Hijacked!

And I'm not kidding!! Those socks I cast on the other day have been hijacked by my daughter's friends' babysitter's friend. Yup! As I mentioned socks are my park knitting but since S is more mobile and needs a constant eye on him, although I take my knitting down to the park, I very rarely get the chance to do any. Well the other day last week S was asleep, so I sat down to do a few rows near the above-mentioned Babysitter and her friend (also a nanny). Both women are Chinese and neither of them speak French or English. D's friend (who is Chinese) doesn't like being a translator, and who can blame her at five years old?!! So the friend takes my knitting off me to show me that she knows how to knit. OK, cool, she is very friendly. Only, I end up chatting to some pals that walked by and my knitting gets done by a Chinese woman on the bench who, by the way, knits about oooh fifteen times faster than me!! I do get to take my knitting home though. Roll on today... we go to the park, the same gang as usual and there we go, I follow S around and my knitting is spotted (nestled in the hood of the pushchair) and nabbed by the same lady. The lady is knitting, talking, knitting, you know. Cool (inside I am regretting every row since of course, I like knitting, I like knitting socks, I like the wool I chose for these socks...). Time to go home and at this point I learn that the Chinese knitter lady does know two words in French. The first "home" said with interrogative intonation waving my knitting (OK she wants to take MY knitting home with her) and the second word "girl" a question, pointing to my daughter i.e. how big do I want her to knit my knitting? And her (hardly dissimulated) outrage at me saying "no for a big person" i.e. me probably, maybe a friend, is greater than my outrage at her kidnapping my socks !!! Can you believe it?
Well I think it's better now. I love my coat, so wonderfull,isn't it? (OMG my blog was hijacked too B wrote that last sentence).
So my socks are being knitted up by someone else and I fully expect the pair to be done by tomorrow. How do I feel? Well actually, I think it is kind of hilarious. I don't know if this lady thinks she is doing me a favour (NOOOO!) or if she maybe just really likes knitting but doesn't get the chance to or doesn't know where to buy wool and needles from. I can't help thinking that this is a cultural thing and that she is trying to help in the same way women all over the world try to help each other when they haven't got too rich to need help anymore. That is the main reason I let her take my knitting home. I am sure it makes her happy and I don't want to be some stuck up person who won't accept help. I would handle it differently if we could speak to each other. Maybe, next time, I will think to bring two projects to the park.

I just wrote the French part and I am coming back here because I said something first in French that I think is so nice I will translate it into English... I said "we don't speak the same language but I will find out (surely tomorrow) whether we knit the same sock." See how poetic I can be, quite naturally, in French.

In other news... I bought some more material on Monday. I got some toile fabric (step one of my seventies crane dress) and some fabric to make some trousers. A nice large pinstrip wool blend. We'll see. Frankly the price (end of series or whatever you say) was such that if they are awful I will be calmly able just to appreciate the experience of sewing a pantaloon (PANTS! har har), donate them and move on. Also got some fabric for secret plan planning... shhh.

Right onwards (I was ill yesterday and still feel a bit not quite right so I am going to watch a film!!!)

Comme j'ai expliqué l'autre jour, pour moi, tricoter les chaussettes est un plaisir réservé au parc (entre autres) et bien la semaine dernière j'étais au parc et pour une fois S dormait donc j'ai sorti ma chaussette (les couleurs!!) et voilà que la nounou chinoise de l'amie de ma fille, et sa copine (nounou également) ont commencé à regarder mon tricot et puis la copine a commencé à... tricoter mon tricot!! Oui elle m'a piqué ma chausette! Bon. Cool. Moi je vois des potes passer pour papoter donc on papote. Et ma chaussette se fait tricoter par une autre! Sur le banc en face. Et tricotée quinze fois plus vite je vous dis! Quelle jalousie!!! Mais je rentre avec ma chaussette au moins. Aujourd'hui (et oui vous comprenez déjà ce qui m'est arrivé) re-parc, re-chaussette piquée par la copine. OK cool. De toute façon je dois surveiller S je ne peux pas tricoter. Mais là, au moment de partir, la copine chinoise qui jusque là arrivait à peine à dire bonjour, me fait comprendre ("maison maison" en secouant la chausette) qu'elle veux rentrer avec mon tricot!!! Bon... Ecoutez... je l'ai laissée faire!!! Et je trouve cela plutôt drôle. Je ne sais pas si elle pense qu'elle me rends service (NOOOOOON!!!! J'AIME CA!!!!!) ou si tout simplement elle a besoin d'un fixe de tricot (je comprends tout à fait) mais en tout cas ça me rappelle que dans d'autres pays et il y a pas si longtemps dans le nôtre (France et Angleterre) les femmes s'entraidaient. C'est tout. Quelle luxe de tricoter une chaussette pour le plaisir. Quelle luxe!! Je parie qu'elle a déjà tricoté une chaussette par besoin et dans le speed. Elle voit bien que je n'arrive pas à tricoter avec S qui a besoin de mon attention et donc elle tricote pour moi. Je ne dis pas non car on ne parle pas la même langue - je vais voir (sûrement demain vu sa vitesse) si on tricote la même chaussette!!!

Je me trouve plus poétique en français. Je ne sais pas pourquoi. Mais finalement j'aime écrire la même histoire en deux langues. Cela met en relièf les deux moi! Moi et me quoi!! Je pense que je ne dois pas avoir la même personnalité en anglais et en français. Il faudrait demander aux quelques personnes qui me connaissent et qui me comprennent dans les deux langues...