Mother of Purl
Authors: Edith Eig,Caroline Greeven
of
PURL
FRIENDS, FUN, AND FABULOUS DESIGNS
AT HOLLYWOOD’S KNITTING CIRCLE
EDITH EIG
with Caroline Greeven
PHOTOS BY
Warren Eig
BRINGING CHIC WITHIN YOUR REACH
“Because Edith is such a nice and patient teacher, I learned to knit.”
—Sofia Coppola
“I always wanted to knit, but never thought I could until I met Edith. Her patience and kindness has opened a whole new world for me.”
—Daryl Hannah
“Knitting is a nice way to relax and be productive at the same time.”
—Julianne Moore
“I am so pleased that knitting has made a comeback. It is an art, and it is a pleasure, and thank heaven for Edith and La Knitterie Parisienne—it’s a knitter’s paradise.”
—Shelley Morrison
“I just love to knit and love to knit with Edith because she knows everything in the world about knitting. I remember the first time I went to Edith’s La Knitterie Parisienne …I went four days in a row. And, if I make a mistake, I can’t wait to call Edith or go to the store so she can help me. Knitting is so much fun, and I can’t wait to learn to knit ponchos and sweaters for my stuffed dogs because I don’t have a real one. My next project is going to be a yellow scarf for my grandmother.”
—Dakota Fanning
“Edith is the Deepak Chopra of knitting. She’ll take you from pot holder to cable–knit sweaters in no time.”
—Caroline Rhea
“Knitting is a family tradition.”
—Bridget Fonda
“I learned to knit as a little girl but gave it up over the years. Edith helped me rediscover the love and passion I had for this creative hobby and I haven’t stopped knitting since.”
—Hilary Shephard
“I can’t imagine life without knitting, and it has always amazed me that more people don’t do it. Edith Eig’s La Knitterie Parisienne is the most welcoming knit shop I have ever been in.”
—Annette O’Toole
“Edith is incredibly helpful and giving of her knitting skills and experience. I wouldn’t know much about knitting or crocheting without her. She’s incredibly encouraging and one of my favorite people on earth.”
—Justine Bateman
“Edith Eig is the owner of La Knitterie Parisienne in Studio City, the hottest, trendiest place in town for the young set to gather and knit. Knitting with Edith is the place to be.”
—KNBC–TV
“Edith is a master knitter; she is known as the best in the world.”
—KCBS–TV
“Hollywood’s knitting guru is Edith Eig.”
—
People
magazine
“La Knitterie Parisienne is Southern California’s largest and most fashionable knitting yarn boutique.”
—
Los Angeles
magazine
“Mme Eig has emerged as a guru to whom studios and actors turn for practical help and spiritual solace.”
—
The London Times
“Edith Eig, knitting guru, takes life one stitch at a time.”
—
Los Angeles Times
“La Knitterie Parisienne is run by knitting–instructor–to–the–stars Edith Eig.”
—
Los Angeles Daily News
“In the hustle–bustle, ultra–chic world that is Hollywood, one of the hottest spots is La Knitterie Parisienne, where the stars go to unwind, enter a simpler world, and find joy in a pastime that many of their grandmothers practiced.”
introduction—
Costco Connection
magazine
Bringing sophisticated knitting to people who never imagined they could be creative, never thought they could make something beautiful, that is my mission. Nothing makes me happier than helping a knitter toward success.
I feel I have been writing this book for over thirty years. After all, knitting has been a part of my life since I was a young girl in France, when knitting was part of the curriculum and I was forced to sit indoors “à
l'école”
and knit, while the boys got to go outside and play. This always seemed terribly unfair to me—
I
wanted to go out and play; what did I care about knitting?—and as soon as I graduated I threw away my needles. When I turned eighteen, I moved to America, got married, and became a career woman, working in finance at a brokerage firm on Wall Street. Knitting—or any kind of craft, for that matter—could not have been further from my mind; who had time?
So, in a way, I guess my knitting life is typical of many women; a craft that we may not think of for years, and then suddenly it starts to make sense—one day we find that there is something missing in our lives, and knitting helps fill the void. For me, I began to feel the
need
to knit when I left the professional world to become a mother; where once my busy days had been filled with conversation and intellectually demanding work, I now found myself alone for much of the day, with just my young children for company, or the occasional coffee klatch, which, to be honest, bored me out of my mind. One day I bought a pair of needles, some yarn, and sat down and knitted a baby blanket. I’ve been knitting ever since.
Soon I was showing my friends how to knit their own baby blankets, and as we sipped coffee, I found I enjoyed teaching them, and started to enjoy having a creative circle of my contemporaries. We were friends when we began knitting, and just as our stitches became intertwined, so did the bonds of our friendship over needles and yarn. I found I had a knack for teaching and a love for needlecrafts; a local school invited me to teach there, and when I started ordering supplies for my students, I realized the next step was my own store. The Canvas Pad, which I opened in the basement of my home in Parsippany, New Jersey, was a complete resource for all needlecrafts—both knitting and needlepoint. My knitting circle picked up and relocated to my new business, and gradually more people joined us.
Every night my husband, Merrill, would come home from work to find dozens of women in our house, and more often than not, they would end up staying for dinner as well. The store grew gradually, but it was always a success, and I soon moved from our basement to a store that was so little I had to stand outside the entrance way if I had more than one customer. Over time, the Canvas Pad moved to bigger and bigger locations, finally establishing a more than twenty–year residency in a 218–year–old historic Victorian house. The Canvas Pad, which began as a hobby, had evolved into a pretty impressive business. Not bad for something I started on a whim!
Our children grew up and moved to Los Angeles. Eventually, Merrill and I moved too, carefully packing up every last skein of yarn and relocating our business. We found a home in the San Fernando Valley, and soon after that a perfect location in Studio City. La Knitterie Parisienne was born, and the new name for the business was created to reflect my Parisienne sensibilities while clearly establishing the nature of the shop.
I had a brand–new opportunity to reestablish my knitting yarn business, and I wanted to offer my clients the highest–quality yarns available on the market. Throughout my career, I had honed my abilities as a skilled designer with a sophisticated flair for style and color. A mother of three, I also found that I had acquired the art of patience and had a natural ability to teach—both novice and expert knitters alike. This was a time before the knitting revival, and my new clientele was gravitating to the warmth and charm of my shop. It was comforting and rewarding; after all, Merrill and I had taken a huge risk in moving our successful business cross–country, and now new customers were finding a new home at La Knitterie Parisienne surrounded by one of the largest inventories ever found in a single shop: 13,000 yarns and, without exception, one of the best in the market.
Coincidentally, La Knitterie Parisienne was located in the heart of the movie studio district: Universal Studios, Warner Brothers, Walt Disney Studios, Raleigh Studios, and Paramount Pictures, to name a few, were just a stone’s throw away. As a result, I found much of my clientele comprised the stars and tastemakers of Hollywood, and they, like the rest of my customers, demanded the best.
This was an eye–opening experience for me, having operated a successful business in sub–urban New Jersey, where most of my clients were professionals and stay–at–home moms. The mix had now broadened to include a circle of celebrities, movie producers and directors, screenwriters, stylists and makeup artists: today’s trendsetters who appear in the pages of high fashion and entertainment magazines and are partly responsible for helping to launch what is considered popular.
GOOD KARMA
One of my clients, an actress and model, regularly stops at my shop on her way to auditions because she claims my store provides her with “good karma.” In the many years that she has performed this ritual, she always got the part.