Friday, December 08, 2006

Knitted gifts are the best!

Ok, here I am to admit: I am a dumbass.

So, I am knitting a wonderful dishcloth. It says "Knit On"; I say "Knit On!" a lot. So, I started this dishcloth a while ago. I put it down to do some mittens and to work on other things I had already started.

I picked it up yesterday to finish it. I mean, I could have finished it in one day, but I enjoy dragging my knitting out forever and ever. Obviously! So, I am knitting along, and I decide to look at the entire cloth and see how the words are coming out. Ahhhh!! No!!! I can't believe I did this.

The part that says on is good, but the knit is backwards and looks like crap-o-la! I skipped a row or something. Here's a lovely picture of both sides of the cloth. Of course, that is after I crumpled it all up and yanked the needles out, and crumpled it more and threw it across the room, all while swearing at myself.



So, on to something better. I started a different dishcloth. An easier one, because apparently right now, knit, purl, whatever is too much for me.

Here is a cute picture out of one of my favorite Christmas books. It is called A Gift From The Lonely Doll by Dare Wright . My mom would get this book from the library for me every Christmas and we'd read it.

The really neat thing is that she would get this exact book. The librarian gave me the book when that old library closed. Is that cool, or what? It was this little village library. I took the kids there until it closed. The place was so small, that the library card with my name from when I was little was still there!

This little doll, Edith, lives with some bears, and she wants to knit Mr. Bear a muffler. Little Bear is not very supportive. He tells her that she doesn't know how to knit. The book shows her buying wool, and how she has to wind the skeins into balls. The scarf turns out way too long, but she turns it into three scarves. One for Mr. Bear, and two for Mr. Bear's cousins that they go spend the holidays with. It even shows her dropping a stitch and ripping out a few rows to fix a mistake. I love how they have her hiding the muffler from Mr. Bear and knitting in secret. The pictures are dolls and teddy bears posed. So cute!

I never did like that Little Bear. He doesn't get a scarf at the end. Probably because he was always putting down Edith's knitting!



I guess I'd better go make some calls, and pay some bills, and stuff. Then, I'm going to go knit!

Knit On!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

:-) Sorry about your dish cloth. I have to admit, though, I laughed at your mistake! I know. Karma's gonna get me.

Anonymous said...

I liked the dishcoth just as it was, it had a certain charm.

That story sounds lovely, thanks for sharing about it, i had never heard of it!!

~Suz~

Romi said...

Repeat after me: "I am *not* a dumb-ass." Then just frog it. ;)

g-girl said...

oh no. that sucks about the cloth. this is definitely a time of distraction though-don't forget my rocking horse cloth!! maybe that's a hint to us to not do dishcloths right now! That is so cool that you now own the book your mom would always check out for you! Love the story too. I wish I had known that there was another book about the lonely doll! I have the first book-somewhere! I'll have to check out the one you mentioned now. :)

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with Christina, but I think we laugh because we've all been there. :)
The story book is really cute/neat too! I haven't seen one like the before with the posed images.

Anonymous said...

What a lovely story - and you now own the book!!

I know how you feel about the dishcloth. I do things like that ALL the time... x

Jane said...

Arleta - your dishcloth is perfect. Knit backwards spells tink and of course that means to undo your knitting one stitch at a time (as opposed to frog in which you just rippppit). In fact if the On was also backwards your dishcloth would say 'no tink'. Now how perfect is that??
What a precious book you have! I think I may just try to get a copy of that for my granddaughter.
No Tink!!!

Deborah said...

I love your post! And what a kind librarian. I sit on the board at my local library and I'll have to share your story at the next meeting!

Amy Boogie said...

I actually like the backwards knit on the dishcloth :)

What a great story about the book. Our village library was like that, it just closed last year :(

Jeanne said...

Sorry about the dishcloth - hate when that happens!

Janice said...

Bummer about the dishcloth.... Keeps us humble, I guess :-)

Love the book and your story behind it! What a fun treasure!

Anonymous said...

One of my favorite books when I was young was in the Lonely Doll series. I still have it. I didn't know about this one. I want to get all of them now.

Anonymous said...

That looks like the cutest book--how nice of them to give it to you! Better luck on your next dishcloth!

thedirtyknitter said...

I still have my lonely doll books from when I was young as well :) Although I don't remember the christmas one! I must find it now!