Many of you have inquired about my knitted bookmarks. I said last week I would make some.
My annual crafts urge occurs well before Christmas and is a Little Women kind of thing: hemming handkerchiefs for Marmee, or making a tea cozy. I got the idea for making bookmarks because we have a lot of books, and I vaguely know how to knit. We have accumulated free bookmarks from all around the country, some autographed by famous authors, but they tend to disappear into books on the bottom of the nightstand, or those we decide not to finish. I have a nice bookmark somewhere with a quote from Cicero. But there is no doubt about it: bookstores are closing and fewer are giving bookmarks away.
So why not knit them?
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| The inspiration for many crafts projects. |
One week later...
I figured out the longtail cast-on from a video online. I knitted several rows, some a bit holey. I purl every time I make an error. Don't ask me why: I thought it would help, but it doesn't. I don't know how to fix dropped stitches, so I'm knitting straight through them. I will have to watch another video about fixing errors.
The next bookmark will be knitted on BIG needles, because the yarn slips off these small ones.
It is moderately fun. You can knit in front of the debate, or while listening to the two Bob Dylan albums you listen to each week in an attempt to catch up.
I have multi-colored yarn, but the bookmark is going to be pink because there are very long strands of pink before you get to the yellow.
I don't think I'll photograph the bookmarks because it doesn't look as though I'm going into the bookmark business. They will work, though.
Here is a list of knitters in literature.
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| Madame Defarge |
2. Jane Fairfax in Emma.
3. Mrs. Ramsay in To the Lighthouse.
4. Jo in Little Women.
5. Miss Marple in Agatha Christie's books.
6. Mary in Ann Hood's The Knitting Circle.
7. Kelly Flynn in Maggie Sefton's Knitting Mystery Series
8. Georgia Walker in Kate Jacobs' Friday Night Knitting Club.
I need two more to make 10!
There might be knitting in Elizabeth Goudge's Green Dolphin Street, or Daphne du Maurier's Rebbeca.
ReplyDeleteEllen emailed me to add:
ReplyDeleteUlysses' Penelope knits, in the Secret Garden Dicken's sister teaches Mary Lennox to knit. Oliphant's Kirsteen. Grace Poole in Jane Eyre. Ellen
Thanks for the suggestions! There is probably endless kntting I haven't thought of. Penelope weaves rather than knits, but that's close enough.
ReplyDeleteThis is not a suggestion, but when Princess Diana died and the public were enraged at the initial lack of understanding from the Royal family as to how the nation felt a friend of mine who lived near St James said to me that the gathering crowds were so hostile she was just waiting for the knitting to come out. You have to be a Dickens fan to understand but I thought it was brilliantly insightful on Margaret's part.
ReplyDeleteI am a Dickens fan! Hilarious!
ReplyDeleteI mean that the Madame Defarge part was hilarious, but this doesn't look quite right. I loved Princess Diana and what happened to her was terrible.
ReplyDelete