The Scourge of Skyward Knitting Needles: It Continues

It’s baaaaack! That most wonderful time of the year where we determine once and for all whether or not skilled illustrators are capable of rendering knitting needles correctly on a picture book page. A weird obsession, I’ll grant, but an oddly rewarding one.

If you’ve seen my previous posts (here and here) then you’ll know that the rules are simple. If an artist features a knitting character, they gain points if the knitting needles are pointed down, they lose points if they are pointed up, and they neither gain or lose points if the knitting needles if there are extenuating circumstances. We’ll be examining 2019 releases today.

Before we begin, a quick Q&A:

Q: Does everyone point the ends of their knitting needles down when they knit?

A: Yes.

Q: Really? Are you sure? Because I know someone in Argentina who knits with the ends up . . .

A: If the book is set in Argentina we’ll make an exception.

Q: I heard that in the 1920s/30s the needles would be pointed up . . .

A: Tell you what. I’ll allow it . . . if the book is set in the 1920s and 30s.

Q: But isn’t it easier to show that a character is knitting if the ends are pointed up?

A: Yep. Don’t care.

Q: I knit that way.

A: You do?

Q: I do. And now you’re vilifying it.

A: I totally am.

Q: Well, that makes me feel bad.

A: Sorry about that. You must admit that it is a tad uncommon. A simple Google search of the term “knitting” shows that right away.

Q: I’ve been doing it this way for 55 years.

A: Huh. Well, let me put it this way. I purchase all the knitting books for my library. And not a single one of them teaches knitting the way that you’ll see featured in some of the following illustrations. So if you knit that way, I tip my hat to you. But if you are illustrating a picture book, I expect just a rudimentary bit of research to see how the majority of the 21st century public knits.

Q: It’s their choice, though.

A: Totally. I’m just weird about this.

And there we go! Now! Let’s dole out some points . . . .

Very nice. We’re off to a fine start. Good needle placement and inclusion fo balls of yarn.

Final Score: 1

Hmmm. Cute art. I like how the hedgehog and badger are rendered. Demidova is a Russian illustrator so I looked up Russian knitting. Unfortunately, it does not appear that Russians knit any differently than Americans, in this respect. The ends of those knitting needles are pointed high to the sky!

Final Score: 0

Ahhh… that’s more like it. The meticulousness of your average knitting beaver. Needles pointed downward, and a variety of different colored yarns to account for the stripes. Nicely done.

Final Score: 1

Hmm. Interesting. Well, it’s a little hard to see in the small image here, but if you had the book in hand you’d see that not only is the polar bear knitting realistically, but you can actually make out the cast on stitches on the needles.

Final Score: 1

Aw. So the book took some interesting liberties with the exact nature in which one dyes wool and yarn, but for the most part, it has been very good about what the process would be to knit a sweater from scratch. Plus any book that shows someone poring over the knitting instructions appears to care about the material at hand.

Final Score: 1

You know . . . the longer I stare at this image from the cover of this book, the more I think the author isn’t depicting knitting at all but crocheting. Would you agree? Those needles appear to be hooked. I think putting this image into knitting terms would be unfair to it.

Final Score: N/A

Boy, here’s another one getting it right! Dare I say it’s been a banner year?

Final Score: 1

Oh, doggone it. The kicker here is that I seriously believe that Why? by Rex and Keane is one of the smartest and cleverest picture books of the year. Unfortunately, when we actually get to see our super villain in his favorite element, he seems not to have figured out how to hold his needles. A dent in an otherwise perfect book.

Final Score: 0

Any 2019 titles I’ve missed?

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