Knit One Purl Two
Knit One Purl Two
Ski Patroller Takes Her Love of Winter and Combines it with Knitting
It’s amazing what you can find on the internet. In preparation for an article about a local knitting-whiz, I looked to see if there are any songs about knitting. I found a parody on John Denver’s “Inch by Inch, row by row…” Garden song which can be found on YouTube (Knitting Song 2012). What was delightful about watching and listening to that video was seeing the joy on the faces of the people who were sitting around in a group – knitting to their heart’s content. It seems knitting is pure fun
I looked further and found a poem. I share part with you here: Ode to my socks, Pablo Neruda – “Maru Mori brought me a pair of socks which she knitted herself with her sheepherder’s hands, two socks as soft as rabbits. I slipped my feet into them as though into two cases knitted with threads of twilight and goatskin…”
There’s something romantic, personal and, frankly, happy about hand-made knitted items that you just can’t capture with machine-made goods. And it turns out that Ellicottville has a supreme knitter within our midst, that is, when Barbara Cudeck is not doing one of the other things she loves, skiing at HoliMont on the Ski Patrol for 33 of her 47 years of patrolling. By way of introduction, Barb is mom to Corey Hacker who runs the FLITE Team freestyle program at HoliMont.
What began as a hobby for the love and creativity of knitting turned into a cottage industry with the help of Barbara’s daughter, Brittany, also an avid knitter. Brittany fits knitting into her busy schedule while working several jobs. Living at Hoover Beach (Hamburg area) in the summer months, Barb taught knitting at a shop in Hamburg. Barbara says she has knitted and sewn her whole life, taught the old German way by her mother, and started sewing fleece clothing for Corey when he was on the Ski Team. Then, her granddaughter skied competitively so Barb started making ski hats to raise money for her competition expenses. She made about 200 Lexi hats (named for her granddaughter) during that campaign. After that fundraiser, the popularity of their signature hat spread so they just kept making them. Then the Buffalo Bills started taking off and they created a hat they called the Chloe hat named after the one Snowboarder Chloe Kim wore during the Olympics. The design of the hat is such that it fits just about everybody. They were able to use a “Bills Mafia Babes” logo designed by a friend, but once the Bills bought the Bills Mafia copyright they had to discontinue, creating their own “Mafia Babe” logo for their hats.
Not content to stick with the ski hat designs, they were asked to come up with hats with a biker design. Since Barb enjoys the challenge of more intricate designs, a bike on the hat was right up her alley. These hats can be purchased at Kickstand Culture on Main Street in East Aurora or can be ordered directly from them at BAC knitting on FB, Backnitting on Instagram or through an email at BACKnitting@gmail.com. One other item they sell is an unusual, hooded sweater for newborns up to 18 months which easily pops over the front of them and zips up the back.
Since all of these projects don’t seem to keep Barb busy enough, she also loves to create the famous and hugely intricate Dale of Norway sweaters. In the summertime, she and her husband, Michael get their daily walks in on the beach. Bending is also good exercise, so Barb collected bags and bags of beach glass along her walks and decided she needed to do something creative with these beautiful pieces, each one of which probably carries its own unique and mysterious tale. Of course, this creative artist creates these one-of-a-kind beach glass jewelry which can also be found when they sell their items at shows. Check them out on SM.