There is, indeed, a toddler in my knitting bag
(metaphorically – and literally) and his name is Max.  He is my 20-month old grandson. 

He was, previously, the baby in my knitting bag
(metaphorically only).  And I am finding
a toddler slightly less useful as a knitting accessory than a baby.  

Max is unusually attracted to knitting.  Before he was steady on his feet, he could
fly across the room and extract whatever was most dangerous or delicate out of a
knitting basket carefully placed beyond his reach.  I have seen him snag a single knitting needle
and whip it out of  ALL its stitches in some
kind of nano-second.  He chews on
wool.  And if given a ball of yarn, he
will wrap the yarn around his neck.  Many
times.  Also in a couple of nano-seconds.  He can summon a page of knitting instructions
from anyplace in the house.  He will tear
it in half and eat it.  

If he is napping, the sound of silk yarn rasping across an
aluminum needle will wake him.   

Of course, the most devastating impact Max has on my knitting
(as well as his mother Sarah’s knitting) is a combination of how darling he
looks in handknits and his unbridled delight in and affection for anything we
have ever knit him.  

He cheerfully wears wool sweaters, little socks, even hats.   He likes to bite the sleeves, I admit, but I figure
that is his toddler-ish way of saying “Sweater, I love you.”   He
wraps himself in his Yzma-Blanket every night as he falls asleep. (Note: Yzma
is my grandmother name and the Yzma-Blanket is the one I labored so intensely
over before, during, and slightly after his birth – baby-weight wool on tiny
needles in a trellis stitch pattern that was worked from the back side and in
which even a slight error stood out like a wart)

So, how can you NOT knit for Max?

And when (except in the middle of the night somewhere across
town) CAN you knit for Max?! 

Impossibilities notwithstanding, my next project will be a
knit llama for Max.  I am designing one
to match the toy llama in his favorite books: 
Llama Llama Mad At Mama and Llama Llama Red Pajamas by Anna
Dewdney.  Terrific books with the most
engaging main character, Llama Llama (who is accompanied on every page by his
sweet floppy stuffed llama).

I have already bought the yarn – the same Dalegarn Baby Ull
of which his Yzma-Blanket is made, except in “llama beige” instead of “froggy
green.”  And there will be no trellis
stitch involved.   I can almost see Max
lugging around his knit llama, biting its arms (“Llama, I love you”) – the two
of them on a yarn ball safari.