I mentioned that Pelagia Fiber Arts has a website – which we hope will be good for business. It also has a baby, Max (Sarah’s son/my grandson – currently one year old and crawling) – which, we are sad to say, is not good for business. He is an absolute darling and we mean to keep him, so I am afraid PFA will continue to suffer!

I am a great fan of babies. In fact, George and I have raised four children (and are now raising 6 young adults — as the four originals have begun to collect husbands — and are rapidly gaining on my octogenarian parents who are raising 7 middle-aged adults). But if someone were to ask me to name the best items to keep on hand for knitting, I would not list “a baby” among them.

Like knitting, a baby requires two hands, so they are pretty much mutually exclusive in the first few months. Later, there is all the jumping up to pull the baby out of the cat food, to fetch “that noisy toy he really likes,” to deal with that horrendous smell emanating from its nether regions. Cables and Fair Isle do not thrive in this kind of environment. Between Sarah, Max, and myself we make up one productive knitter.

The real issue, though, is the insidious adorableness of baby knitwear. There is nothing that can drive a knitting mother or grandmother quite off her head like a booklet of snuggy cotton blankies, cuddly hoodies with kitten ears, pastel striped leggings, wooly pullovers with intarsia bears, wee sockies, sweet lacies and ….well, you get the idea.

Long-promised adult sweaters and even commissioned Pelagic pieces languish in the bottom of my knitting bag while I fuss over another sweater for Max or crochet a snowflake for a hat for Max or simply coo over a dozen possibilities in the latest Dalegarn booklet – for Max, of course.

I think it is an instinctual Homo sapiens thing. Have you noticed that when a baby starts to cry people immediately get all edgy – they want to drop everything and hold it or feed it or build a fire or kill a saber-toothed tiger or something useful like that. Me, I get the overwhelming urge to knit a little white sweater with bullion-stitch posies and maybe a bit of lace edging… maybe a matching bonnet….