Fingerknitting

Neither Barb nor I are sure how the idea of fingerknitting came to our attention. Our family is like a tiny solar system. We mostly exist in relation to each other, our planetary bodies swinging around in accordance with Newtonian law, every one influencing the other according to his or her mass and velocity. But occasionally new things transit our orbits, like it or not: asteroids of influence, comets of ideas.

Parents hear this over and over from other parents: "I don't know how she even learned about [the Disney princesses], but all of the sudden she was obsessed!" (It might have to do with the fact that [Disney] pays many very smart people six figure incomes to ensure that your daughter becomes obsessed with [Disney princesses]. And so in that sense the analogy breaks down, as well-paid alien intelligences aren't shooting comets full of biological memes into Sol's system.

Or are they? (cf. the works of Terence McKenna.)

But I digress!

Elizabeth, one way or another, became interested in fingerknitting. I'd never even heard of it. I don't think Barb had, either. It was referenced recently in an episode of Sparkle Stories, the excellent subscription storytelling service to which we've subscribed for a year or two. But I think that was a coincidence, not the originator of the idea.

So after watching with Barb a short instructional video on YouTube, she started knitting, and knocked that ball of yarn out of Knitter's Park. She quickly knit scarves for Joey and Clara (Clara's turned out to be too small, and Clara has a ruff around the neck of her outfit anyway, so Elizabeth gave Clara's to Rusty, who is surprisingly pencil-necked). Today, one day after she started knitting, Elizabeth presented me with a beautifully knitted headband that was big enough to go around the entirety of my noggin, which must have been quite an effort. My head is big around as a blue ribbon mushmellon.

Fingerknitting. The scarf-in-progress is descending from Elizabeth's fingers down the back of her hand. It could potentially go all the way to her elbow, or beyond! 

Joey's jaunty new scarf. Being from the tropics, he was most appreciative.

Elizabeth embracing Joey after he thanked her for his gift. There's a lot of love here.