New Britain herald. [microfilm reel] (New Britain, Conn.) 1890-1976, 1917-12-21
How Madge's Sacrifice Won Mother
Graham's Thanks.

How Madge'S Sacrifice Won Mother
, Graham's Thanks.
| "Win you tell me, Margaret, what
ever you are trying to do with those
! knitting needles and that wool?''
J My mother-in-law's voice, rasped
| and high pitched, made me look up
with start from the low chair Dy
! the big bay window in the dining
/ room where I had ensconced myself
/ after luncheon with my knitting. Be-
! hind the locked doors of my own
room I had faithfully and painstak-
| ingly practiced the stitches Lillian
, had taught me, repeating Knit two,
: purl two" if it were a shibboleth
and ravelling everything out from the
, beginning whenever I made a mis-
take or dropped a stitch r,
/ This is the way I have learned every
! lesson from my rhitdhood, repeatin.
j the whole thing from the beginning
at every mistake. 1t is rather
strenuous method, but one that I have
found most efticacious in fixing things
thoroughly in my mind; or, as in the
| present case, at the tips Of my fingers.
I had not ventured to bring my knit
ting where anyone could see it until
l was sure I could work accurately
and with a fair degree Of rapidity,
and the surprised irritation in my
mother-in-law's voice chagrined me.
I dropped the gray wristlet on
which I was working into my lap,
miserably conscious that the stitches
were rapidly ravelling from the
needle.
II am trying to knit a wristlet,"
smiled in friendly fashion as my
lips snapped the words but my
mother-inlaw's face held no an
swering smile.
do you call that movement you
were making knitting - she demand
ed with much scorn. why, you
weren't even holding your needles
right. Where did you ever pick up
such truck as this?''
When my mother-in-law wishes to
express her ultimate scorn of any
thing. she calls it truck or a mess. -
She had come over to my side now
and was holding my Wristlet out,
looking at it curiously.
Cousin Agatha's ''Word.''
THE stitches look something like
knitting, she acknowledged, but
that isn't the way to do it at ALL
IF you'll pardon me for making the
suggestion, Harriet Cousin Agatha
said with meek sniff that made my
fingers tingle with the inclination to
slap her, Il think our dear Margaret
has been learning the Continental
, method of knitting. Many up-to-date
women are knitting that way this
year They say it is more efficient
economies the movements of the
fingers
Economies your grandmother S
nightcap!" my mother law ex-
ploded. What won't people get off
next?"
but the knitting is exactly the
same after it's finished persisted
Cousin Agatha purringly, mo matter
which method you use. So what is
the difference after all? Now, think
Margaret's work looks beautiful"
, grasped the real purport of this
speech very readily. Cousin Agatha
had no interest in the matter at all,
and she certainly wasn't sincere in
praising my work. for I knew how
cordially she disliked me. Her only
reason for defending my method of
knitting was to irritate my mother
in-law. The crafty old woman be-
lieved that 1 would naturally defend
my own method Of work. and that in
the ensuing discussion she would be
able to foment a disagreement, If not
an actual quarrel, between the iras-
chile mother of my husband and my
SELF
Her ruse succeeded as far as my
mother-in-law was concerned
What does 1T matter how it looks
If the way of doing it is all wrong?"
she snapped 81 tell you there's only
I' one right way to knit, and that was
the way I was taught
Her unconscious arrogance was