{"id":15605,"date":"2025-11-20T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/extreme-knitting-2026-takes-craft-to-unexpected-places\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:34:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:34:28","slug":"extreme-knitting-2026-takes-craft-to-unexpected-places","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/extreme-knitting-2026-takes-craft-to-unexpected-places\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Extreme Knitting 2026\u2019 takes craft to unexpected places"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Knitters
Knitters take their projects to far-flung locales in \u201cExtreme Knitting 2026\u201d calendar. (Courtesy)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

For some, the word \u201cknitting\u201d conjures up images of grannies wearing shawls, sitting in rockers knitting \u2026 shawls.<\/p>\n

Bah(hhhhh) to that!<\/p>\n

For the third consecutive year, our friends and neighbors \u2013 and even author Barbara Kingsolver and knitting designer Nancy Bates \u2013 are taking their works in progress to far-flung locales, including Canada, Canyonlands, Nepal and the top of Mount Sneffels, clocking in at 14,157 feet.<\/p>\n

And there are plenty of grandmothers who knit, and according to the introduction in the \u201cExtreme Knitting 2026\u201d calendar, we owe them \u201ca huge debt of gratitude for passing their skills along to other generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"This
This the third year \u201cExtreme Knitting\u201d has been released. (Courtesy)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The brainchild of Durangoan Betsy Fitzpatrick, \u201cExtreme Knitting\u201d is a way to celebrate the knitting community and it goes to good causes: 100% of net profits is donated to causes selected by the calendar\u2019s models. This year, the groups are: Higher Ground Women\u2019s Recovery Center, National Parks Foundation, dZi Foundation and San Juan Mountains Association.<\/p>\n

The calendars are now available locally at Durango shops, including Stitch, Maria\u2019s Bookshop and Meadow Market.<\/p>\n

Fitzpatrick, a longtime knitter, said she was able to get a copy of the first \u201cExtreme Knitting\u201d calendar to Kingsolver through a network of friends. She followed that up with a letter, asking Kingsolver if she would be interested in being in one of the calendars.<\/p>\n

\"Author
Author Barbara Kingsolver makes a guest appearance in this year\u2019s \u201cExtreme Knitting\u201d calendar. (Courtesy)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI found out that she actually posts her P.O. box because she likes to hear from her readers, so I sent her a letter,\u201d she said. \u201cI said, \u2018I know this is a preposterous request, but I would love to feature you in my calendars.\u2019 I did highlight that all the money goes to charity because I thought that would appeal to her as well. With her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, \u2018Demon Copperhead,\u2019 she got money (which she used) to open a recovery center for women who are recovering from opioid addiction, which is what that book talks about. \u2026 A chunk of the proceeds from the calendar will be going to that cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Where to get a copy<\/h4>\n

Copies of \u201cExtreme Knitting 2026\u201d are available at these Durango locations:<\/p>\n

Beads & Beyond, <\/strong>840 Main Ave.<\/p>\n

Durango Sustainable Goods,<\/strong> 680 Main Ave. C.<\/p>\n

Maria\u2019s Bookshop, <\/strong>960 Main Ave.<\/p>\n

Meadow Market, <\/strong>688 Edgemont Meadows Road.<\/p>\n

Southwest Farm to Yarns (Cortez), <\/strong>360 W. First St., B.<\/p>\n

Sticks & Stones,<\/strong> 922 Main Ave.<\/p>\n

Stitch, <\/strong>858 Main Ave.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When Fitzpatrick found out Kingsolver wanted to be in the calendar, \u201cI kind of went around for about a week just tingling with excitement, because she\u2019s one of my favorite writers. I\u2019ve been a fan of hers for at least 30 years, and I know she gets a lot of requests and has to say no to almost all of them. So I felt very lucky to get to have that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

To get the shots, Fitzpatrick and her husband, John \u2013 the photographer for most of the calendars\u2019 images \u2013 packed up their car and headed east to southwest Virginia.<\/p>\n

\"A
A knitting project even made its way to Nepal this year. (Courtesy)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cThere were storms, flooding and tornado warnings, and it felt like something out of \u2018The Odyssey,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cBut we were on a mission, and we kept going, and we made it. We were able to meet her, and we met her husband, Steven, and we met her daughter, Lily, who\u2019s now her office manager. We just had a very nice little visit, and got the photo for the calendar.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while creating a calendar every year comes with challenges, especially the pressure of looming deadlines, Fitzpatrick said selecting just the right images can be a little stressful as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy goal is always to have as much diversity in the calendar as possible, because there are knitters of all stripes out there,\u201d she said. \u201cI want people of all ages, all backgrounds, and so trying to connect with lots of different knitters is a challenge \u2026 connecting with young knitters, connecting with knitters in different parts of the world or different parts of the country is my ongoing goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

katie@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

calendar also features author Barbara Kingsolver<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1060,28,994],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-arts-entertainment","tag-headlines","tag-trueanthem"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15605"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19745,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15605\/revisions\/19745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15605"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}