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Knittin' with P.Lo: He knits, he picks, he sometimes politics

Everyone should know how to sew, knit and play a musical instrument, says Paul Loewenberg

Most people know Sudburian Paul Loewenberg as the manager of the Laughing Buddha and Townehouse Tavern, former artistic director of Northern Lights Festival Boréal, musician and past local NDP candidate.

But did you know he's also a talented knitter who's completed some pretty interesting projects?

Yup, that's right. When Loewenberg gets home for the night, there's nothing he loves better than to pick up his knitting needles and complete a few rows of his latest creation.

He finds it relaxing, except when his cats Mr. Sulu and Rosemary bump his arm and cause him to mess up his project.

Loewenberg said he picked up the pastime in his late teens, when he made a pact with his love interest at the time that they'd knit something for each other for Christmas. Unfortunately, he got stiffed.

“So Christmastime came around, and I handed her a big sweater, and she did not,” Loewenberg said, chuckling at the memory.

As a Laurentian University student, he became known as the guy with the long hair and beard who knitted in the Great Hall or Fraser Auditorium — a hippie image if there ever was one. Undaunted by his hairy appearance, his needle skills earned him an offer of $200 for a sweater.

Over the years, Loewenberg has continued to pass the time with knitting needles. Lately, he's been knitting unique receiving blankets for friends expecting babies.

Some of them featured musical notes and bass and treble clefs — those were made for musician friends. Others feature the covers of children's books — one recent blanket was knit to look like The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein.

Loewenberg also knit a blanket for the infant daughter of Max Merrifield — who took over for him as Northern Lights' artistic director — in the pattern of the festival's logo.

“I enjoy making the blankets for friends that are having babies,” he said.

“It's such a reasonably sized blanket, that it's something I can do in a couple of weeks …  and at the end have something that you give to them that is a lifelong conversation piece.”

When he was running for political office, he knitted NDP-orange scarves for those involved in his campaign.

He did a fisher-knit sweater for his partner, Kaili Beck, that's so warm that she can only wear it on the coldest of days. Designed for fishermen, the sweater features a type of double knitting.

Loewenberg tells an amusing story about how he left his cherished hand-knit sweater at the Northern Lights office, and it was accidentally donated to charity when the office changed locations.

One day, he saw a man downtown wearing his missing sweater, and he questioned him as to how he'd ended up with it.

Loewenberg is also the craftsman responsible for the large knitted panels that wrap trees at Northern Lights festival. He said he uses a knitting machine for this project. 

By the way, if you have any unwanted yarn hanging around the house, Loewenberg would gladly take it off your hands to make tree panels.

More than a knitter, Loewenberg considers himself a maker. He's also a skilled carpenter, and Beck taught him to sew (he likewise taught her to knit).

“I think it's one of those valuable skills that people should just have,” Loewenberg said.

“You have to know how to make things. Everybody should know how to sew and knit and play a musical instrument. I don't think it's a post-world, apocalyptic, when-the-lights-go-out-you've-got-to-know-how-to-do-this stuff kind of thing.

“But I'm happy that I can make furniture and clothing and blankets, and I can fix whatever you need to fix around the house.”


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Heidi Ulrichsen

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