Sunday, November 12, 2006

Who's a Lady?



Many years ago when I was a young mother, my operating room job allowed me to wear jeans to work everyday, since I would change into scrubs when I got there. Day after day, my little two year old daughter, would see me wearing clothes similar to what her father wore each day as he went off to classes. One night in mid December, we were preparing to go to a formal Christmas party the hospital I worked at hosted for its employees each year. I made the dress I was wearing, a long, white velvet halter dress with a short little jacket. As I was standing at a mirror doing something, I don't remember what it was, but I was already dressed, I noticed that my daughter was standing next to me, staring intently up at me. "Mom, are you a lady?" she asked, increduously. It occurred to me that the poor kid had never seen me in a dress and watched enough Sesame Street to know that ladies wore dresses.

Only a few years before that, I wouldn't have gone out for the evening without white gloves on. We were talking about white gloves during our knitting group meeting Friday night, and these pictures are the result of that talk. Cate went to Columbus Flea Market this morning and found white gloves, both short and long, still in the original packaging, which had to be from the sixties and seventies. Joanna said they are hard to knit in, but Cate thinks they might work if you are using bamboo needles. I felt so glamorous!

2 comments:

ccrown14 said...

Knitting with white gloves on was quite a trip! I am knitting a pullover in WB's hand-dyed merino worsted weight "Raspberry Sherbet" and I'm using a size 8 circular needle, an older, maybe Susan Boye 24". Slippery. Extra slippery with white gloves. So I slowed down.

Slowing down is always a good thing. I breathe more deeply, I look at the wool, think about the stitches I'm taking, the person I'm knitting for. Usually I can feel the yarn, the little fuzziness of the sheep--but not with gloves on!

Knitting has always been this for me, a chance to slow down, to relax, to escape from the pressures of my world into a private world of color and texture and the rhythm of the clicking needles. Without knowing I'm doing it, I'll often find myself counting the stitches as I move across a row, or working my way through a problem at work or home. When I'm working on a problem while I'm knitting I'll sometimes find that I'm going faster as my mind works faster and the blood pressure rises and I'm back in that pressure environment. No more! I've found the way to slow myself down; white gloves demand I concentrate on my knitting!

Cate

Mary (aka Mina) said...

Oh my goodness, I don't think I would want to knit in white gloves but I could see carrying my knitting while wearing them.