Ripple Rib Stitch[1]
Object ID: 2020.1.13[2]

Barbara,
I swatched
this stitch next
to a giant fork. Treasury
me at the library,
my long tail
raveled
in hangnail.
I had thumbed
black & white
pages for so long,
I wanted
to “slide
my fingers
across bobbles
& cables.”[3]
I wanted
to see
in color
broken rip
-ple rib. Having been
denied the travel
grant, having
more
than once
split the stitch,
I pushed back &
cast on blue
wool from
my stash.


[1]  “Ripple Rib Stitch” from A Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara G. Walker. Pg 14

[2] Martin, Jordana. Ripple Rib Stitch. Knitted textile recreated for the Barbara Walker Swatch Collection at BLUE: The TATTER Textile Library. 2020. Entry/Object ID 2020.1.13.

[3] Martin, Jordana. “The Barbara Walker Knitting Project” for Tatter.March 6, 2019. https://tatter.org/the-barbara-walker-knitting-project/

Imitation Lattice[4]
Object ID: 2020.1.62

the trellis is knit[5] and
purled and not
of the vine, it climbs
on the frame-
work a repeating row
a repeating roam
the sheep of the fold
grazing in the fold
there are rhizomes
in the meadow
I have been knitting
20 years knitting and
being knit *rip it 
rep from* end rip it:
a frog can be lily pad
or starting over.


[4]  “Imitation Lattice” from A Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara G. Walker. Pg 34

[5]  M******, Carol. Imitation Lattice swatch recreated for the Barbara Walker Swatch Collection at BLUE: The TATTER Textile Library. 2020. Entry/Object ID 2020.1.62

Biographical Statement

Mary Sauer is a writer from Kansas City, Missouri, and an MFA candidate at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. She is a Best Small Fictions nominee and her work has been published or is forthcoming in Timber, coastlines, Cleaver Magazine, SWWIM, and Pleiades.