- What made me turn to knitting for something to do to fill the long hours of this Hiems horribilus, I'm not really sure. Perhaps the key words there are "to fill the long hours". Many women have spent the long hours filled with knitting. I was now becoming one of them. The bleak midwinter was made more so to me as it was filled with caretaking of a sick father (of which I am wholly unsuitable and dislike immensely, but is entirely keeping with this Victorian sounding tale). I am not a nurse. I don't like nursing or any parts of it--and especially not seeing nursing, smelling nursing, or touching nursing. I would have been a total disappointment in the Crimea with Florence--but Elizabeth Ann would have loved me in her little school community in Emmittsburg.
- My people crochet; all of them, both the Irish and the Sicilians. So I don't know. I blindly went off and bought a size 8 fourteen inch long pair of needles and some 100% cotton dishcloth yarn, because I gathered from online and youtube that everyone and their sister and including Fred Rogers' mom (who hand knitted all his sweaters) learning when she was seven starts with the dish cloth. I checked this out with AMZ who affirmed this was the way to go. I immediately realized these needles were too big for such a project. Then I bought six inch number six double points. These were ok but not for beginners fumbling around with needles and yarn and instructions and fear of stitch dropping or being a laughing stock to those knitting bombers and The Secret Spinsters Tactical Knitting Corps friends on my friends list. I landed on a size 6, ten inch pair of single point knitting needles. I started with wooden needles which people online suggested. These do not work for me. I do not recommend them for beginners or for dishcloths (Cf: AMZ, again). The cotton yarn is called Sugar and Cream and can be had (buy only on sale) at a craft store. Again, this recommendation from AMZ: do not be tempted byPeaches and Cream, which is a low grade knockoff. If you're going to do something, do it right. This cotton stuff is always on sale at some point and repeatedly. I will just let yarn, needles, patterns, projects, websites, and other knitting notions go for this communique, because there is so much in just those categories to think and write about with any kind of coherence. I must meditate on these things before passing on the wisdom of a beginner (in case you too, wish to begin). Lessons learned.
- I practiced the garden stitch for a good three weeks when I was on night turn when my dad came home from Harmar. This resulted in a peacock color neck shawl and a tyedye dishcloth that mysteriously disappeared from the kitchen and was never seen again. I guess the house faeries were like, Uhm no. This cannot stand! They took that dishcloth and buried it in a forest faerie circle in Ligonier--far from here. My knitting friends proclaimed this thing "good work". This was very encouraging. Knitters, you will find, are the most encouraging sorts of persons. I then moved on to the official Grandma's Dishcloth Pattern. This is a very charming pattern that has been handed down to us from generations of women until no one knows who developed it and no one cares. It has a very pretty scalloped lace edge that is delightful to a beginner because it looks like something actually worth having when it is completed. It is also superduper easypeasy pumpkin pie. I made the first one out of a very delicate ecru and gave it to Mommy. She put it in some safe place, lest it still not be good enough for the The Knitting Committee of the Local House Faeries #219. I have not yet moved on from the dishcloth projects, but have become almost expert, such that I am churning out dishcloths and also matching coaster sets for various people I love in colors that match their kitchens and/or personalities. I have yet to make a single thing for myself. I wonder if any knitters do.
- I have also started a winter baby/toddler pixie hat project list and one hat is in the pipeline for the growing list of babies coming into this world from a big list of grown ups who were once fifth graders. The design consists of a garden stitch border and stockinette stitch center. Quite charming a little pixie hat with a pompom on top. Don't get on me about assigning gender appropriate colors or binaries or whatever if your new woobie or toddler or teen or even yourself eventually gets a pixie hat. I am the designer and I execute the knitting and I will decide who gets what color. That any one would criticize a hand made gift is beyond me. I do not want to find a picture of my loving knitted handiwork on Jezebel with a venemous diatribe about how your child was gifted with a gender specific hued pixie hat and now their whole life is ruined because you were letting them decide their gender and my pixie hat ruined all that. You could just say thank you. You better say thank you. In writing. In cursive. On some nice paper. With a discernible border. Inclusive of the date, the greeting, the body, the closing, the farewell, and a legible signature. Stamp. Mail it. The Secret Spinsters Tactical Knitting Corps does not take kindly to lowered standards of courtesies and manners.
You might also enjoy:
- https://www.pinterest.com/carfaxabbey/knit-for-your-life-spinster/ This is my knitting Pinterest page.
- http://thespinsterscompass.blogspot.com/ This is my blog.
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