside the atrocity
must have been a hostage.
In addition to the shots of embarrassing, "recklessly embellished,"
downright uncomfortable-looking ensembles for men, women and
children, the knitting-blogger includes images of chilling knitted
toys (a la "Poltergeist"), warnings away from acrylic
yarn and even a pattern for a "Clippy Cravat."
Stitchy McYarnpants will read from her book "The Museum
of Kitschy Stitches" (Quirk Books, $15.95) at the Park Slope
Barnes & Noble [267 Seventh Ave. at Sixth Street, (718) 832-9066]
on Oct. 6 at 7:30 pm. For more information, visit www.museumofkitschystitches.com.
