Margaret Atwood Knits

Margaret Atwood, one of Canada's most celebrated authors, (think Handmaid's Tale) knits. Who knew? She recently contributed to a London UK show called the Ghosts of Gone Birds. Her choice was the great auk, a penguin-like bird that lived almost exclusively on Canadian islands in the Atlantic. This nearly meter/yard tall bird weighed 5 kilograms or 11 pounds. It was flightless, apparently tasty and had useful skins and feathers all causing it to become extinct in the mid-19th century.

Great Auk

Margaret Atwood said during a CBC interview she selected this gone bird because it is quint-essentially Canadian. She went on to say she visited her LYS to purchase yarn and asked about converting a photo into something she could knit. She was referred to Knitpro 2.0 and it brought her to this result:

Margaret Atwood and her great auk

I'm so surprised that 1) Margaret Atwood has time to knit and 2) that she makes quirky stuff like me. Not sure if the photo below isn't doing justice to her work or if perhaps her project just needs a good blocking. That said I'm amazed. Thanks Margaret Atwood, your doing this project has inspired me. (I have to figure out how to make that skeleton from October 31!)

Save a trip to London, here it is!

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