My hands have been busy - mostly on the steering wheel, securing the hooks and eyes on the costumes of tiny dancing ladies, and applying makeup to fidgety boys. There has been little to no knitting, and hardly a hooked strip of wool, not to mention the sewing machine or my spinning wheel. But there are two children in the Soule house who are more than making up for my slacking in the handwork world.
Adelaide finished a 'funky scarf' as she calls it (I say it's called getting creative when you run out of yarn in one color) for her cousin's birthday. As the birth date approached, Adelaide walked around the house all day long with a small basket of yarn clipped onto her clothing and her knitting needles in hand. All day long, for two days straight, until the scarf was complete.
All that knitting from Adelaide inspired Harper, and I am so pleased to report that we have another knitter in the house! Woot! This being the fourth child I've seen learn to knit, on thing I can say is that they've all learned at such different ages and so differently in style. But I do usually start them all out on a size ten or so needle with an aran weight yarn. And we use the lovely little rhyme "In through the front door, run around the back, peek through the window, off jumps Jack" to help learn the knit stitch. Harper was keen to have that rhyme drawn out for him as he was learning it. He doesn't need it anymore, as it's committed to memory now and his own scarf is coming along beautifully.
I'm also happy to report that Adelaide has joined me in the hooking world! I had bought her this kit intending to give it to her as a holiday gift. But all the hovering over my own hook and frame was not only crowding me, but also letting me know that she needn't wait. It took barely a moment of instruction and she was off. By the time I came home with the boys at the end of the day, her sheep piece was done. Well, then. She didn't want another kit, though, she wanted to create something of her own. That last photo is her design that she presented me with early one morning with the request to help her transfer it to burlap. Can a Mama just brag a little? Because that is not at all the usual style in which she draws, and yet somehow she understood the need to keep the elements simple and large and layered. And the colors she choose from our yarn stash? Wonderful. Oh my girl. Oh my kids. What fun this all is!
And you? And yours? Whatchamaking these days?
