I love knitting, but have I mentioned that I can't count?
Nonetheless, I have made, since January, three grown-up hats, two pairs of socks, and four and two-thirds baby hats. Not bad.
If you added up the things that I could have made with the extra rounds I did fixing my issues, it would probably be double.
Some attribute this peculiar difficulty I have to me talking while knitting. That could be. Also watching while knitting and perhaps even just thinking while knitting.
Sigh.
This baby cap, which I think you will agree is pricelessly cute and also exactement le chose for a little grandson in various colors, is from the lovely Ginny Sheller at Small Things.
As soon as I saw it I wanted to make it. Here you see it in the Simply Cotton Marshmallow (aka white). Mine looks more rolled than hers but I think it's a function of laying flat, and will unroll when on a head. It might be a smidge too large for an infant, but I'm sure I don't know. I could never remember what size an infant was from one baby to the next. I'd always get out the baby clothes near my due date and practically cry over how tiny they.
The others (Simply Cotton Sport Wave Heather {blue} and Shine Sport Green Apple) are done according to Ginny's directions except with 72 rather than 81 cast on (I have been trying to knit loose so that I won't keep pushin are g the needle with my index finger, Breanna), and with the ribbed band rather than the rolled.
It comes down to this:
With the ribbing I stand a chance at knowing where the heck I am as I go up, and please do not speak to me of stitch markers, which are all very well until they fall out.
The blue and white striped hat is an attempt to make the most out of the leftover yarn without ending up with 2/3 of a hat, as with another green one, not pictured. I actually think there was more yarn in the blue and white, because now I am making a second striped one, since this one is, I think, too small for a large-ish newborn.
{Shakes head over the futility of it all — except that they are wicked cute, so it's all good.}
There you have it.
I'm still trying to resolve the computer issues, so I can't access the email Natasha put all the details about the Minted giveaway in, and of course, Hong Kong is exactly 12 hours time difference — making communication a tad iffy, even with G-chat, Skype, FB, and good old fashioned email.
But in other news, I've started re-reading Cross Creek by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. This book has been up on Suki's bedside table for a good long while — I keep hoping to persuade her to read it, but she resists. So I'll read it myself!
I love these smart, funny, sassy women who wrote in the 30s and 40s. (Janice Holt Giles is another, and of course Flannery O'Connor, who also has the virtue of her strong faith illuminating all she writes.) They give the lie to today's smug re-writers of history, who seem to believe that women did nothing before 1975 that didn't involve slavery to men.
When your culture starts being brainwashed, it's time to read something other than the latest best-seller.
Rawlings is best known for The Yearling, a book with a high standard of prose that I did not really enjoy, as I do not appreciate animal stories. I just don't and that's all there is too it.
Maybe if you are not highly strung it's all very well and good, but some of us have enough trouble dealing with the ups and downs of humans without dragging innocent baby deer into the picture.
However, Cross Creek is a blast, and the cover is one of my very favorites. (Be sure to get one with a dust jacket if you are buying second hand.) (There's Cross Creek Cookery as well, which is equally entertaining.) (I'm re-reading after about 25 years, so hopefully there isn't anything inappropriate in this book. I am not responsible.)
Throughout there are black and white woodcuts to illustrate the chapter headings. Aside from the art, the story of Rawlings' arrival, survival, and love of her adopted island represents a genre I truly love: a first-hand account of daily life from the past told by a true wit.
Spider flower in the light of the Harvest Moon, last night. |
Breanna says
Sorry, typing with one hand– I know “use a” is two words. 🙂
MamaHen says
I needed a new reading suggestion. And this sounds interesting. I also do not like animal stories, or movies for that matter. I also cannot read or watch something where terrible things happen to a child. This one will get added to my list.
Anon says
Could the flower be Cleome rather than Spiderwort?
_Leila says
It is, also called Spider Flower– I fixed it 🙂
womanofthehouse says
You're reminding me of C.S. Lewis' essay on reading old books as an antidote to cultural and historical myopia.
I'm learning to knit, but you are ahead of me! I love the hats!
margo says
great hats! But your reflections on knitting them reinforce what I believe: that I don't like knitting I have to concentrate on. I like to knit my brainless dishcloths. For the rest, I sew stuff.
Thanks for the tip on Cross Creek. I never ventured beyond The Yearling, which I didn't like that much. The earlier women writers are my FAVE. Have you read Edna Ferber? and Margery Sharp? and please tell me that you have read Georgette Heyer. She's so wickedly cleverly funny and smart. And ah! romantic.
_Leila says
Oh, thanks for the recommendations!
Alice says
A grandson? (Raises eyebrows as she ponders her knitting stash.)
I can't find the Elizabeth Zimmerman quote on knitting that I was looking for, so instead I give you a long overdue book recommendation for Louise Dickinson Rich's “We Took to the Woods,” about life in the Maine wilderness in the '30s.
_Leila says
Yes…a grandson!!!
And, yes, I have read that one — very good! But those people were CRAZY. In wintertime they didn't even have the kitchen in the same house that they lived in and they lived in MAINE.
Alice says
No, I wouldn't want to be her, I have to admit, but she does write well when describing it.
_Leila says
It's a great book. They're all crazy.
Alice says
Even the dog is crazy. We refer to “Kyak dogs” and “Kyak animals” around here for animals that are attractive but useless. The resident feline gives much opportunity for this comparison.
Mom in MO says
I also caught the reference to a grandson. !
More, please!
_Leila says
Well, I mean, it's a boy! Or as Philip said, “So you mean it's going to be a boy?” and as Rosie said, “No, it IS a boy!”
Lindsay says
The hats look wonderful! I would love to call myself a knitter, but really I;m just a wannabe who loves yarn. I can knit scarves pretty well, but I can't count either. So that pretty much says it all! And thanks for pointing me toward such a charming story. Gonna put it on my “books to find” list.
Elizabethe says
I don't understand people who claim knitting is relaxing. My college roommate taught me how to knit and after about a year of valiantly trying to enjoy it I admitted I find it to be the most stressful occupation! Even plain old dishcloths left me on edge. More power to those of you who enjoy it.
Lisa says
Speaking of books, I've been thinking of one you need to write for all of us. And…here's a title suggestion: Auntie Leila and The Beekeeper……Wisdom from Home and Hive. What do you say?
_Leila says
You're so cute. MWAH!
Deirdre says
AAAAHHH oh my gosh I love that!!! That is one of the best potential book titles I've ever read in my life!!
Deirdre says
I myself have been thinking for a long time now about all the un-tapped potential for the “hive” theme…
Anne says
loooove the hats! can't wait to meet the baby! 🙂
JaneC says
The hats are very cute! I am a crochet girl, myself. I can knit, but knitting anything that wasn't a scarf or potholder gave me fits, so I switched. I recently finished a baby afghan and have started on another one.
I have trouble with baby head sizes, too. I made some absolutely adorable hats a while back, which had the right gauge according to the instructions, but when I look at the finished product I can't believe that they would fit an actual baby head. They may end up as hats for dolls, since I have no accessible babies to try them on.
Deirdre says
Pretty pictures! I LOVE those moonlit flowers!
Also, speaking of innocent animals, all of these cute doggie photos are making me MISS ROXIE!!