Summer Knitting

Dutch Girl Knitting by the Sea
Christopher Dean
(British, fl. 1895 – 1924)
Oil on canvas, 10” x 14”
Location unknown

I like this painting because it shows something I do quite frequently, that is, sitting and knitting by the water. Not only in the summer but whenever it is warm enough to do so. If it is cool and I have to wear fingerless gloves, I cannot use dpns but I always have plenty of wips on various kinds of needles to choose from and I never punish my overworked fingers if it is too cold to knit outdoors. As I knit through the current grueling summer with its relentlessly soaring temperatures, I can only do so with wool, the coarser the better. Cotton or acrylic just wilts in my damp hands. As Jane Austen wrote “What dreadful Hot weather we have! -- It keeps one in a continual state of Inelegance.” {Letter to Cassandra Austen, 18th September, 1796.}

The girl in the painting, though, looks crisp and cool. She seems to have just started a blue tubular object, perhaps a stocking or sleeve. Alas, this seems to be another three needle painting unless I just cannot see the fourth needle.

More information about the artist and the painting may be found at

http://www.mpfa.ie/eugallery.htmhttp://www.mpfa.ie/eugallery.htm