I made this little gnome with some scrap cotton yarn and stuffed him with wool roving that I bought at a local farm. Here is the pattern. He was my first little knitted toy, really, and so much easier than I thought it would be. I will be making many more of these with all of my little scraps. I really want to knit one up in a pretty silvery colored wool to make a Gandalf the Grey.
Early in the morning
When the first cock crowed his warning,
Neat like bees, as sweet and busy,
Laura rose with Lizzie:
Fetched in honey, milked the cows,
Aired and set to rights the house,
Kneaded cakes of whitest wheat,
Cakes for dainty mouths to eat,
Next churned butter, whipped up cream,
Fed their poultry, sat and sewed;
Talked as modest maidens should
Lizzie with an open heart,
Laura in an absent dream,
One content, one sick in part;
One warbling for the mere bright day's delight,
One longing for the night.
-Christina Rossetti
I recently read Rossetti's "Goblin Market," a long poem published in the 1860s. It's about two sisters who live a perfectly simple life until goblins attempt to sell them tempting fruit. It's one of those pieces that I somehow missed reading in college and always meant to pick up. It has been cropping up a lot in my research for the gingerbread paper, so I thought now might be a good time to take a look. Boy, is it good. I know that most say it is about feminism, but as I was reading it I couldn't help think about our current food situation in the U.S. (big shocker, huh? I'm always thinking about it). The sisters lead an idyllic life until the merchants tempt them with abundance and exoticism, altering the sisters forever. I think that parallels can be drawn between this and crop subsidies, GMO seeds, federal regulation, certain seed/poison producers, and what has become of the American diet. I always think of Poptarts. They are so cheap to buy and so easy to get...but what do they provide for you, really? Why can't fresh foods be as accessible and affordable as Poptarts?
I was really struck by some similarities between our current food problems and Rossetti's poem.
Their fruits like honey to the throat,
But poison in the blood
