Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Knitting for Plimoth Plantation: Happy Thanksgiving!

Ever since all those "[insert historical period here] House" shows on PBS started coming out, my fantasy job has been to be one of those historical consultants that they use to do things like decorate the house, provide recipes and stock the kitchen, determine what the family will wear, etc. In fact, the spark of my dissertation came from my obsession with 1940s House and "Kitchen Front" recipes. My #2 fantasy job is to be one of those women who walk around Sturbridge Village knitting stockings and answering questions.

And now, just in time for Thanksgiving, a very small part of #2 has come true. I am going to be a volunteer knitter, making stockings for the historical re-enactors at Plimoth Plantation. Bill saw the call for volunteers linked into Ravelry and passed on the information to me. I'm going to be knitting plain stockings to start with, but the idea of knitting the fancy ones are intriguing. I'm such a geek, but I'm so, so pleased about this.

Speaking of stockings, I started my first foray into lace socks, casting on for Embossed Leaves. No, my Enormous Man Socks aren't done, but 1. I'm bored with them, and 2. I'm paranoid I'm not going to get the extra hank I haggled for on Ravelry. Here are some more sock skills I need to learn to complete these successfully:
  • How to keep track of where I am on the chart.
  • How to prevent huge, gaping ladders when the first stitch on each needle is a purl stitch.
  • How to recover my project and pick up tiny dropped stitches after stupidly leaving the sock project where the toddler can get at it.

1 comment:

LisaBe said...

how cool is that?? i didn't see the call for volunteers--that is so cool!
you should go live out that fantasy. having lived in williamsburg for 9 years, i knew lots of folks who were character or historical enacters (character ones portray a specific person and mill through crowds all day answering questions and being that person; historical ones work in exhibits and represent no specific person). my next-door neighbor for a while was a character and i don't think i ever saw him out of costume. ah, makes me homesick!