Gena Greene in Search of a Loon...Brooch

Back around 1990, before union and Big Government nuisances interfered, Debbie Anderson and Chellie Pingree were helping their neighbors pass the long, lonely winter nights on the coast of Maine by knitting cute, simple sweaters with designs inspired by local scenery. One of the designs featured the biggest and showiest species of loon, Gavia immer, whose dramatic summer coat is black with big white spots closer to the head and smaller spots further down the back. Instead of trying to knit a picture of the bird, the knitter worked a geometric design with big white squares around the shoulders of the sweater and little white dots on the waist and sleeves. To get the idea across, the sweater has an opening at the neck that just begs to be held together by some sort of tie or small brooch. At the time a local conservation organization was selling realistic loon-shaped brooches.

You can still buy all sorts of cool loon paraphernalia at www.loon.org, but although they have lots of loon earrings and shirts, there is no longer a loon brooch pin. Gena Greene found this out after buying some wonderful, wearable, all-American cotton yarn and knitting a Loon Sweater.

So she contacted the local handcrafter at Inspirations at Heart...and both here and on Etsy, you should be able to buy a Loon Sweater and Brooch set again...soon...maybe even under the next full moon. Right. I'll stop. But please tell Salolianigodagewi@yahoo.com: do you want the price of the set to include a donation to Loon.org?