In a romantic and sexy time-travel adventure to 18th century old Scotland, why do we look so closely at knitwear?
If you haven't seen the Outlander series yet, based on the novels by Diana Gabaldon, don't wait, you're missing out on something very good.
It's about a World War II nurse named Claire, who accidentally travels to 18th century Scotland... there we'll find haunting music, kilts, intrigue, political... and sexual tensions.
And in the midst of all this an unexpected star appears: the cozy, squashy knitted accessories.
Claire has a seemingly endless variety of soft and comfortable knit accessories, and knitters have taken notice. Costume designer Terry Dresbach said she was "totally surprised" by the positive response from the knitting community and that fans were clamoring for the patterns.
Thanks to knitwear, they were able to solve the problem of Hollywood's demands to make dresses with cleavage, and the need for actresses not to freeze to death in very cold locations. So the mittens and shawls or caps helped in this case.
There was also the matter of time; Dresbach's team had about seven weeks to create all the costumes for the shoot, and she had to finish virtually all of Claire's outfits in about two weeks. To that end, he hired local Scottish knitters to make some of the pieces and found many of the others from Scottish sellers on Etsy.
"I want the perspective of the Scottish craftsman," he said. "They are descendants of the knitters in our series."
Some have complained that the parts aren't "authentic" enough, but as Dresbach said, they solved the problems the design team was facing. "The most important thing is that it feels right."
Knitters are excited to see beautiful examples of their craft in pop culture. Dresbach best described the reaction: "OMG! Knitwear on TV!"
People began to make their own patterns for the garments that came out and make their garments and upload the photos. They even knitted while watching the series.
But if you're not handy with your needles, don't worry, you can buy the pieces already made at Thewitchscabin.com