Thursday, January 05, 2006

Sweaters for Snakes

So I was at the library today for children's reading time...today's theme you ask? Feet. You can fill a lot of time for the under five set when discussing feet. Two whole books about socks. Girl #2 turned around at one point and very seriously told the girl next to her “My mom makes those”. Nice to be noticed.

Anyway, we always get there early so I can peruse the knitting section. It is retirement central down here, so out libraries keep a pretty good selection of knitting books. We trek about 20 minutes to the Daytona Library, which is very nicely situated on the river on an island. Our local library is also good, but the reading time there is a bit scary. Last time we went the librarian had a five minute argument with a kid about whether an animal in a book was a bear or a dog. And she doesn’t let them touch the felt pieces. And as Girl #1 says, way too loudly, “Doesn’t she know you are supposed to turn the book AROUND and show the kids the pictures?”.


Indeed.
So today, they had “No Idle Hands : The Social History of American Knitting” by Anne MacDonald on the shelf. What a great book. I only got to skim a bit since the foot theme at reading time was pretty engrossing. The book has a history of knitting in the US from the Colonial times forward. I love things like this, don’t you?
One section the author queried folks about the oddest thing they had ever seem knit. One person said a knit uterus, for a Lamaze class. This was published in 1988, way before Knitty. My favorite was a sweater for a boa constrictor.
Which got me thinking about my latest project. The vest for Girl #2.
Knitting for the small set is a tricky business. Yes, the projects are smaller, and therefore need less yarn, and go quite a bit faster. On the down side if you do not finish the project quickly the original measurements become obsolete.
Case in point:
I mean really, it now looks like one of those long sweater/coat things that were popular a few years ago. Just what every two year old needs.
It started out OK. The measurements WOULD have circumnavigated her belly two months ago. I started in November, but them it was put aside so I could finish the Christmas knitting. Once I started it again I just measured as I went to figure out the length. Voila! A snake sweater!
She’s feeling petulant today, so no action shot. On her it is not really so bad. I still have to do the embroidery. It is so disappointing when you have a picture in your head of something, and it just ends up off. Lesson learned though, always leave lots of belly ease when knitting for the toddler in your life.

3 comments:

Laura said...

Ah, yes. Belly ease for toddlers. I learned all about that when I knit John's Weasley. Which is already too small.

Acornbud said...

Maybe it will fit when she is taller and loses that pot belly. It sure is pretty. I love the ribbing.

Erin said...

I'm sure there's a nice fat snake somewhere dying for a sweater like that! It's really cute though, maybe she will grow into it someday.