A Stitch in Time

You never know what you may be called upon to do when you are looking after children. My Darling Man had to re-stitch Barbie's boob tube - a mending job that would normally fall to me but since I was busy teaching the other two children to knit - my hands were full! I must say, by the way, that I am extremely jealous that he is still able to thread a needle without the aid of glasses! He did a fine repair job and Barbie was soon up and running again. Well, back 'in the game' anyway. Littl-ey toddled off quite happily to resume her play.




The knitting lessons required a slightly longer term commitment - we had several goes at it while our nephew and nieces were with us. We also had a lot of fun in amongst the frustrations. I love the whole concept of the passing on of skills. My Mum is a fabulous knitter - she was originally taught by her aunt. Our own daughter knits cute little jerseys and things for her work-mates babies. She was first taught by my Mum when she was about 4 yrs old. We all have to start somewhere. I am thankful for my Mum's patience in teaching me to knit as well. My niece had a head start because one of her other aunties had already covered the basics with her in a previous school holiday.


My nephew was heartily encouraged for his efforts when we spoke of it at the school office the next day - someone commented that 'back in the day in Scotland knitting was a craft strictly for the men!' Apparently during the Renaissance, men were the only ones who could join knitting guilds, while women took care of spinning.







1855 Shepherd knitting while watching his flock!
HISTORY OF KNITTING

Anyway, both my stitching students did very well and are on their way to knitting their first 'peggy square'.
And I love that my bloke-sy, grunty, Darling Man is happy to do things that might normally be designated as 'woman's work'.