Knocking out some knitting

The other day, a friend -- let's call her Annie -- came over so I could get her started on a scarf she wanted to knit. My "helping" involved sitting on the other side of the room and knitting this grey baby-blanket-to-be for charity myself, while she murmured and muttered and remembered how to cast on and knit! She had a good couple of inches on a 12-inch-wide scarf by the time she left.

And now, she's hooked! Ha!

Then I got this e-mail from her:

I thought the problem with knitting is that I would never find the time to do it, and it would take me 2 years to finish a simple scarf. You could have warned me that the problem would be in the other direction - getting no housework done, putting off doing the groceries, etc., all in the name of getting 'just a couple more rows done'... Gasp - I'm addicted!!! You, you knitting pusher, you!

Bwa ha ha, I say. I saw her last night again, and she certainly has been neglecting her family. She's got maybe 8 inches done!

Perhaps she saw the latest Chatelaine magazine. I was reading it in a doctor's waiting room yesterday and found a charming piece about how one should take up knitting... This was tying in with the coming gift-giving season, and it said, "Knitting is a relaxing way to tackle your gift list." And, "The days are getting shorter, the nights are cold, and your relatives are calling to arrange their holiday visits. With knitting you'll stay busy, stay indoors, and even knock out a couple of gifts."

Oh, my, who the heck wrote that!? Making gifts can be relaxing if you start in June, and if you know what you are doing! Encouraging people in November to start "knocking out a couple of gifts" trivializes the huge amount of work people put in to their handknit gifts -- okay, last year's dishcloths were sort of simple -- but many knitters work like the dickens to make people socks or shawls or lovely things, and don't just knock them out! Grrrrr.

And by the way, if you are a friend or relation, I'm not knocking out any handmade Christmas knits this year. So there. Unless I get a good idea in the next few days....

My latest good knitting idea is to frog the grey gloves. The cuff is too short, the fingers are too fiddly, the thumb is too odd. I shall persevere in finding a better pattern, I hope! I might rip this out past the thumb gusset, make a longer cuff and turn it into a mitten. But not right now...

And if you think taking pictures of socks on one's own feet is challenging, try a photo of a glove on your right hand! Do they make left-handed cameras at all? Very awkward!