3/11/2006

What Because?


Life with a two and a half year old is exciting and fun and also really really boring! I think if I have to answer one more "What because" question, my head is going to explode. We are taking an unplanned road trip starting tomorrow. It's not like me to be so wild and reckless, but this morning I wanted to be visiting my brother, and I just thought, 'well, why can't I?'. I'm just sitting around here waiting for my house to be sold and marking time, so I might as well take advantage of my state of temporary freedom to do something spontaneous and fun.

3/09/2006

Literary

Knitting Literature

The World of Knitted Toys came to my mailbox today, and I am enthralled. I cannot wait to make a knitted wombat, a warthog, a duck-billed platypus. Also, polar bears, a Canadian Mountie, and a rhinocerous. Each pattern is accompanied by a description of the animals native environment and habits, and the photos are lovely. It's really a nice book. And think of the dioramas I'll be able to make!

Children's Literature

On another topic, we've gotten Click, Clack, Moo out of the library this week. I'd seen it before, and a friend had raved to me about Duck for President by the same author, but I didn't think they'd be good for a 2 year old. I thought both books sounded hilarious for adults, but what preschooler knows anything about labor negotiations, not to mention electric typewriters? I thought the adversarial relationship between Farmer Brown and the cows wouldn't appeal to a little kid – too much Animal Farm, not enough Old McDonald Has A Farm.

Oh how wrong I was. We went to story time at the Community Center last week and they read Click Clack Moo, and the kids were hysterical. Who knew? So we borrowed it from the library the other day, and it's just as funny at home as it was in a roomful of hyped up toddlers. We have had some discussion about what a typewriter is, and while she clearly doesn't get it ("What's the paper for?"). So I'll look for the duck one next week. And so much for my reputation as a judge of children's literary tastes.

3/08/2006

OCD

Here's how my perfectionistic, obsessive neurosis affects my knitting. It's not by making me frog everything until there are no mistakes in the finished product. Oh no, there are plenty of mistakes in my (still unfinished) Olympic socks, and I'm perfectly happy to let them slide right by on my needles. No, my neurosis is a little more subtle.

It all started when I got the lovely Anna yarn for some nice lace socks. I decided I'd knit them for my cousin (who I'm pretty sure can't be reading this blog, but if she is, there goes that surprise).

My cousin has two sisters. Can you see where this is going? Shortly after I got started on the Anna socks, for cousin #1, Stephanie announced the Knitting Olympics and, well, we all know where that led. My Olympic project was another pair of lace socks, these for cousin #2. Which, of course, I did not finish, but hope to be done with in the next several days. So now I'm thinking about poor old cousin #3. I hadn't planned to knit socks for her. She's younger, maybe less interested in clothing and more in Harry Potter, you know. Maybe less likely to be impressed with hand-knit socks than her older sisters. But I'd hate for her to feel left out, so…. Then I realized, these three girls have a mother. And she has feet, and I wouldn't want her to feel that I was slighting her by knitting socks for her three girls but not for her…

So where am I now? I have a single Anna sock (properly referred to as a Peaks and Valleys sock, but I'm focused on the yarn) about a quarter finished. I have a sock and a half of the Koigu Olympic socks (I think the pattern is called Straight Laced, but I'm not sure). And I have an inner compulsion to knit two more pairs of socks, patterns and yarn as yet unknown, to avoid hypothetically hurting the feelings of people who are probably not sitting around pining for hand-knit socks, or worrying about whether I like them as much as I do their sisters or daughters. I am not unaware of the fact that it's an opportunity to buy – and more importantly, consider, choose, and fondle, new yarn.

I'm also very excited because I've ordered this book and expect it to arrive in a few days. I can't wait to make whole little ecosystems of knitted arctic wildlife and the like, including little shoebox dioramas for them to live in. I'm truly, truly a dork. But a really excited dork.