Family matters.

Lola--her name means "Grandma" in Tagalog! Like several grandmas of my acquaintance, she wears a skirt that rides up at the hem, and carries an overly large bag stuffed with knitting. Her raglan cardigan is removable.

Here's my latest knitted critter--a grandma!  Theoretically she's my proxy, and except for the hair color, I'd say we're a pretty close match. Later this week we're going to LA to visit the wee grand-bairns.

I'd planned to leave her there, so that the bairns could have an eternal reminder of moi, in case our video-chats weren't enough to incise me into their memories, but then the question of affiliation, of community, of belonging, arose. It's almost an existential dilemma:  where does Grandma belong?

The Community, left to right: Pippi, Sheepdog, Grandma, William Hedgehog, Babar.

The rest of the family came down resolutely in favor of the east coast.

Given that our household is a democracy, majority rule prevailed. Grandmama will return with me next week. I shall, however, photograph her, in the interim, in quintessentially Californian settings, and these photos will go into her deluxe album. Stay tuned.

Would you like to knit a grandma for yourself or someone who might need a grandma? Her name, as I've already mentioned, is Lola (not to be confused with Lola the Portuguese Water Dog). Here's the free pattern, courtesy of Lion Brand Yarns. With only minor modifications you could turn the prototype into any number of historical figures--George Washington, W. A. Mozart, J.S. Bach, Queen Elizabeth II.  It's the hair that's so inspirational.

What goes around...

Now that I'm a grandma-to-be, I'm recycling the sweaters et alia designed and knitted for Son the First in 1979. Some moth-hole repair is warranted, but all things considered, they're in decent shape.

Catch my posts on KNITTED TOYS on the Lion Brand Blog starting on Monday August 12th! (Yes, I am behind the times, as always....)

Flat as a cat on a mat....

Gentle knitters,
Several have inquired about the recent paucity of postings. Two words, my friends: summer heat. Because of this it takes most of my energy to move from one knitting project to another, distributed as they are in various regions of my house. This, despite a/c!  All of us in my bailiwick have been not merely flattened, but rather, squashed.

Flat Cat on Mat #1

Flat Cat on Mat #2

There have been two consecutive heat waves since the Fourth of July, meaning temperatures have been above 90 degrees F for more than three days running. However, if the temperatures are in the high 80s, which they sometimes have also been, and the humidity has been consistently in the jungle range, it feels like a heat wave anyway, even if it's not technically that. New England has been clobbered throughout July by the muggiest of muggy hot weather, the proverbial HHH.

Well, enough of this kvetching...

A frequent topic of knitting lit-rit-choor in the summer months is what one knits when it's hot outside. Since I've already weighed in on that with a recent article ("Stitch and Seed: Summer's Bounties," Knitscene Magazine, Summer 2011, 8-11) I shall say that to the predictable small wearable projects generally favored in this season, I have added stuffed animals. That's because I'll become a grandmama in a few months, and as I saved most of the sweaters I knitted for my own children when they were wee, there's no compelling need to augment the supply for a new grandson who will inherit (and I hope wear) the exact same garments as his father. But hand-knitted stuffies?  Well, that's a brave new world to conquer.

 More on this engaging topic shall be forthcoming, but at the moment I must cease and desist, or melt.

Alfie flees the knitted hedgehog!