11/11/11, make a wish!

My No. 1 post

I’ve been debating about whether to start a blog for a while. I figured I’d probably get around to it at the end of this week, maybe Friday. Then I realized: Not only is Friday Veterans Day. Friday is Nov. 11, 2011.

11/11/11.

Sounds like as good a date as any to start something. 🙂

. This article tells me people are planing to do quirky things to celebrate the weird date. Of course, this other article says other people are freaking out that the world is going to end (but then again, isn’t someone always freaking out about Armageddon?).

So. A blog. Yes.

Questions you might be asking yourself if you are here:

Ok you probably aren’t asking any questions. But I will ask some for you.

Q: Why is this blog called knitbyahenshop?

A: Great question. Several answers:

First and foremost it is an anagram, and I love anagrams. (if you don’t know what it is an anagram of, think about who is typing this:)

Second, its a completely made up phrase that sounds like it should actual exist. Like, oh, yes, knit by a hen shop. Isn’t that a yarn store? Er, a craft studio? It’s run by a lady?

Yes. Sort of. (google these words and you’ll see what I mean)

Third, and perhaps most important, no one else out there seems to be using this phrase or handle or what have you besides me. Yay! I’m a unique snowflake on teh internets! I will adopt this nonsensical moniker and people will know me!

Q: What do you blog about?

A: I don’t know yet, but I hope that it will include creative adventures like knitting and other craft-ish stuff, vegetable gardening haps and mishaps,  historical tidbits that I swear will be interesting even if you’re not into history, and anything else I feel like putting here.

Q: Do you have some sort of adorable animal that you can post cute pics of?

A: Of course I do! This is the internet!

This is Josephine, but mostly I call her Jo. Her hobbies include drinking from the shower, stealing socks from the drawer, and rubbing her face on men’s beards. She likes you even though she has not met you, because for some reason that is how she rolls. She’s a people cat.

Q: So, do you have something knitted to share or what?

A: Finished objects are harder to come by these days, and I don’t want to post any gifts that haven’t been delivered yet. But I do have a few.

[Edit: the Crochet Poppy above is my own pattern, but I never wrote it down!]

Aviator baby hat and booties

I made this aviator hat the night before my cousin Marie’s baby shower, while listening to Tina Fey’s Bossypants on audiobook. I had never done any baby knitting before, but it turns out to be exactly what you expect: knitting things in tiny sizes. I really liked the short row shaping for this hat. I’m also really impressed that the ravelry pattern comes with directions for three different yarn weights and six different sizes! I think the biggest would actually fit my head, so I might have to make myself one someday. Only tricky part was picking up stitches for the straps, but I think that’s because I knit left handed and it made semi-confusing directions completely backwards until I figured out to flip them.

These baby booties are pretty basic, which is what I wanted. I picked this multicolored yarn to match Kaleb’s nursery theme (night sky with sun moon and stars), so I wanted a simple pattern. I actually made them first. Sewing them up was a bit of a pain, but I’m just impatient when I finish knitting and have to sew a seam. This also involved some short row shaping, which I’m starting to really like. I only wish I’d gone down one size—my loose gauge is always causing me problems with size. But overall I like them.

On a final note

This post has gone on far longer than I intended, but I have to say one thing about the poppy. I posted the poppy photo because I’ve meet a lot of people who don’t know why poppies and Veterans Day go together.

What we in the United States call Veterans Day is known to Europe, Canada and most of the world as Remembrance Day. Nov. 11 1918 was Armistice day, the day that World War I ended. While the United States lost maybe about 100,000 or so soldiers in the Great War, European countries lost millions. Its estimated that France and the United Kingdom lost 30-40% of their young male population—in a few short  years, a whole generation was cut in half.

One of the ironies of the war is that in the midst of the disturbed earth from trench warfare and the graves of so many casualties, poppies bloomed more beautiful than ever. There’s a famous WWI poem “In Flanders Fields” that came to symbolize the experience of that war for many, and the red poppy remains the icon of Rememberence Day.

It never seemed to have caught on in the States—but I kind of wish it would.