Monday, January 28, 2008

Knitting Advice


Knitting Advice

Daughter Robin told me that the Frugal Housewife was a really good book, and now I know that she's absolutely right. Paragraph one of the book gave me permission to save everything. Paragraph two gives just the right advice about knitting:

"'Time is money.' For this reason, cheap as stockings are, it is good economy to knit them. Cotton and woollen yarn are both cheap; hose that are knit wear twice as long as woven ones; and they can be done at odd minutes of time, which would not be otherwise employed. Where there are children, or aged people, it is sufficient to recommend knitting, that it is an employment."

I'm not so sure that cotton and woolen yarn are all that cheap any more, and it's really hard to beat the Chinese imports when it comes to things like socks. Also, I doubt if our modern young ladies would take kindly to knitting to fill the "odd moments", especially if they had to knit something as mundane as socks. And our aged people are all sitting at their computers, too busy typing to knit. That leaves the stay-at-home moms to carry on with knitting.

I've knitted a lot of things over the years. I started with a yellow sweater before my oldest daughter was born. At that time we didn't know whether the baby would be a boy or a girl, so we had to use either yellow or green. It was a perfect project, because it took me about 8 months to finish the sweater. My oldest daughter is now 44.

When my first two kids were young, I knitted them lots of sweaters. By the time the next two came along, I was too busy to knit....and I was doing art then anyway. I couple of years ago I decided to use up odds and ends of yarn by knitting stocking hats. I made 31 or them, and gave most of them away. I think there are still a couple hiding around here in some corner or other. I also have bought umpteen skeins of yarn since then so I’ll have more to knit up. (That goes with paragraph one of The Frugal Housewife.)

A couple of years ago I made sweaters for my youngest grandchildren, but I only got one finished (and the cuffs were a little too tight). Someday some one will find these unfinished knitting projects and they’ll either complete them or throw them in the trash. I feel kind of sad about that…but not sad enough to leave the computer and get out my yarn needles.

So, Robin has the permission of the Frugal Housewife to knit….and knit and knit and knit. If I were younger, I’d join her.

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