A Fine, Wooly Muffler for Christmas

In the spirit of the holiday season, I must share one of my favorite Christmas children’s books. Naturally, this story involves knitting! One may not realize just how many children’s books about knitting are in existence… I discover new ones all the time. 

The Gift from the Lonely Doll is one of many stories from The Lonely Doll series written and photographed by Dare Wright in the late 1950s into the 1960s. They follow a doll named Edith as she navigates childhood with the help of her friends and family. These classic and gentle stories are told through simple text and captivating black and white photographs of dolls posed in such a way that they seemingly come to life!

For those of you who don’t know Edith yet, she is a little girl doll who lives in New York City with her adoptive bear family. She was The Lonely Doll until one day she wished for some friends. The next morning Mr. Bear and Little Bear appeared at her doorstep, and they all lived happily together ever since.

In The Gift from the Lonely Doll, we learn that Edith, too, is a knitter. Edith and the bears are preparing to spend Christmas in the country with more of their bear cousins. She decides to knit Mr. Bear a, “fine, wooly muffler,” for this extra special occasion. With Little Bear’s near constant teasing and occasional help, she gets to work on a very simple red and white garter stripe scarf. She knits diligently in the weeks leading up to Christmas, while keeping the gift hidden in a basket. 

The first few rows

Much progress!

Edith underestimates her own progress, and does not realize until Christmas Eve that she has created her own version of the Doctor Who scarf. It is just way too long! 

The iconic scarf worn by Tom Baker

Edith's creation!

While Mr. Bear is grateful on Christmas morning, and the other bears praise and admire the muffler, Edith knows she could have done better. She is quite upset, and she does not know what to do to fix the problem. This leads to a quite understandable holiday breakdown at the dinner table…but suddenly she has an idea!

A holiday meltdown.

Working it out.

What happens next is all spoilers, but I will tell you that everything turns out much better than Edith could have imagined. She stayed focused on what she wanted, tuned out Little Bear’s teasing and never gave up. Because of this, Edith managed to turn it all around and the Bear Family had one of their most memorable holidays ever.

Any knitter, regardless of being a beginner, intermediate or advanced, can relate to Edith’s predicament. Dropping a stitch. Frogging countless rows. Knitting in secret. Feeling pressed for time. Or having our needles stolen! We've all been there.

To learn more about Dare Wright and her books, please listen to, or read, this eye opening segment on her life: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4258856